Pickups December 2020

World Soccer – Sega Master System

World Soccer is a sports game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Master System and was released in 1989. Two game selections are available to play. The first is a top-down perspective soccer game. The second is a 3rd-person perspective penalty kick contest. The team that scores the most goals in either game selection wins. However, if regulation time runs out in the regular soccer game mode, there will be a penalty kick shoot-off to determine the winner.
This game came with a Sega games catalogue for the Master System, showing what other titles and accessories are available.

Rating – Complete
Price Paid – £1.50 (Cash Converters Online)

Teddy Boy – Sega Master System

Teddy Boy was originally an 1985 Arcade platformer that was later ported to the Sega Master System. It stars a young boy who armed with a gun. Each level is an infinitely-repeating maze with several dice. Each die is filled with monsters which hatch out and the player must shoot to shrink, then collect them. If the player does not collect each shrunken monster quickly, it turns into a time-eating bug which flies to the time limit bar and consumes a chunk of it. If you touch one monster or run out of time then you lose a life. The game ends if all lives are lost.

Rating – Complete
Price Paid – £4.00 (Cash Converters Online)

Black Belt – Sega Master System

Black Belt is a side-scrolling single-plane beat ’em up game released for the Master System in 1986. The player takes control of a martial artist named Riki, who sets out to rescue his girlfriend Kyoko from his rival, Wang. The game is composed of six left-to-right side-scrolling stages in which Riki faces different types of underlings, facing the occasional sub-boss at midpoints of certain stages. Enemies violently explode upon being punched or kicked. At the end of each stage, Riki must confront the stage’s boss, each being susceptible to only one type of attack. The player must exploit their opponent’s weakness and use it to finish the boss off.
Black Belt was one of programmer Yuji Naka’s early games before his involvement in Sonic the Hedgehog.

Rating – Boxed, No Manual
Price Paid – £5.00 (Cash Converters Online)

Super Mario Sunshine – Nintendo Gamecube

Super Mario Sunshine is a 2002 platform game by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second 3D platformer in the Super Mario series, following Super Mario 64.
The game takes place on the tropical Isle Delfino, where Mario and friends are taking a vacation. A villain resembling Mario, known as Shadow Mario, steals the Shine Sprites and covers the island in toxic slime and leaves Mario to be wrongfully convicted for the mess.
The game shares many similar gameplay elements with its predecessor, Super Mario 64, while introducing various new gameplay features. Players control Mario as he tries to obtain 120 Shine Sprites in order to bring light back to Isle Delfino and prove his innocence. In this game, Mario is joined by a robotic backpack named F.L.U.D.D. (Flash Liquidizing Ultra Dousing Device), which uses the power of water to clean away goop and help Mario reach new places.

Rating – Boxed, No Manual
Price Paid – £14.99 (Cash Converters Online)

Mario Kart Double Dash!! – Nintendo Gamecube

Mario Kart: Double Dash, is a racing game by Nintendo for the GameCube and released in 2003. The game is the fourth instalment in the Mario Kart series and the third for home consoles after Mario Kart 64.
Similar to the previous titles, Double Dash challenges Mario series player characters to race against each other on Mario-themed tracks. The game introduced a number of new gameplay features, such as supporting co-op gameplay with two riders per kart. One player drives the kart, and the other uses items. It is the first game in the series to use 3D polygon graphics for the racers, as opposed to sprites. Players can switch at any time. Double Dash is the only game in the Mario Kart series to allow cooperative gameplay so far. Double Dash supports LAN play, allowing up to 16 players to compete simultaneously. There are 20 characters to select from in total, each of which with a special item, and with eleven characters being new to the series.

Rating – Boxed, No Manual
Price Paid – £14.99 (Cash Converters Online)

Tetris 2 – Nintendo Game Boy

Tetris 2 is a video game published in 1993 by Nintendo for the Game Boy.
As a variation of the Tetris concept, rather than having the objective of matching horizontal lines of blocks that descend from the top of the screen as tetrominos, instead the player matches the colours of the descending blocks (which include irregular tetromino shapes) to blocks already fixed on the game board, which causes blocks to disappear from the board when three blocks of the same colour are matched, in a manner similar to the game Dr. Mario.
This game came with a loose copy of the original Tetris.

Rating – Complete
Price Paid – £14.99 (eBay)

Total Soccer Manager – Nintendo Game Boy Advance

Total Soccer Manager is a Soccer Sim game, developed by Exient Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, which was released in Europe in 2001. Can’t find much info at all about this game online, and not being a football fan, will probably never play this. So yeah.

