Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

ARK: The Animated Series First Trailer

There's a trailer for ARK: The Animated Series, which is based on ARK: Survival Evolved. One of the most notable aspects of the trailer is the cast, which includes very many recognizable names such as David Tennant, Michelle Yeoh, Russell Crowe, and Karl Urban. Vin Diesel is in the cast as well, but he's actually playing a much larger role in the development of ARK 2 and likely this as well. His likeness is used as one of the main characters, Santiago.

This looks really interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing it. The game's lore is actually hidden throughout the game in Explorer Notes. These are hidden throughout the ARKs and easy to miss out on. You can also see... Read All

The Cowabunga Collection Is Totally Tubular!

Right now, my 6 year old son and I are re-watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon bit by bit. The show starts incredibly strong with a first season that is basically a mini-series origin story that is way better than it has any right to be. After that, season 2 keeps incredibly strong and now I'm in season 3 which is where the shows writing, animation and such starts to really wane. It's a great show still, but the quality has backed off considerably and even many of the original voices of the Turtles change from episode to episode. This original cartoon show was the base for how we look at the Ninja Turtles now and nearly all the games in the... Read All Right now, my 6 year old son and I are re-watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon bit by bit. The show starts incredibly strong with a first season that is basically a mini-series origin story that is way better than it has any right to be. After that, season 2 keeps incredibly strong and now I'm in season 3 which is where the shows writing, animation and such starts to really wane. It's a great show still, but the quality has backed off considerably and even many of the original voices of the Turtles change from episode to episode. This original cartoon show was the base for how we look at the Ninja Turtles now and nearly all the games in the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection pack of classic Turtles games.

The Cowabunga Collection features 13 classic Turtles games but for the sake of this review, I've only really focused on two games. The original Ninja Turtles arcade game and the Capcom NES Ninja Turtles game. To me, both are retro classics and the NES game being hard as hell and the arcade game being of the best brawlers of all time that served as the base for last years Shredders Revenge.

Firstly, the presentation of the Cowabunga Collection is top notch. Each game is easy to flip through on the main menu, I just wish the game had the system the game was from listed with the game. For instance, there are two versions of Turtles in Time for the Arcade and SNES. I get that the 4 player version is the Arcade version but a tag saying that could help clean up any confusion.

The emulation used is perfect and I noticed no input delay or lag when I played the game. In playing the original Capcom Ninja Turtles NES game, the emulation keeps the original NES lag when they are too many enemies on the screen and they also offer an option to hack the game to fix all of that. That said, the games feel perfect and that's not something we can always get with these re-releases.

I picked up the Cowabunga Collection on Switch and X-Box and so far I've only played it on Switch and it's damn near perfection. Getting these classic games collected all in one place is really awesome if you want to re-live these with friends and don't have 50 bucks in quarters and a local arcade handy. Now if they just release all the old Simpsons games on one pack, including the Arcade game I think I'll be all set.

AzureAzule Super Member wrote on 01/16/2023 at 04:52am

Thank you for inadvertently clearing up some confusion I didn't realize I had until now. You helped me remember that this is different than Shredder's Revenge. Now that that's cleared up, I got it back on my wish list. LOL

I grew up watching TMNT, I was around 9 I think. This was also about the same time when I got into Nintendo, since my cousin had an NES and we both eventually had Gameboys. I played the original TMNT NES game briefly while I could. I found it for PC in '95, but didn't get it. I had the Gameboy game instead.

I'm glad it sounds like the collection is good. I look forward to getting it sometime.

There is recent TMNT content AFAIK. There's a newer movie I believe I'm aware of, but haven't seen yet. It's on my 2 page double-spaced "to-watch" list. I think there maybe more on the way, too.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/16/2023 at 05:53am

I tried the first Turtles Gameboy game for a minute and it was WAY better than I thought it would be. Going to come back and play it again.

AzureAzule Super Member wrote on 01/16/2023 at 07:08am

I remember Shell Shock too well. LOL

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/16/2023 at 06:55pm

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qLqVVxVhUtU

🤣

jaelte wrote on 01/21/2023 at 07:09am

I played the original arcade as much as I could when I was a kid. I even briefly remember joining a "secret" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles club in third grade and in order to join I had to tell them who the first boss of that (brand new) game was.
I never owned the NES game, but I know I rented it a few times. I also know I owned the Tournament Fighters game for SNES, but I can't find it now. It either got lost in a move in college or is buried somewhere at my mom's house.
Anyway, thank you for the hit of nostalgia. Maybe I'll pick up for PC.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/24/2023 at 02:19am

SECRET CLUB? That’s pretty incredible. Bebop?

jaelte wrote on 01/28/2023 at 04:24am

Indeed. Those were the days.
Rocksteady. :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/29/2023 at 06:14pm

I always confused them. Too bad I wouldn't be able to get in to the club.

