Lord Thag Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 (edited) I bought both of these titles over the weekend, and I have to say, I am highly impressed with both. Spelunker is a remake of the original, but with vastly more content. here the original had six levels, this one has a hundred(!), as well as two multiplayer modes. It's a strange beast as far as a remake though, because it is every bit as murderously hard as the old 8-bit game, namely, you die every time the breeze changes direction. It's slavishly loyal to the original gameplay, and you can play the entire game in retro graphics if you desire. The formula is the same, but over time, lots of cool new items, traps and enemies are introduced. If you like the original game, this thing is a no brainer. Thexder is great too, and why Square Enix chose to remake this super-obscure game I'll never know, but it is a stunningly gorgeous remake of the original. In fact, it's a true remake, down to every enemy and secret, all in very shiny, gorgeous graphics. It's just as frustrating and fun as the original (also included) that i used to play on my friend Dan's old 286 back in high school. Both of these titles are true, tough as nails, gamer's games. Damn good stuff. Edited January 21, 2011 by Lord Thag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxd Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Thexder super obscure?!? Where were you in the '80s? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Thexder super obscure?!? Where were you in the '80s? Seriously. Hell, I even had Thexder for my Apple II! Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxd Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Thexder super obscure?!? Where were you in the '80s? Seriously. Hell, I even had Thexder for my Apple II! Tempest I had it for my Coco. That game was everywhere.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Is this Spelunker HD unforgivingly hard where your player dies if it moves 1 pixel? That's what killed the original for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Cool... always loved Spelunker! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 Thexder super obscure?!?Where were you in the '80s? Really? The only person I knew at my whole school who had it was my buddy Dan, and I've never heard anyone mention it since. It never comes up in retrogaming discussions or top ten lists generally. When people do those 'what would you like to see remade' threads, I've never seen it come up. The only mention of it I've evr really seen was an episode of Classic Gameroom HD. I'm sure it sold decently, but I think it's pretty obscure nowadays. Everyone I've mentioned the remake to is like 'thexder - what's that?' I just thought it was an odd choice for remake since it's so forgotten these days. Maybe it was more popular back in the day, but if it was, I sure as hell never saw it. I remember everyone playing Battletech, Star Control, Commander Keen and Ultima V, but not Thexder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cebus Capucinis Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I loved Thexder! That game was crazy hard, though....having to turn into the ship and fly through the puzzle parts was very frustrating! I had it for both PC and Apple ][, for some reason I enjoyed the PC version a lot more. Were there any significant differences between the ports of the game? I can't seem to remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxd Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Thexder super obscure?!?Where were you in the '80s? Really? The only person I knew at my whole school who had it was my buddy Dan, and I've never heard anyone mention it since. It never comes up in retrogaming discussions or top ten lists generally. When people do those 'what would you like to see remade' threads, I've never seen it come up. The only mention of it I've evr really seen was an episode of Classic Gameroom HD. I'm sure it sold decently, but I think it's pretty obscure nowadays. Everyone I've mentioned the remake to is like 'thexder - what's that?' I just thought it was an odd choice for remake since it's so forgotten these days. Maybe it was more popular back in the day, but if it was, I sure as hell never saw it. I remember everyone playing Battletech, Star Control, Commander Keen and Ultima V, but not Thexder. It sold a ton and was ported to every machine possible. You never hear of it in any top 10 list or discussion because it wasn't really a great game at all. It had that play feature where you could convert from a robot to a spaceship and back again ala Tranformers. Back then that was unheard of and totally new and cool. But it really hasn't aged that well and isn't a game I'd look to play anymore either. Except maybe for a bit of nostalgia.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I never heard of Thexder, nobody I knew had it cause it was a computer(PC) game in Japan and none of us lived in Japan in 1985. Apparently it was ported to the NES in the late 80's which I missed. LOL First time I heard of it was when it came out on PSN. Oh well. Spelunker is too ridiculously hard. I can see why thats popular in Japan. I skipped on both but I'm curious to try Thexder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxd Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Thexder was on these systems: Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIgs, DOS, Macintosh, MSX, NES, PC-88, PC-98, TRS-80 CoCo If you didn't see it in the 80's I don't know what to say. It wasn't exactly hard to find.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 I've heard of Thexdar as well and I don't remember it being very good except for the coolness factor of the Transformers like transformation. That being said... Wasn't there a sequel to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 That being said... Wasn't there a sequel to it? Yep Fire Hawk. I have it right here for my PC (boxed and everything amazingly). It wasn't nearly as good. Thexder wasn't a great game by any means, but on a system like the Apple it was amazing. On a higher end machine it was probably just average. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onmode-ky Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I was quite alive during the 80s, but I had never heard of Thexder until the PSP remake. Then again, I had also never heard of Spelunker until the PS3 remake's Japanese release. At the time, I did not actively seek out video games; I just knew of what my friends talked about. onmode-ky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGQuarterly Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Thexder was released for the PC by Sierra, and my best friend's dad at that time worked at Sierra as a game programmer, so he got all of the games for free. We played around with Thexder a lot. Not as much as with the "Quest" games, but it was still a cool game. If it came out for XBLA I might grab it. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Kings Quest would be cool as remakes on the PSN or XBoxlive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
durkada Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Thanks for the heads up on Spelunker. I've bene on the fence with that one, but will probably take the plunge. I had played the original and remember enjoying it. Maybe my tastes will have changed, but I'm willing to give the remake a go -- specifically because of the multiplayer bits Like you, I only knew of Thexder because of Classic Game Room. Where was I? Not playing games during the whole 16-bit console era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I liked Spelunker, but hated that you die if you move 1 pixel crap. I didn't do well in that game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.