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!)

Move over Drastic, there's a new DS emulator in town!

The recent removal from the Play Store of the Nintendo DS emulator, Drastic has left users of Android retrogaming emulators seeking an alternative - well thankfully there is one now in the form of a new Android DS emulator called MelonDS.

MelonDS not only provides excellent DS performance but supports DSiWare games too, something I've wanted for a long time, mainly to be able to enjoy the Game & Watch titles that are available.  Setting the emulator up for DSiWare requires a bit of tweaking in the Settings, however excellent step-by-step instructions for doing this can be found at https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/s/0n2pgSSjTn which will simply and easily guide you through it.

In addition various Bios files are also required but these can be obtained from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ET4uEa9G470PuMCQzjusELPz0Ew-LMTp

And lastly if you're looking for the full library of DSiWare roms these can be found by going to https://archive.org/download/MarioCubeLite/DSiWare/NDS/

Once set up the emulator boots into the DSi interface allowing you to play the DSiWare roms you've added.  I have to say that although the library of them is extensive I didn't find too many that leapt out at me as 'must plays' except, as previously mentioned for the Game & Watch titles which are excellent as expected.

Overall MelonDS is a great replacement for Drastic and has a firm place now on my Retroid Pocket 5.

The EGM Digital Archive - a truly incredible resource!

I recently backed on Kickstarter a rather impressive sounding book from the creators of the excellent and much missed American gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, it’s called ‘The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium’ described as ‘A Definitive History of Video Games through the pages of the #1 gaming magazine’, I should be getting my copy in a couple of months time.

But what I wanted to focus on in this post was an item included when you back the book which is access to the EGM Digital Archive, this is a truly incredible resource which, in the first Beta release gives access to every issue of EGM (the ‘lost’ issue and new issue #265 will be added soon) and an impressive and very easy-to-use searchable reviews database, simply type in the game you’re looking for, click on it and the site will take you straight to the review as printed in the magazine.

More features are due to be added in the coming months - all issues of EGM2, the special supplements and the ability to download individual issues for offline reading.

But for a first Beta release this is a great start.  This really is an amazing resource and, as print issues of EGM were sometimes hard to find here in the UK am grateful to be able to enjoy issues I missed first time around.  This is the kind of website I could and almost certainly will spend many happy hours browsing, very impressive stuff!

Miyoo Mini Flip Review

Well it's suffered many delays and has been a long time coming but the Miyoo Mini Flip is finally here but is it worth the wait?   Let's find out.....

Firstly, the machine looks great, it reminds me of the Powkiddy V90 but with better specs and dual analogue sticks (yes dual analogue sticks on a device this small!), the controls are all good and responsive although you'll have little requirement or use for the dual analogue sticks.

The stock firmware as is often the case is not great although adequate if you're a newcomer to emulation devices, custom firmware is currently limited to MinUI or Gamma, although versions of SpruceOS and Knulli are being worked on.  I've previously detailed elsewhere on this blog how much I like the MinUI firmware so this was the obvious choice for me and it's a perfect fit for the Flip, supporting everything up to PS1 perfectly, some N64 and Dreamcast is also possible.

The elephant in the room is the Flip's hinge which is extremely stiff making opening the machine quite difficult which has generated much discussion on Reddit and Discord, personally I don't mind the hinge and it does result in the machine closing with a very satisfying snap!

A second version of the device with an improved hinge is reportedly being worked on by Miyoo but nothing has yet been released.

This is a terrific little clamshell device with plenty of potential through future custom firmware releases, but at the moment I recommend installing MinUI rather than using the supplied firmware, it's just better all round.  I still prefer my Anbernic RG35XX SP but this is a great little complement to it.

Retroid Pocket 5 Review

I'm quite late to the party with this device but now am the very happy owner of the Retroid Pocket 5 and, along with the Ayaneo Pocket Micro, is the best Android handheld there is currently, here's why.....

