Play Retro Show

Dark Seed (1992) and Dark Seed II (1995) are point-and-click horror adventures from Cyberdreams featuring artwork by H. R. Giger. Both follow Mike Dawson between the everyday world and a biomechanical Dark World, combining inventory puzzles with parallel-world connections.

Video: https://youtu.be/aUtIEAPr5Xo

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The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King (Game Boy Advance, 2005) is a 2D action-adventure set before the film, following Jack Skellington’s first conflict with Oogie Boogie. Oogie’s Revenge (PlayStation 2 and Xbox, 2005) continues the story after the film, combining 3D combat with musical boss battles. This episode also covers Tiger Electronics’ 1993 LCD handheld game.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/SbcRliyZ-Rk

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Immortality sounds like a good deal until you read Death's fine print. This week we take on Chakan, covering the Sega Genesis and Game Gear games as separate entries. Two swords, potion mixing, supernatural monsters and a hero who would really like this whole thing to be over.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/77op2wVrTSQ

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Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem is a 2002 GameCube psychological horror game from Silicon Knights and Nintendo. Told across 2,000 years and twelve playable characters, it mixes exploration, combat, magic, and its famous Sanity System, which uses hallucinations and fourth-wall tricks to make players question what is actually happening.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/9eFU69EG-7M

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System 3's The Last Ninja turned Commodore 64 martial-arts fantasy into an isometric action-adventure showcase in 1987. We follow Armakuni from Lin Fen to 1988 Manhattan in Last Ninja 2, look at how Activision carried the series to U.S. computer owners, and give the Europe-only Last Ninja 3 a brief 'Just A Mention.'

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/tUmSGYe2b9o

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Raven Software turned Marvel's mutant super-team into a four-character action RPG in 2004, combining real-time brawling, character progression, destructible environments and couch co-op. We dig into X-Men Legends, then follow the formula into X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and the strange handheld versions that squeezed the mutant RPG onto N-Gage and PSP.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/C9bdCIYGjqY

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Sid Meier's Pirates! began on the Commodore 64 in 1987 as an open-ended pirate career game mixing sailing, trading, ship battles, sword fights, treasure hunting, politics and retirement. Brian plays the original C64 release while Scott tackles Firaxis' 2004 remake to see how much of the same pirate life survived nearly two decades later.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/v_LC6vVZu3U

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Freedom Force (2002) is a squad-based superhero RPG from Irrational Games that mixes real-time tactical combat with comic-book style character progression, recruitment, and destructible environments. Set in a colorful 1960s-inspired superhero world, it lets you command a team of wildly different heroes, develop their powers, and even create your own custom characters while battling increasingly bizarre villains.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/umQfWxq-Tz4

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Alien Breed is Team17’s sci-fi action series that began on the Amiga in 1991, mixing top-down shooting, maze-like exploration, limited resources, computer terminals, and relentless alien attacks. The series gradually expanded the formula through Special Edition 92, Alien Breed II, and Tower Assault before making a dramatic shift into first-person shooters with Alien Breed 3D and Alien Breed 3D II.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/zA17Smnf3zs

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Backyard Baseball the kid-friendly baseball game from Humongous Entertainment that turns neighborhood sandlots into a full baseball season. Draft a team from 30 distinct Backyard Kids, set your lineup and positions, then hit, pitch, field, steal bases, and unleash goofy power-ups across a collection of wonderfully unconventional ballparks.

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Road Rash: the motorcycle combat-racing series that mixes illegal street racing with hand-to-hand fighting, traffic hazards, police chases, and bike progression. Players earn cash, upgrade to faster motorcycles, and use fists, kicks, and weapons to knock rivals off their bikes while trying to survive increasingly dangerous roads.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/3cqRhebh034

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A turn-based RPG developed by Camelot Software Planning for the Game Boy Advance that follows Isaac and his companions across the world of Weyard. Combat centers on collectible elemental Djinn that alter character classes, abilities, and summons, while Psynergy is also used outside battle to solve environmental puzzles and uncover hidden paths. The game combines traditional JRPG progression with unusually interactive dungeon design and a story that continues directly into Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/S0u_TnGwizg

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Demon’s Crest for the Super Nintendo. Firebrand escapes captivity and takes flight across a dark fantasy world, recovering magical crests that let him smash through stone, soar through the sky, explore underwater ruins and transform into increasingly powerful gargoyles. We revisit Capcom’s overlooked action-adventure and check out its nonlinear stages, hidden upgrades, multiple endings and enormous monsters turned one of Ghosts ’n Goblins’ most irritating enemies into the hero of his own game.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/4LNUSbeR1D8

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Treasures of the Deep for the PlayStation wraps up our Retro Summer series. It's part arcade shooter, part treasure hunt, and all underwater sub adventure as we revisit one of the PS1's hidden gems and discover why there still aren't many games quite like it.

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On today’s Play Retro episode: Sega Bass Fishing from the Arcade to the Dreamcast. This week we cast our retro reels into the dream lakes of the late 90s / early 2000s where we fish out some huge bass... ok.. that is a lot of fishing puns. Sega's action fishing game series SEGA BASS FISHING where the player picks a lake, location, lure and casts into the water where the camera follows your fishing line. Control each lure by reeling and flicking to entice and hook Bass Fish. Catch the biggest fish and enjoy your day at the lake.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/uvFPwaUTHdU

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Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer (2002) takes Activision's early-2000s extreme-sports formula into the ocean, turning waves into moving skate parks filled with barrels, aerial tricks, and combo lines. We hit the console and Game Boy Advance versions and paddle back to TransWorld Surf, the tougher 2001 rival that was already trying to figure out how surfing should work in 3D.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/ryGhslt_Q18

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Jaws (1987) on the NES, where players hunt the infamous great white through open-water exploration, collecting shells and harpooning everything in sight to work our way up to the big bad boss named Bruce.Then we compare it to the very different 1989 computer adaptation. We also dive into Atari's unofficial Shark JAWS arcade game, released just months after the movie became a cultural phenomenon.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/UYCiWOc5pLU

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Devil May Cry (2001) began life as an early Resident Evil 4 prototype before evolving into one of Capcom's most influential action games. Blending gothic horror, fast-paced swordplay, acrobatic gun combat, and a style ranking system that rewarded creativity over button mashing, it introduced the world to Dante and laid the foundation for the modern character action genre.

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NARC (1988) brought digitized graphics, massive explosions, and War-on-Drugs satire to arcades in one of the most controversial games of its era. Players take on the roles of narcotics officers Max Force and Hit Man as they blast their way through a criminal empire using machine guns, rocket launchers, and sheer excess. We explore the arcade original and its many home ports, with a brief look at the 2005 reboot that attempted to bring the franchise into the modern era.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/BwBewmod2QU

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Star Control II (1992) transformed the original game's fleet battles into a sprawling space adventure, tasking players with rebuilding humanity's resistance against the Ur-Quan through exploration, diplomacy, and discovery. With memorable alien races, open-ended galaxy traversal, and one of PC gaming's most beloved stories, it remains a landmark of science-fiction game design.

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