Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: Retro

Tenchu

Posted on by Viljami

I think many of us old school gamers and maybe some retro game enthusiasts do recognize Tenchu. It was released for PS1 back in 1998. I can clearly remember these moments back in the day when I saw some footage from actual television about Tenchu. What made it interesting as a PS1 video game was that you were mainly using a sword as a weapon. The fact that this game was a stealth game more than just a simple action melee game that we saw many times in the mainstream of video gaming during the 90s. So, Tenchu was something different.

I do have played this. Not recently but it hasn’t been many years since I last time played the first Tenchu game. There have been several sequels. In actually had to search for some information. There have been at least thirteen games with some relevance to Tenchu. Tenchu 2 was released for PS1 in 2000. There were games released for PS2 and also to PSP. The latest in this series that I have played is Tenchu – Wrath of Heaven that was for PS2. I think it isn’t a bad way to start getting into this ninja combat series by playing the first Tenchu game on  a PS1.

The game did impress back in 1998 and it is still a very nice game to play even today. Maybe you have to have a certain retro type of attitude to actually enjoy this game. If we make a comparison to modern era there could be some improvements on the controls and graphics. So there is some adjusting in this sense. If you do like PS1 games I recommend this game especially.

So, what is the game all about? You try to move around in this three-dimensional environment and avoid enemies. If you get caught the enemies will call help and you usually end up  fighting too many enemies and you eventually end up dead. So, avoiding contact seems to be a working strategy. Also, when you encounter an enemy that hasn’t yet noticed you you can take that person out with only one stealth attack. If the enemy detects you the enemy will call help and you end up in a difficult fight.

You can use a grappling hook to move to for example up to some roof of a house. You use a sword to defeat your enemies. You also use throwing weapons try to take out enemies. Ther weapon, the sword I mean, is a melee weapon. This gives you a different feel of combat than if there were some ranged fire weapons used. The concept hasn’t been used in my opinion so much. Instead there are tons of shooting games available as retro and also as modern games. I think the idea of Tenchu is very good and original. Being that it is a game from 1998 makes it even more inventive as a video game. It was somewhat a pioneer as a three dimensional sword and melee fighting game.

Financially Tenchu was very successful in Japan and also all around the world in Europe and USA. It sold over 1,4 million copies worldwide. It was also successful as well appreciated game and received good grades in different reviews of gaming media of the time. Actually this many times meant magazines that were printed on paper. That was the method that was used back in the day. The gaming media wasn’t yet so strong on the internet. This particular fact has changed since Tenchu was first released.

Tenchu isn’t a pricey game to pick up. If you do find it from game shop I think it can be bought with a price tag of maybe 20 euros. I haven’t seen a copy available in a long time but that price of twenty euros was the price that I bought it for. It was one of my favorite games back in the 90s. It was also among the first games I wanted to own as I started collecting and buying PS1 games to my collection again about seven or eight years ago.

Resistance 3 (PS3) Is Finished

Posted on by Viljami

Resistance series, in which Resistance 3 belongs to, is a science fiction slash fantasy themed first person shooter game that was popular in the dominant era of PS3. The games in the series are PlayStation exclusives and you can play them on PS3 consoles. I have some experience about Resistance – The Fall of Man. I actually bought the game already some time ago. I really didn’t get into it. I didn’t somehow like it. It was too different from the experience provided by Call of Duty. I like CoD games very much.

I got interested again in the series after I found a book related to the video game series from flee market. The price of the book was 2 euros and I recently read it completely. I had some curiosity against the Resistance series and decided to try the third game which is actually Resistance 3 the game that we are dealing with in this blog post.

So, how is Resistance 3 as a video game? The controls take a bit of time to get adjusted to since they differ from CoD and Halo a bit. After you get the basics which means in this case the slight zoom, which button does fire your weapon and how different weapons work, where to throw a grenade and everything else related to basic gameplay of Resistance 3, you really get to enjoy the game very much.

I assume that the budget of Resistance 3 was a bit bigger than the first games’ budget. This shows as better graphical output. Also the cover seems to me somewhat more pleasant. The game uses horror and science fiction elements and reminds me at times of games like FEAR 2 and 3 and also the already mentioned Halo series. There are several different weapons available. The number of weapons increases as you progress deeper in to the game.

