Retro Wrap-Up: Joust Edition

The reason why the Operation Rainfall Retro Commercial Research Team (in other words, me) started this Retro Wrap-Up segment every week was because of how much I enjoy the magical world of old video game commercials. They were clever, they were imaginative, and they were endlessly entertaining. While there are some commercials and advertisement campaigns that embody that sense of fun, most video game commercials these days tend to take themselves way too seriously. You wouldn’t see a commercial for Skyrim involving the Dragonborn in a modern-day office situation, or anything like that.

That said, in terms of downright weirdness, Japan always got the upper hand. Hang on, did I say “always”? Well, there was one commercial that was just so bizarre that Japan would look at it and say “The heck were they smoking!?” That commercial was for Joust on the Atari 2600, which is the subject of this week’s Retro Wrap-Up. It’s longer than your average commercial, but it’s…um…well, words cannot possibly describe what you’re about to see.

Here are the highlights from this past week.

Phil Schipper recaps the events that transpired in his latest playthrough of Tales of Symphonia with his friends.

Breath of Fire 6 was announced for PC and mobile platforms. Oh dears.

Randy Thompson reviews Witch and Hero, Jeff Neuenschwander reviews Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo, Arik Yates reviews Dragon’s Crown, Josh Speer reviews Urban Trial Freestyle, Justin Graham reviews Dynasty Warriors 8 and Jonathan Higgins reviews Tails Adventure in this week’s Games of the Past review.

Rune Factory 4’s release was pushed back until sometime in Autumn of this year.

Jeff Neuenschwander talks about GameLoading: Rise of the Indies, a documentary that chronicles the rise of the indie gaming scene, in this week’s Crowdfunding Spotlight.

Monochromia is confirmed to be coming to the Wii U instead of the Xbox One.

Josh Speer talks about the Mega Man X character Zero in this installment of Building Character.

Monster Hunter Frontier G will be coming to the Wii U and PS3 in Japan later this year.

Jared Cyhowski reviews Whisper of the Heart in this week’s Anime of the Past review.

The Wonderful 101 is confirmed to have both English and Japanese voiceover options.

Jeff Neuenschwander responds to more comments from you in this installment of Jeff’s Musings.

Sadly, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy’s release date will be pushed back to 2014.

The Downpour Podcast crew brings all the discussions about music, visuals, narrative, and gameplay (in the case of video games) together to talk about examples of games and anime that excel in these areas in this week’s Downpour Podcast.

Project DIVA F was given a release date, as well as nifty pre-order bonuses.

Nintendo decides to add an official Earthbound announcement community onto Miiverse. This means that we’re going to see a Mother 3 announcement soon, right? R…right!?

Finally, Steve Baltimore has put together a list of current and upcoming games for you to get if you’re still on the fence about getting a PlayStation Vita.