Last Time, at Gaming Hell Headquarters...
20th May, 2023
HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY, GAMING HELL!
Ye Gods, have we really been around for 15 years? 15 years of being on the ENEMY OF THE STATE blacklist? I guess that's just how it is. It's also been another year with a longform playthrough, sadly, but that's OK, we'll get another one of those done someday, right? In the meantime, some highlights from the past year include some games I've wanted to cover for a while like Vendetta and Wonder Momo, as well as our first 3DS game, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (just a couple months before the 3DS eShop shut down, even) and our first Mega-CD game... Prime?! Aw, man! I've also continued to stream on Twitch for some reason, as people seem to enjoy it. To all our readers and viewers who support us in our endeavours, you have our deepest thanks.
As is customary for notable anniversary years, I wanted to take a look at a game that means a lot to me. This time, it's something generally out of my wheelhouse but it's an important game to me and I've wanted to talk about it at length for years... And 'at length' is what you get, this is Gaming Hell's first no-caveats RPG, Mother / Earthbound Beginnings. I hope I manage to convey why this game's good and you should play it, so please enjoy it. In any case, here's to at least one more year of slapping our keyboards, engaging with entertainment displayed on a screen and being the strongest website on the internet! See you next update.
Finally, some Skeb art of our site mascot! Courtesy of trente30m, it's Sowertty getting some Game Gear time in:
3rd April, 2023
Yeah, yeah, we skipped April 1st this year, it's not like anyone noticed. I mean, probably. So that means we get a proper new article this month, and this time it's Pac & Pal, probably my favourite Pac-Man arcade game.
Some old pages got updated too:
* Chack'n Pop - Thanks to Lee and michelentongs, the details on Chack'n Pop's early life as a microcomputer game called Chack'n Chack have been confirmed and so the intro's been updated.
* Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA MegaMix - Notes on the Steam release, Project DIVA MegaMix+.
* Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone - All the game's DLC is now properly documented. Unlike, well, most of the other Project Diva games on here I guess.
* The NewZealand Story - Lots and lots of updates, many thanks to Kak2X including but not limited to the Commodore 64 prototype version and its connection to CJ's Elephant Antics, corrected changes to the World, old version, the Test Level in the prototype being identified, the Key and Banana items properly getting documented, the item loop being corrected in the Japan, new version and notes on the Taito Egret II Mini and Arcade Archives releases. Phew!
1st March, 2023
Alright, back to updating on the first of the month! We'll see how long that lasts. This time, we're grabbing our yo-yo and setting out to right the wrongs in '80s Japan with Sukeban Deka II, a Sega exclusive. Can't you guys get fired up?
7th February, 2023
Slowly but surely crawling back to our usual schedule, it's time finally cover a proper Space Invaders game on this site- not a spin-off, not a collection, it's Space Invaders 90, the Space Invaders game... For the '90s. I guess.
And another Skeb? Sure, why not, this time from KUROSE_iZ Sarah's making an appeal to the audience, bless.
13th January, 2023
A little late to start the new year, but hey, unlucky day, unlucky game! Let's take a look at Nintendo's stab at some street-based fighting well before that was in-vogue, Urban Champion.
And the first Skeb of the year, from 1150_coco it's Sarah playing the Famicom!
1st December, 2022
Something a little different this month, with a look at a whole bunch of games all at once. Not just any games though, these ones you download to your Mega Drive! Well, you could, anyway. It's the Sega Game Library, home of such absolute video games as Aworg: Hero in the Sky and FATAL LABYRINTH.
A couple of updates to some older pages too:
* Alisia Dragoon - Added the most recent rerelease of the game- it's now on the Switch as part of the Mega Drive app on Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pak.
* Yohko Ishino - General clean-up and fixing some incorrect facts about the Sega Game Library / SING!! Sega Game Music versions.
* About the Site - Major rewrites so it's generally less embarrassing.
I also gave the index a bit of a refresh too, moving some things around, getting rid of dead links (which always breaks my heart) and changing some of the icons. For the longest time, our old mascot was hanging around there but we don't use him anymore, it is now the age of Sarah S. Sowertty, punks! Although what was neat to see is how much her design's changed over the years...
1st November, 2022
Late for Hallowe'en as always, that's the Gaming Hell promise. So, let's look at the third instalment of Nippon Ichi's flashlight-horror series, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark. Is it a disappointment like Midnight Shadows, or a return to the excellence of Night Alone? Let's hit the haunted streets and find out!
Oh, and some funart! Morkitten drew a lovely bit of art for us for our birthday last month! My real birthday, not the site birthday.
It's Sarah S. Sowertty and The Streamer Whose Name was Stolen (my stream PNGTuber), the ultimate team! Thank you so much!
3rd October, 2022
Ganbarimasu! That's the cry of Wonder Momo engaging in another of her fierce stage performances. Can she win over the audience or is it back to the prop department for her? Only one way to find out...
A couple of updates to some older pages too:
* Phantom Breaker - All broken links fixed and the timeline slightly updated to add the fact that... Phantom Breaker: Omnia came out in the west in 2022, almost a decade after the vanilla release was meant to come out over here. An ending to the saga? Don't worry, there's still a final punchline in there...
* Miku Miku Hockey - Updated the text to reflect the fact that the game was delisted at some point. I've now hosted the AR Marker as it is no longer available online officially.
* The Fairyland Story - A version of the mythical Famciom port of the game was dumped, so I added info and screenshots.
Skeb time? Skeb time. From OKAMOTO_illust it's Sarah doing some heavy gaming!
1st September, 2022
I'm very sorry. Our first Mega-CD game on the site is PRIME, or Ultraverse: Prime if you're nasty. Look, at least it's not Wild Woody, right? There are good Mega-CD games, but boy this ain't one of 'em!! Please enjoy this sad tale of a comics publisher that didn't quite make it.
5th August, 2022
Our very first 3DS game outside of talking about ports of another game! Only took us a decade to get one of these things. This time, it's the spin-off everyone forgot about, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Read it and you'll get a nice bonus! Nah, not really, that's just a joke.
Oh, and art time! Courtesy of TEOFT, Sowertty's on the codec to someone:
1st July, 2022
Everyone's talking about the Konami brawlers this month with that new Toitles game out, but I'm looking at the real stuff instead, which is why Vendetta is up for analysis this month! This is more like a happy coincidence as I had this ready to go but I'll take it. Also, Red Earth, Pocket Fighter and Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire pages all got updated with notes on the Capcom Fighting Collection versions of these games.
... More Skeb art? Yeah, sure, let's go. First, courtesy of Messi Illustration, Sowertty's having some quality time with her Game Gear:
And courtesy of yumecan2, she's trying to keep cool in the heat:
13th June, 2022
I can't believe it, everyone in Capcom World got all small and they're mad about it, so they're fightin' as usual! So let's take a look at Pocket Fighter before they rerelease it on all major consoles!
A few more updates across the site? Well sure, why not:
* Panel de Pon - Thanks to gosokkyu, a full quote on the subject of the Killer Instinct reskin and a Japan-exclusive Paper Mario reference to the series added.
* Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru - Fixed up something in the slightly unhinged ending to this article- Wikipedia no longer lists a random Forbes article as a source and has completely removed the bit about this game's engine being reused for Link's Awakening. This was done before we went to print but never noticed. That's progress already!
* Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy - Thanks to Vladimir Ivanukovich, a major error's been fixed- Great Tank's manual scans were missing the first page!
You want to keep going...? Click here for Year 14: The Year of Friends
Or click here to leave.
