Video – 4 Things You Did Not Know About Golden Axe

This article was originally posted on February 5, 2013 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

Video – 4 Things You Did Not Know About Golden Axe

Anyhow: after a break of over a year, I finally got back to make a video about games! In this one, some curiosities and myths unveiled about Golden Axe – including that nonsense about the prisoners that broke out recently.

The idea was not to do a thorough review; here things are much faster, muuuuuuch faster (in Portuguese), trying to show some interesting facts. I believe that there will be other opportunities to do something more meticulous about this great game, then let's let it aside for now.

By the way, I did a kind of "reboot" on my channel. Under the pseudonym "Virtua Gamer" I want to do more videos, proceed professionally, you know? So, I count on your support. Comments are warmly welcome, as well as suggestions for future agendas, etc!

Click here to watch the video on Amara website

Ah, and if you liked that stuff there, don't forget to like it, share, bookmark, blah, blah, blah. If you want to swear too, bring it on!

Click here to watch other videocast episodes from Passagem Secreta!

Tec Toy: The Star That Rises

Tec Toy is a well known company in Brazil among the gamers who lived the 80s and 90s. It was responsible for the establishment of Sega's leadership in the Brazilian video game market during this period. Today I bring to you a 1992 article from the Brazilian magazine Exame about the rise of the company, which was heading to the leadership of the toy market, surpassing its rival: Estrela.

Click on the picture above to enlarge it
Download: Front cover

Above you can see the cover of the magazine. Its original measurements are: 21 cm x 27.5 cm. The pictures shown here were scanned with the resolution of 1200 ppi (pixels per inch), and have the measurement of 3500 x 4570 pixels. Check out more details about it and the cover story in the following lines!

"What I Played in 2011" Meme – Part 1: Video Review of RayForce

This article was originally posted on December 15, 2011 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

"What I Played in 2011" Meme – Part 1: Video Review of RayForce

And, being part of the meme organized by Marvox Brasil (in Portuguese) and Ighor from Videogame.etc (in Portuguese, archived), I present you another videocast from Passagem Secreta! Instead of preparing a text about like most other blogs will do, I just ended up arranging an excuse to make another episode of reviews in video, what do you think? By the end of the year, I will also present two or three games I played well in 2011, and in the first part of this series, I talk about a game that inevitably would have a review here: RayForce, for Arcade and Sega Saturn! Also known as Gunlock or Layer Section or Galatic Attack, the game definitely caught me throughout this year by a number of factors: stupendous soundtrack (yes, I picked up the game at first because I couldn't stop listening to its songs), challenging difficulty, very good retro graphics and a decent fast arcade experience that would not hold me, since this was not a very favorable year to exercise my gaming. Anyway, let's go to the video then. If you enjoyed it, be sure to like, bookmark, or subscribe to the channel to watch the other videos in this series!

Click here to watch the video on Amara website

And be sure to follow other blogs that are also adhering to the Meme. If your blog is not on the list, just curse me here in the comments and I will add it. The list is as follows:

½ Orc (in Portuguese, archived)

Cosmic Effect (in Portuguese)

Gagá Games (André Breder) (in Portuguese)

Gagá Games (Orakio Rob, "o Gagá") (in Portuguese)

Gamer Caduco (in Portuguese)

GLStoque (in Portuguese, archived)

Marvox Brasil (in Portuguese)

Museum dos Games (in Portuguese)

Point Games Brasil (in Portuguese, archived)

QG Master (in Portuguese)

Santuário do Mestre Ryu (in Portuguese)

Super Tecnicamente (in Portuguese)

The Classics Games (in Portuguese)

Click here to watch other videocast episodes from Passagem Secreta!

Video Review: Typing of the Dead – Exterminating Zombies with the Power of… Typing

This article was originally posted on October 5, 2011 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

Video Review: Typing of the Dead – Exterminating Zombies with the Power of… Typing

And here, out of nowhere, arises another episode from Passagem Secreta's Videocast, that is always a huge success with the public and critics, plus it conquers a new generation of fans with every video released. This time, the game rated is called Typing of the Dead, that, in a nutshell, is a version of House of the Dead II that changes the gun for a… keyboard! That's it! Now, to kill zombies, you must type the words that appear in the shortest time possible. It is an ideal game for those who enjoy dilacerating zombies, practice typing, or procrastinate during work hours! In fact, the game was so successful in Japan that soon after they launched a special version that would send your result in the game for a cadastral database of jobs as a "résumé" for companies that recruited professional typists.

You became curious? Then watch this review and laugh at the awful dubbing of the game, the rough words that appear on the screen, and of the funny voice of this guy talking over the 'ibages', wanting to be a reporter. And be sure to comment, of course!

Click here to watch the video on Amara website

And for those who might be wondering, it's likely that the next video will not be released any time soon. The capitalist system requires that I study and work at the same time, what changed my routine for the whole week. Not to mention my notebook, whose graphics card is melting from the inside out… I need to fix that here. Be warned: Do not buy anything from HP! Unless you are also in need of an iron or a toaster…

Click here to watch other videocast episodes from Passagem Secreta!

Videocast – Sonic CD, the Most Controversial of the Franchise?

This article was originally posted on June 20, 2011 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

Videocast – Sonic CD, the Most Controversial of the Franchise?

It could not be different: Sonic CD won the poll held (in Portuguese), with more than 50% of the votes! In the second place, with only 13%, Knuckles Chaotix, and in the last place, Sonic R, for the Sega Saturn.