AzureAzule Super Member wrote on 01/29/2023 at 07:21pm

So, I mentioned a "new" movie. Turns out it's for a series. Both are called Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Some Kind of Top 20 List for 2022

After the jingle of the bells quiets down the fresh new year is upon us. As part of the glow of the new year I always think a bit about the previous year. As part of that, it's fun to consider what things I enjoyed that bubbled to the top of the rest and since lists are fun, here we go. It's not a top 20 gaming list(as in I don't have 20 things), not sure I played that many games but a list of all the stuff I enjoyed in the book, movie, music and game space.

Feel free to drop your lists in the comments.

Andor: It seems Star Wars life is now lived as a series of Disney+ TV shows. Most of them have been fine, some have been pretty good (Obi-Wan) but one show punched out... Read All

Risk of Rain Returns!

Risk of Rain Kickstarted back in 2013 and at the time I called it "An Interesting New Platformer" and since then Risk of Rain became on of the most popular Indie Rogue-likes and got a sequel that was published by Gearbox. Since then the Risk of Rain devs have sold the IP to Gearbox and have recently dropped the news that Risk of Rain is getting a re-build / re-master / re-release.

"Carefully designed, beautifully remastered, and loaded with new ways to play—Risk of Rain is back and better than ever! This remake of the classic Risk of Rain packs enhanced visuals, an updated codebase, and tons of new content.

No two runs in the iconic roguelike are the same, and that has... Read All

Vampire Survivors Is Out On Mobile!

Earlier this year Vampire Survivors blew up on Steam due to it being a fresh take on the Rogue-like that feels incredible on the Steam Deck. Since then it's been ported to all the XBoxes and recently came to iOS and Android phones and tablets. I've played Vampire Survivors on the Steam Deck and it shines in that format but when I played it on the Deck I wondered if it would work on a phone. Needless to say is that it's a great phone port but It's not quite as good as playing on the Steam Deck but it's still a great way to play. Vampire Survivors is currently free to play on mobile and if you want, you can watch an ad to get a few more gold than you obtain normally in... Read All

The Story of Super Mario Kart

Apparently there isn't any world where there are too many video game documentaries about video games I love. Video Game Historian is back with a nod to the history of Mario Kart and you should click play. You know, in between Andor, House of Dragons, The White Lotus, Wednesday, Handmaidens Tale, Yellowstone, 1899, Willow, Warrior Nun, Tulsa King, The Peripheral, Pepsi Where's My Jet, Walking Dead, The Crown, The Tim Allen Santa Clause Show, Manifest and that billion dollar Lord of the Rings show on Amazon.

Bro, More Broforce Forever Bro!

Looks like the biggest update to Broforce is coming in 2023 and while there aren't a lot of details surrounding the announcement, I'm still quite excited. Yeah, the game came out almost 8 years ago but it's still incredible and plays well on everything it's on (I've got it on Switch).

"The Biggest Update to Broforce Yet: New Bros, New Missions, New Freedoms - Coming Early 2023"

New freedoms, hell yeah, now let's high five an Eagle while we wait for 2023.

Marvel Snap is Fantastic!

Marvel Snap launched last month to quite a bit of press and accolades and I'm here to say it's fantastic. Yeah, yeah it's free to play going heavy on cosmetics but none of that is annoying, in fact I think it nails the free to play curve.

Second Dinner is the development shop that created Marvel Snap and it formed up a few years ago from former Blizzard employees that made Hearthstone great. Hearthstone at launch was one of the most refreshing digital card games that later went so heavy into free to pay to play that caused me to go from a long time player to a former player. Marvel Snap changes the digital card game format by making the matches faster and removes... Read All Marvel Snap launched last month to quite a bit of press and accolades and I'm here to say it's fantastic. Yeah, yeah it's free to play going heavy on cosmetics but none of that is annoying, in fact I think it nails the free to play curve.

Second Dinner is the development shop that created Marvel Snap and it formed up a few years ago from former Blizzard employees that made Hearthstone great. Hearthstone at launch was one of the most refreshing digital card games that later went so heavy into free to pay to play that caused me to go from a long time player to a former player. Marvel Snap changes the digital card game format by making the matches faster and removes nearly all the pay for power aspects. Some cards you can unlock FASTER by paying for the season pass but if you want to wait, you can unlock them normally through the card upgrade mechanics later.