Rating – Loose
Price Paid – £1.00 (eBay)

Winnie the Pooh’s Rumbly Tumbly Adventure & Rayman 3 Twin Pack – Nintendo Game Boy Advance

Disney’s Winnie the Pooh’s Rumbly Tumbly Adventure / Rayman 3 is a compilation of games for the Game Boy Advance.
The game contains two full games on a single cartridge. There is a menu that allows players to choose which game to play.

Winnie the Pooh’s Rumbly Tumbly Adventure

The game is aimed toward young children and has three different modes: Birthday Adventures, Junior Mode and Multiplayer Games. Birthday Adventures is basically Story Mode. While Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh take an adventure in the woods, Pooh starts to feel hungry. Christopher Robin tells Pooh to recall happy memories. Pooh thinks that this is a good idea and he therefore does so. Junior Mode is for even younger children and there’s no objectives to do, and Multiplayer Games allows you to play some minigames.

Rayman 3

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc is a platform game, the third major installment in the Rayman series. It tells the story of how Rayman stops André, an evil black lum, from taking over the world with his army of sack-like “Hoodlum” soldiers. Unlike the game’s predecessor, Rayman 3 took a more light-hearted turn, it has sarcastic self-referential undertones and pokes fun at the platforming video game genre.

Rating – Loose
Price Paid – £3.00 (eBay)

Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood – Sony Playstation 4

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is an arcade first-person shooter Until Dawn spin-off for the PlayStation VR. The game was released in 2016.
The player plays on a roller coaster cart while going through a horror-themed carnival amusement park which grows more intense as the player progresses through the game. The game features seven different roller coasters that feature some of the same locations and characters from its brethren although with different themes, and are quickly loaded by default with handguns, although other weapons are available.
This game is fantastic, I have had this game for a few years digitally, but I decided that I want it physically.

Rating – Complete
Price Paid – £8.00 (Cash Converters)

Here They Lie – Sony Playstation 4

“Descend into dark and disquieting horror that will test your psychological limits. Explore a nightmarish monochromatic city where sinister creatures lurk around every corner. Wrestle with life-or-death choices and your own morality as you uncover the mystery of the woman in yellow.”
Here They Lie is a dark psychological horror experience that transports you to a terrifying, surreal world inhabited by strange and malevolent creatures. Unimaginable horrors lurk around every corner, just out of sight, haunting and infecting your mind. Dare yourself to go deeper down the rabbit hole and confront the meaning of your existence. With a focus on narrative and the experience of dread, Here They Lie is not your typical survival horror game.
I know nothing about this game but on judging a book by its cover, I thought it looked quite enjoyable.

Rating – Complete
Price Paid – £8.00 (Cash Converters)

Trigger Man – Sony Playstation 2

Trigger Man is a third-person shooter released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2.
Trigger Man puts you in the middle of a growing conflict between rival Mob families. People know you as the underworld’s toughest Mob enforcer, and you have an array of deadly weapons to keep your reputation alive.
Next to the basic action missions there is some focus on stealth and escorting too. Some sections require a key to be found in order to progress. While fighting, there is a focus on head shots, as enemies can take a lot of bullets in other body parts before going down. There are eight missions in total.
There are different types of weapons including a blade, machine guns and sniper rifles, but only a small amount of clips can be carried. Enemies hardly ever leave anything behind, so ammo crates need to be hunted down.
I bought this game as I had not seen it in the wild before, however looking at the reviews of the game, I maybe shouldn’t have bothered.

Rating – Complete
Price Paid – £2.40 (Cash Converters)

The Suffering – Sony Playstation 2

The Suffering is a third-person shooter survival horror video game, and was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004.
The Suffering centres on the story of Torque, a prisoner on death row for murdering his ex-wife and two children, a crime that he possesses no memory of committing. Shortly after he arrives in Abbot State Penitentiary on Carnate Island, off the coast of Maryland, an earthquake hits the island, resulting in the prison being attacked by unusual supernatural threats. After being freed, Torque attempts to fight his way to freedom while confronting his own personal demons, all while attempting to remember what really happened to his family.
As Torque kills enemies during the game, an on-screen meter called his “Insanity meter” begins to fill. Once it is full, it begins to flash, and at this point, Torque can transform into a monster. In this form, Torque can tear enemies apart and can perform several powerful attacks. The more enemies Torque kills whilst in this form, the more powerful the monster becomes and the more combo moves become available. However, when in this form, Torque’s health automatically depletes, and if he doesn’t change back to his human form prior to his health meter fully depleting, he will die.
A major part of the gameplay in The Suffering concerns Torque’s morality. At numerous points during the game, the player will encounter situations where they have several choices as to how to proceed. These situations involve NPCs, and the choices are usually to help the person (good morality), kill them (bad morality), or ignore them (neutral morality). In many situations, when Torque first encounters an NPC, the player will hear the voice of Torque’s dead wife urging him to help them, and almost immediately afterwards will hear the voice of a demon urging him to kill them.

