Suikoden II, released in the US right at the cusp of the new millennium, is a great candidate for They Don’t Do Like This Anymore because it remains one of the most distinct RPGs of all time. From the low-budget but no less lovable computer rendered/stillframe intro to the Suikoden series’ trademark cast of hundreds, Suikoden II is still beloved in the hearts of the children and people who just know from good RPGs.

If you’re American, they never did like Superadventure Rockman. Think of it as Dragon’s Lair with more goofy robots and less creative death scenes.
Sony of ‘Murca treated 2D games like flu germs and given that Mega Man is something like the King Jesus of 2D games, he had a hard time on the Playstation. Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 squeaked by, but a cue-driven “adventure” game where you pushed a button and watched seven minutes of FMV? Uh uh, no way, forget it.

With the gaming world in a lather over the news about Mega Man 9, now’s a good time to look at the game’s predecessor: Mega Man 8.
Released in Amerikay during the winter of 1997, Mega Man 8 was a 2D No-No in Sony of America’s eyes. However, it did manage to make it Stateside without Capcom resorting to holding another title hostage (re: Resident Evil 2). Future platformers wouldn’t be so lucky.
In fact, Sony was actually pretty cool with Mega Man 8 not being a Saturn exclusive. That was a year or so before it became obvious that the …read more

What the hell am I trying to do, you ask? Shucks, I don’t know. A lot about games changed with the introduction of the Playstation and although the change came quickly, it didn’t happen all at once. Once in a while I’d like to look back at that strange transition, if you’ll let me.
See, the first CD-based game consoles were exciting at first, but they were turtles: plenty of storage space was available, but the system’s processors didn’t exceed the sixteen bit consoles’ power by much.
“Oh dear,” said Sega CD Developer #1, “our games play like their sixteen bit counterparts, …read more