The basic game premise is fairly simple, there are three lanes and you focus on winning 2 out of the 3 lanes to win the match. Each lane has a Marvel effect that changes how you can win it such as doubling the strength of your cards or lanes you can't play cards in at all. How you approach these random lanes can really mix up the matches and they keep adding new lanes all the time really changing how the game works.

If you want to you can buy gold to unlock new cosmetic cards (essentially card skins) or power to unlock other cards faster, but there is a daily limit to the amount of cards you can upgrade this way. So even if you unleashed your credit card to buy everything, you'd still need to play daily matches to unlock all the cards quickly.

With a quick yet fun base game and progression system that doesn't, to me, feel excessively grindy, Marvel Snap is the game I now play daily. I don't think I'd ever NOT buy anything in game, but at this point, I'm not sure what the point would be. I'm content playing free to play games like Fortnite without buying cosmetics and Marvel Snap seems like a perfect game for that. In fact, you can earn enough gold in game to buy cosmetics and I've just been hording mine for the perfect card skin or ... something else.

If you are interested in playing Marvel Snap, as I said, it's entirely free and available on Android, iPhones, tablets and PC on Steam. When I tried the Steam port it had a phone aspect ratio but at some point the developers will add proper widescreen making the PC version better.

AzureAzule Super Member wrote on 11/10/2022 at 06:42am

I'm glad you gave this a great review! I haven't checked it out yet, only added it to my Steam library when I realized it was available. I got a "new" phone. It's the best phone I've ever had, but it's still not the greatest (Samsung Galaxy A01), so I'm not sure which games I'll play on it. I've been playing a few. I tried Marvel Strike Force on my old phone and I never got passed the loading screen, haven't tried it on the new one.

I enjoyed the single player part of Hearthstone, but that didn't last long. I really don't like competitive play, so I came to the conclusion that the game (and similar games that force competitive play) just isn't for me. I'm still interested in MtG and Gwent, just not competitively. I played MtG staring in high school along w/ the Star Trek: The Next Generation CCG. I loved Gwent in Witcher 3.

Is there a single player part of it or do you have to play against others?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 11/14/2022 at 10:22pm

I have been enjoying snap. Even when I lose, I don’t feel penalized too much. Makes for an enjoyable experience.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/15/2022 at 02:20pm

It’s always against others but like Will said, it’s prob the best kind of online multiplayer in that it isn’t soul crushing.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 12/07/2022 at 05:56pm

I've tried Snap for a week or so, and I just don't think it's a game for me. The game kinda just feels grindy, trying to upgrade my deck and card appearance, but there's no other objective that I could find?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/08/2022 at 03:35am

I haven’t played in a week or so. Focusing my time on Marvel Strike Force.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/08/2022 at 09:35am

So with these kinds of free to play games it seems they need a progression system that’s in some way tied to money to pay the bills. Marvel Snap ties progression to cosmetic card upgrades hated around gems. Once you upgrade card cosmetics your get rank which allows you to unlock more cards. This is a grind for sure.

They keep adding more cards and I’m at a good place with my level now (959) where I have a lot of cards to upgrade and get gems slower. Which means I can pay a bit to speed it up or wait some and grind. Good news is the base game, for me, is fun enough so it’s ok to do that.

If the base game isn’t fun enough I can see where the grind wouldn’t be fun enough. Right now I unlock about one card every day or two so it’s slower but still fun.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/08/2022 at 09:35am

> hated around gems

Should be GATED 🤣

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

The Story of Super Mario World

According to some, Super Mario World is one of the best platformers of all time. For me and my family, this game sold us the Super Nintendo. My parents were really impressed by the 16bit graphics and I think that convinced them to buy us one that Christmas.

If you love Super Mario World or have yet to play it, the Gaming Historian has a great video all about the game and it’s historic creation.

Happy Halloween!

Wanted to wish everyone a very Happy and safe Halloween this year. Also wanted to share the latest Angry Video Game Nerd episode covering all the classic Doom ports. We’ve covered the basic Doom port history before but the Nerds review is fun and worth watching.

ARK: The Animated Series First Trailer

The Cowabunga Collection Is Totally Tubular!

Some Kind of Top 20 List for 2022

Risk of Rain Returns!

Vampire Survivors Is Out On Mobile!

The Story of Super Mario Kart

Bro, More Broforce Forever Bro!

Marvel Snap is Fantastic!

The Story of Super Mario World

Happy Halloween!

Recent Activity...

The Cowabunga Collection Is Totally Tubular!

The Cowabunga Collection Is Totally Tubular!

The Cowabunga Collection Is Totally Tubular!

The Cowabunga Collection Is Totally Tubular!