Check out the results of the poll

For a moment I had thought that people were voting just to screw me, due to a recent post that showed I was not very favorable to the game (in Portuguese). But then I realized that the game deserves to be loved, because I have played enough to understand it in another way, and I had much fun with it.

Videocast: Road Rash Retrospective

This article was originally posted on May 28, 2011 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

Videocast: Road Rash Retrospective

More than 10 hours and 100 GB of crude pictures. Approximately 15 hours editing. 8 hours uploading. 5 minutes gargling. All that hard effort to provide you another Videocast for Passagem Secreta!

This time, the idea is to review each game of this franchise that is missed: Road Rash, one of the coolest racing games from past generations. Therefore, the video turned out to be the longest so far, with 20 minutes in length – which is still pretty fast, is not it? But rest assured, because before boredom fall over the montage, I bring a joke to break the ice! Needless to talk about the roller coaster pace of the edition, indeed!

Since YouTube let me grounded for six months due to an infamous video of Street Fighter, I had to split the Videocast into two parts to fit the 15 minutes limit on the website. Alternatively, however, I uploaded an uninterrupted version on Vimeo, for those who want to watch it there.

There you go:

Click here to watch the video on Amara website

Video Review – Streets of Rage Remake

This article was originally posted on April 6, 2011 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

Video Review – Streets of Rage Remake

One of the most acclaimed projects of the Internet had its final version released last day 3, for the surprise and happiness of the retrogaming fans. In relation to the previous games, the game doesn't have less features than they, quite the opposite: is the closest it can get from a definitive version of the series, bringing together the best of each game in the franchise and adding new elements to the gameplay that just add fun and longevity to the remake. And the best of all: it's free!

Thousands of reviews and comments acclaiming the game will come with time, so there is nothing better than present they with the specialty of this house: through a video review! To those who are already with laziness to download (because of its "gigantic" 200 MB of size) or playing it in front of a computer, watch this video and discover why this game is a real must-play!

Videocast – Sonic and Blade Runner: the Similarities (Or Coincidences)

This article was originally posted on February 8, 2011 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

Videocast – Sonic and Blade Runner: the Similarities (Or Coincidences)

Do you like of "four"? Because this is the number of the newest episode of the Passagem Secreta Videocast! All right, I know the joke was horrible and many of you stop reading right there, but let's go ahead.

In this video we decided to extend the controversy regarding the post that compared the similarities between Sonic and Blade Runner (in Portuguese), published last year and that generated some controversy. To give hints about the music theory part, we invited none other than Eric Fraga, from Cosmic Effect (in Portuguese), to clarify all the similarities that the song of Scrap Brain Zone have with the main theme of the film, composed by Vangelis.

I hope you like the silly jokes, the performance of Cosmonal, and the usual narration. By the way, do not forget to comment if you still believe that this all is a big folly, or if you were blessed with the wisdom and the knowledge that only this Videocast could provide you!

Moreover, as always, I would like to thank Eric Fraga himself, for ceding his image and his time to participate here. I hope he liked this "joint contribution".

Click here to watch the video on Amara website

So? Do you really think that the Misters Naka and Nakamura tried to "homage" the film? Do not forget to give your opinion (please, for God's sake!).

Previous videos:
Retro Children's Day: World of Illusion Video Review
The Most Bizarre Endings of Mortal Kombat 4 (Nintendo 64)
Videocast – Galaxy Force Retrospective

Videocast – Galaxy Force Retrospective

This article was originally posted on January 11, 2011 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

Videocast – Galaxy Force Retrospective

This is the third video I make to the blog… Consequently, I can state that we have a Videocast, right? Well, we will see! The idea is to make at least one video per month related to some topic little known in gaming, which would deserve at least a little bit of prominence among the crowd of the Retrogamer Folliesphere. But of course I can not promise anything, all the more so because video editing is very exhaustive, although pleasant. Without further ado, let's get straight to the topic.

Galaxy Force is a game quite remembered among fans of Sega. But I doubt very much that few have actually played the arcade, that is light years ahead of ports released for the Mega Drive and Master System, which are the most popular. In fact, there should be S.S.T. Band fans here who barely have any idea of how this game is (#ThereISaidIt). In the following video, I point out the series, as well as deal with these terrible ports, with some trivia and jokes.

Special Video – The Most Bizarre Endings of Mortal Kombat 4

This article was originally posted on December 13, 2010 in the Passagem Secreta (in Portuguese) blog, and with the permission from the author (Rafael Fernandes) and the founder of the blog (Marcos Valverde), I publish it here translated into English.

Special Video – The Most Bizarre Endings of Mortal Kombat 4

With the expectations around the release of Mortal Kombat 9, what about remembering when the series was still switching from 2D to 3D? This video is an edition I made selecting the most horrendous endings present in the conversion of Mortal Kombat 4 from the arcade to the Nintendo 64. Due to memory limitations of the console, the opening and ending in CG had to be replaced with rendered animations in real time, in order to save the extremely limited space of the cartridges. So, things we witness in Mortal Kombat 4 are what we can say of the greatest representatives in graphics of the 32/64-bit era: few polygons, low resolution textures, animations deprived of characteristics, between other visual errors and failures that, although there are plenty, impressed us all somehow. So, press play and (re)discover how things evolved – a lot! – to where we are today!

Click here to watch the video on Amara website

If possible, be sure to comment if you also liked it, in other words, if I should do more videos like this or if I have to urgently retire! As this is my second adventure in video – the first you could check out on Children's Day – I am still collecting opinions!