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EA Replay Hands-On

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  • PSP
By Jeff Gerstmann, GameSpot, Posted Oct 6, 2006 10:49 pm GMT

Some great games from the vaults at Electronic Arts are getting compiled onto one UMD this October.

While the roots of Electronic Arts go all the way back to 1982 and games for the Apple II and Atari home computers, the modern era of EA really got going during the 16-bit days. The Sega Genesis and, later, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System housed some great games with EA's name on them, and now the company is working on a compilation that brings some of those games together on one disc for the PSP.

Remember when games were played in only two dimensions?

Remember when games were played in only two dimensions?

Of course, some of the games are better known and loved than others. There are 14 games on the disc, including the isometric helicopter Genesis games Desert Strike and Jungle Strike. There aren't any licensed sports games like Madden or NBA Live, but you'll get the classic Mutant League Football. Racing is covered by the first three games in the Road Rash series, which is a motorcycle racing game that lets you punch, kick, and swing weapons at the other riders. The Genesis games map the A, B, and C buttons to square, X, and circle, respectively.

Some SNES emulation is also present with Ultima VII, Syndicate, and two Wing Commander games. These are pretty faithful versions, but unlike many of the Genesis games on the disc, most of these SNES games were originally PC games that were better on the PC. So you'll be getting the sort-of-crippled console versions of these games instead of the classics you might remember.

So far, the version we've seen appears to play many of the games just fine, though the audio is clearly unfinished, and a few games, like Ultima VII, don't seem to be working just yet. The options and menus are in, however, and you'll be able to save your progress in any game at any time--which should get around some of the password entry hassles found in the original games--and select from either the original 4:3 aspect ratio or a stretched 16:9 view.

Look for some unlockable supplementary goodies to accompany the 14 classics found in Replay.

Look for some unlockable supplementary goodies to accompany the 14 classics found in Replay.

In addition to the games themselves, it appears that the package will include unlockable artwork for many, if not all, of the games in the collection. Also, though not available in the version we saw, there is an ad hoc menu intended to allow for wireless multiplayer play. Considering games like Mutant League Football were great multiplayer games, we're hoping the ad hoc functionality works well.

While not every game on the list is something to write home about, so far there seem to be enough great 16-bit games in this collection to make it worth watching. The final version of EA Replay is scheduled to be released at the end of the month.

38 Comments

  • gautam3

    Posted Dec 3, 2006 11:44 am GMT

    sweet! punch guys on a motorbike!

  • --michael--

    Posted Oct 27, 2006 10:16 am GMT

    y spend money on a game with bad graphics on psp? some ppl might want this but this is not what a psp is for

  • Pork_Lord

    Posted Oct 25, 2006 6:12 am GMT

    Road Rash and the Strike games will bring back some memories.

  • Robnoxious

    Posted Oct 24, 2006 12:33 pm GMT

    Not a bad set but I'd rather it has Mutant League Hockey over Football.

  • nightshadeA

    Posted Oct 20, 2006 6:54 pm GMT

    mutant league football was nothing but a parody of madden 92/93

  • arawk

    Posted Oct 16, 2006 8:58 pm GMT

    they never really sold well while i was working at gamestop, but with this comp and the sega genesis collection, i can see a lot of people jumping on these games. I cant wait to play mutant league football and desert strike in between classes.

  • Dualmask

    Posted Oct 13, 2006 7:36 am GMT

    Mutant League Football was a great game. And unlike Madden or other pro licensed titles, it's timeless. No worrying about outdated rosters here (maybe outdated gameplay, but meh.)

    But really, do these retro game compilations sell well? I've never bought one...but I guess they must since companies keep releasing them.

  • Romayo83

    Posted Oct 10, 2006 10:39 am GMT

    Road Rash! yes! the Strike series games...meh there okay..other ones such as syndicate were good. Mutant league football was fun but wheres the hockey??? lets hope they added that one too.

  • _Sam_

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 6:19 pm GMT

    it looks alright

  • madgamer2000

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 3:58 pm GMT

    mutant league football!!!! and road rage?!?! sounds like quite the compillation. I wish EA didnt own mutant league football though, as with their madden and EA street franchises going strong, I doubt we'll ever see a true sequel to it for next gen systems. It could make a great arcade NFL blitz on steoids type game.

  • anamnawshad

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 10:09 am GMT

    Cool. I loved teh Sega games

  • n_ii_nty

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 9:48 am GMT

    hmmm maybe EA was better in the old days...

  • NinjaFoot

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 9:42 am GMT

    Good deal. Compilation games are what I like, especially on psp.

  • sphinx-shadow

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 8:33 am GMT

    sounds cool

  • GAMECAMILLER

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 8:09 am GMT

    I hope the final product is good.

  • old_speccer

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 7:15 am GMT

    Old School! Sounds great.

  • BigDaveyDogz

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 7:13 am GMT

    Where is General Chaos!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!! >

  • gaiden1024

    Posted Oct 9, 2006 4:54 am GMT

    Sounds awesome , I love all the old console games. I guess you can see many people feel this way from the development of all the snes games and genesis games being emulated on the psp already (either via dgen , snes9x) or actual umd's by companys

  • dillyhox

    Posted Oct 8, 2006 8:59 pm GMT

    Jungle Strike and Desert Strike are totally worth it...so is Road Rash 1-3... along with Wing Commander 1 and 2....Syndicate is great....thats 7 out of 14. and it should be $19.99

  • N15PCA

    Posted Oct 8, 2006 7:53 pm GMT

    I just hope this game is not 40 dollars like every other PSP game when it first comes out! It should be more like 20 dollars. Then I well buy it.

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