Expi Feliton's Corner

With me reviewing the Gamerz Tek G 8-Bit last time, I wanted it to serve as a segway into a full review and retrospective of the NES. Released in 1983 as the Famicom in Japan and later being released in 1985 and 1986 around the world, the Nintendo Entertainment System is easily seen as a classic and to this day is often considered among the best consoles of all time. And with me reviewing the rest of Nintendo’s systems, I think it’s time I give the NES a go. Background and History Like I said, the Nintendo Entertainment System was originally released as the Famicom in Japan in 1983. The idea came after Nintendo’s series of arcade successes throughout the early 80’s and came in the form of an interchangeable cartridge-based system. The Famicom after it’s release was a massive success in Japan, however it wouldn’t be released to the rest of the world until 2 years later. In the United States, Nintendo did originally plan to enter the video game market by releasing the Famicom under Atari...

To be honest, I’ve always wanted to get into the NES but never really got the chance. It’s pretty much the only major Nintendo console that I never really owned or had any games for and considering it’s still a major part of gaming history, part of me has always wanted it to be a part of my collection. Problem is, buying an NES nowadays is a bit… risky. The original NES was designed in a way that, while benefitted the console sales-wise and helped bring the console market out of the 1980’s video game crash, made the system in the long run unreliable as pins would bend over time. Of course, there was a second model of the NES made later on known as the NES Jr or NES top loader, which is generally more reliable as it ditched the front-loading design, but nowadays is more rare and expensive to find plus only outputs in RF. I did get the NES Classic Edition about a year and a half ago however, and I do think it is a good tribute to the original NES console… but I still can’t use the origin...

NOTE: This review is part 8 in a retrospective of the Sonic franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective Honestly I don’t have anything funny to say here so… Background and History I guess since I’m… sort of talking about a Saturn game here, I think I should start off by talking about the Sega Saturn. In 1994, Sega released their next major console, the Sega Saturn, in Japan, and released the system one year later worldwide. It was intended to be the next generation of Sega, their kick into the 32-bit era, and their way of competing with the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo’s next upcoming console which turned out to be the Nintendo 64. While the Saturn’s development was mostly finished by the end of 1993, the upcoming PlayStation prompted Sega to upgrade the console a bit more - giving it a second video display processor and overall improving the texture mapping and 2D performance of the system. O...

Once upon a time, Sega was easily a juggernaut in the game industry. They were the first company to create a console that rivaled the likeness of the NES with the Mega Drive or Genesis, which turned out to be a success and has become one of the most iconic game systems. But over the span of a single decade, they dropped from one of the top dogs of the console industry and resorted to becoming a third party developer. In 1998, Sega released the Dreamcast in Japan and a year later worldwide to much fanfare. But ultimately, little did they know it would be their last ever console. In the mid-90’s, gaming was trending towards 3D with systems like the PlayStation and 3DO coming out. And despite Sega trying to keep the Genesis alive with the 32X and Sega CD earlier on, Sega eventually turned to their next system, the Sega Saturn. But between a disastrous launch as a result of Sega releasing the system 4 months ahead of schedule, an architecture that was difficult to develop for, and a lack o...