The build quality, as with all Retroid devices, is superb, the buttons are good and responsive as are the d-pad and the dual analogue sticks and shoulder buttons.  The whole machine feels extremely comfortable to hold and looks amazing.

It's real strength is it's stunning AMOLED screen which is the most bright, sharp and colourful screen I've seen on an Android device, the games look incredible and really pop off the screen like they never have before, it really is fantastic!

Performance is another area where the RP5 really shines, the higher end systems in particular such as Dreamcast, Saturn and PSP are flawless.  A special word in particular for Sega Saturn performance which is the best I've yet experienced, it's the first device which gives perfect performance through Robert Broglia's standalone Saturn.emu emulator and the performance through the Beetle Saturn core on Retroarch is also equally excellent.

This, along with the AyaNeo Pocket Micro, is my go-to Android handheld, it really is an outstanding all-round device and comes very highly recommended.

Kirby Air Ride (Gamecube) - a great non-platformer Kirby game

I've been a fan for a long time now of the Kirby games and had always thought that, apart from a pinball game and a symbol matching game on GameBoy, there were only platform games in the series but I was wrong!

Recently I discovered Kirby Air Ride on Gamecube, a racing game featuring Kirby for up to four players and it's excellent fun!

It's primarily played through the use of a vehicle, some of which are taken from previous Kirby games including the Warpstar.  The controls for the game are unusual in the fact that there is no accelerate button, this is done automatically by the game, except for the control stick to steer all other actions are done using the A button including braking, charging for a boost and sucking in nearly enemies to use their powers.

The game consists of three different modes : Air Ride which is a basic back view racing mode, choose your machine and race against up to three other human or CPU players and aim to win.

Top Ride which is a mode on smaller and simpler tracks and viewed from above the track and has only two vehicles to select and features seven courses and also Time Attack and Free Run modes.

And lastly there is City Trial where a city must be navigated along with sections in a forest, cave and volcano all while collecting upgrade items.

The graphics are excellent and the racing is fast, this is a real gem of a Kirby game and well worth a look if you still own a Gamecube or, like me, can play it on a retro emulation handheld.

SuperPage58.com - a great site for fans of Digitiser

Between 1993 and 2003 on the UK Teletext service there was a daily video games magazine called Digitiser which quickly gained a cult following for it's anarchic and surreal humour alongside it's game reviews

And a devoted fan has now done an amazing website called Super Page 58 (so named as Digitiser I believe used to be on page 458), it really is the ultimate reference point for fans of the page, there is a section giving information on all the characters that used to appear, a full and comprehensive index of every game which was reviewed (many featuring screenshots of the original Teletext page).  Also featured in the Archives section are Digitiser's Top 10s, letters to Digitiser, Star Pinups, their hilarious fake adverts, and their Ring-sir! Phone Pranks and much, much more.

If, like me, you used to read Digitiser after school each day this is an incredible trip down memory lane and a must visit for fans of the page.

Digitiser still lives on to this day in the form of a YouTube channel, there have also now been two series of Digitiser on YouTube, Level 1 and 2 (the second was Kickstarter funded) and both series feature the same humour as used to be featured on the pages.  Both series are well worth checking out.

Super Page 58 can be found at superpage58.com

The original Nintendo DS - ugly but revolutionary!

Before the release of the Nintendo DS there had only been single screen handhelds from Nintendo such as the GameBoy and GameBoy Advance but the DS changed all that.

It was Nintendo's first dual screen and touchscreen handheld allowing for much more detailed and involved games many of which utilised the device's built-in microphone, another first.

The original DS was however not exactly what you would call an attractive machine, in fact I'd say it was rather ugly quite frankly but thankfully this was rectified with the subsequent releases of the DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL.  It is though quite comfortable to hold and use.

It had a massive software library including some excellent titles, many of which still hold up to this day.

And finally if we hadn't have had the DS we probably would never have got the 3DS, still, in my opinion the best handheld Nintendo ever made.

So all in all the DS was a real game changer and a handheld which will go down in history as a revolutionary device.