Rating – Complete
Price Paid – £2.40 (Cash Converters)

Bundle of Nintendo Famicom Games

I purchased these games to help me with a post here, where I play all the unknown Famicom games I have and try to work out what they are and if I can play them. Before that post though, what I will say is, the small-boxed Famicom games are cute as hell.

Rating – Loose
Price Paid – £20.00 (Facebook)

Sega Dreamcast VMU

The VMU (Visual Memory Unit) is the primary memory card for the Dreamcast console.
The VMU is plugged directly into one of two slots on a Dreamcast controller (up to two VMUs may be plugged in each controller, and eight VMUs per Dreamcast console).
While its most basic function is as a removable storage device, the VMU may also serve as an auxiliary display during normal gameplay and, through the use of additional software, acts as a handheld game console. Console-like features of the VMU include a screen, speaker, proper directional pad, four action buttons, the ability to connect and interact with other VMUs, and the ability to download additional games.
I got this VMU because you can never have enough memory cards. This has yellowed quite badly. I think I will try my hand at a bit of retro-brighting in order to restore it’s whiteness.

Rating – Loose
Price Paid – £5.00 (Cash Converters)

Christmas Haul

Cold Fear – Sony Playstation 2

Cold Fear is a survival horror third-person shooter video game released for the PlayStation 2 in 2005.
The game is cantered on Tom Hansen, a member of the United States Coast Guard, who comes to the aid of a Russian whaler in the Bering Strait and finds a mysterious parasite has turned the crew into zombie-like creatures. Discovering the involvement of both the Russian mafia and the CIA, Hansen sets out to ensure the parasites don’t reach land.
The first half of the game is set on a whaler in the middle of a storm, and the conditions on the deck affect the degree of control the player has over Hansen. As the ship sways continuously from side to side, aiming is made more difficult, although Hansen can grab onto a ledge to steady himself, if one is available. In some instances, the ship can sway to such a degree that Hansen will slide towards the edge and potentially fall overboard.
This game plays very similar to Resident Evil 4 with the control scheme and the shooting aspects employing an over the shoulder viewpoint.

Rating – Complete

Obscure – Sony Playstation 2

Obscure is a survival horror video game released on the PlayStation 2 in 2004.
The story focuses on five senior high students of a private high school who stumble upon a laboratory where experiments are being done on the selected individuals of the student body. Their mission is to rescue Kenny, warn the school, save their teachers, and get out alive.
Obscure gives players the ability to control and switch between any of five playable characters on the fly. Given that he or she will be playing in pairs of characters, the other characters will be computer-controlled A.I., or a second player can join in and take over for the computer at any time

Rating – Boxed, No Manual

Project Zero – Sony Playstation 2

Project Zero is a survival horror video game released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2. The game is set in 1980s Japan, and focuses on a location beset by hostile supernatural events. While navigating the environments, the main character’s only means of defence is the Camera Obscura, which can be used to damage ghosts, capturing them on film and pacifying them. When using the camera, the view switches from a third-person to a first-person perspective. The camera locks onto a ghost, with the amount of damage dealt depending on how much of a focus the Camera Obscura has on the ghost, but ghosts fade in and out of existence, making focusing more challenging. The series draws on staple elements of Japanese horror, and is noted for its frequent use of female protagonists.

Rating – Complete

Mugs and Drinking Vessels

I’m a sucker for a good retro gaming mug. I have loads of them, and because I’m a lazy washer-upper and a big tea drinker, I need all the mugs I can get. Unfortunately they don’t seem to last too long before, for whatever reason, they end up smashed. I’m also partial to a nice cold drink too so drinking glasses are always a hit with me.

Tiny Arcade Tetris Mini Arcade Cabinet

This is an almost 10cm tall miniature replica of the iconic arcade game Tetris. It is fully playable and features a full colour 1.44 inch LCD screen. 128 x 128 resolution display. This is the second Tiny Arcade cabinet I have. They go very well together and I can’t wait to have them all. Then I go bigger…