There are some strategic considerations that have to be discussed here. There are lots of enemies and sometimes it is better to try to progress with not taking out every single one of them and instead try to progress to the next checkpoint so you get through and actually move forward. I have only so little to say about the plot. The main character is the hero of the game and is making his way to New York as the evil alien “Chimera” is trying to conquer the planet Earth. There are different types of enemies from huge monsters to regular alien soldiers. You even get a chance to fight these enemies with a melee weapon (it’s a huge sledge hammer). There is also a strange weapon that I did use in the game that was called “mutator”.

I really enjoyed this game. Graphics are somewhat awful if you compare them directly with the display of graphics in some modern games but this is still a good game to play if you just consider it as a bit older game that actually does count as a retro game already in 2025. If you can handle PS3 games’ graphical poverty you can definitely play and also enjoy this game. Resistance 3 offers a nice about 8 hours of time of a playthrough. I think I used something like that while I played the single player campaign with “Casual” as the difficulty setting. You can of course play the game again with increased difficulty level if you wish to play the game through again in this way.

I really don’t have anything to say about multiplayer experience since I mainly play all my games as single player. I didn’t even bother to try the functionality of this game in this way. I don’t know if the server are still up. I think assume they might not be. Resistance 3 was published in 2011 for PS3 as an exclusive game. It might be nice to see a remake of some sort some day. The game is very good and it was the first Resistance game that I played and also finished.

I just yesterday finished purchasing and also installing the new Silent Hill f game that actually was officially released yesterday. I was positively surprised that it is now easier to pay your purchase in Steam app. It is possible now to use Trustly and functions of your own web bank. This makes acquiring money to Steam wallet easier for me. I am waiting for the weekend so I can sunk my teeth in Silent Hill f. I have now a new Windows 11 PC that I am going to play it on. The Xbox Series X version of the game was 10 euros cheaper but I prefer more power in the graphical end. So, I chose to get the PC version. Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Nostalgia With Mega Drive

Posted on by Viljami

I found a good way to feel some nostalgia with Mega Drive. I bought this game collection that has over 50 Mega Drive games. It cost me something around 20 to 30 euros. It is actually a “code-in-a-box” game this time. You can probably very easily tell if this collection is available as a digital copy. I don’t have a clue about that. I actually accidentally bought this version of this collection. Anyways this product is available also for other modern gaming devices. I have seen recently this available for Xbox Series X for 20 euros for a used and physical copy.

This seems to me like a bargain. I mean in the same package you get three Phantasy Star games, several Sonic titles and some games like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage not forgetting to mention a game like Kid Chameleon. There are so many good games in this collection. Even if you are just barely familiar with Mega Drive I can still recommend this collection for you.

If you think that you would buy each of these over 50 games separately I think many of us video game hobbyists would end up in bankruptcy. Phantasy Star II alone costs over 100 euros. The price tag for this collection would probably have four numerals. So, the point here is, they haven’t scant with this one a bit. These are definitely all good games. It would be hard to try to figure what game would be missing. Well, I did just come up with one game that’s missing and that game is Splatterhouse II. Splatterhouse III is also a good game and its not included in this collection.

The way I feel nostalgia while playing this game collections games is very clear. I did own a Mega Drive back in the first half of 1990s. Sonic The Hedgehog was the first game I played on this system. There is something so magical when I hear the music of this game. Take also for example the music of Streets of Rage II. What 16-bit game does have a better soundtrack? I think you are going to have hard time figuring that out.

What is so interesting about the audio side of the technology of Mega Drive gaming console seems to me the fact that it was actually a sound that was not CD quality. Sony achieved CD quality later but Mega Drive did this with its hardware and set the bar for Nintendo that also released a 16-bit console Super Nintendo. I think for a while Mega Drive was the leader when it comes to audio side of video games. We are talking about real history here. CD quality audio might seem as constant but you have to think hoe the technology was back then. Even PC didn’t have such a good audio quality back then. Of course Mega Drive gave some hard time for Nintendo that had to compete for several years with its 8-bit system NES.

I do recommend this Mega Drive collection for you. The price is very cheap. Also you get to see this cool virtual environment inside the menu of this collection. This is very cool feature. Some games, like for example, Phantasy Star II, that has already been mentioned in this blog post, might be games that you wouldn’t want to spend several tens of hours playing. These are retro games after all. I think if you totally hate retro games you have to consider if you really want to buy this. Modern games do have usually an overall better game design. This is because the industry has been developing several tens of years since we witnessed Mega Drive or anything like it.