Wish this Set December 2023
Wish This Set is a showcase for our passionate community members to write about the games they love that aren't yet represented on the site. Is there a game you'd like to see receive an achievement set? Let us know by sending a private message to {% rauserpic RANews %}. We encourage you to explain what makes the game so special to you, and you may be featured in a future issue of RANews!
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Namco Museum Battle Collection |
PlayStation Portable | Compilation |
- Write-up by: {% rauserpic s0uth %}
When I was young, I never really played video games. We didn't have that many in the house growing up until I was a bit older. However, the one console we did have was a PSP that my dad bought for himself a while ago. He still didn't have that many games on it, but he was big into arcade games such as Dig Dug and Galaga. Because of this, he got himself the Namco Museum Battle Collection. I believe this could possibly have been one of the first video games I ever played, and it was such a blast. I would play each one of the 17 classic Namco arcade games, and really got to familiarize myself with these types of games. This is one of the reasons that I love Mappy so much, and why I like some of the more obscure arcade games such as King & Balloon and Rolling Thunder. My first developed set on RA was actually King & Balloons, and to be completely honest, I don't think I would have ever heard of that game if it weren't a part of this collection.
Not only did I love playing these classic games constantly, the collection also featured remakes of 4 of those games. Included was Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, and Rally-X arrangements, which were level based re-imaginings of very popular Namco games. It's been so long since I've played them, I don't remember specifics, but I do remember having tons and tons of fun as a kid beating all these arrangements. Each one was unique, and still felt like how the originals felt, but each one had their own twists and differences that made them so fun. Another great thing about this collection, is it has the chance to be another huge collaboration set between many developers on RA. With 21 total games, the set has the potential to be massive. I also think it would be a blast to play through these games again. This is definitely a collection worth checking out, even if it's just for the new arrangements.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Beauty and the Beast: A Board Game Adventure |
Game Boy Color | Board Game |
- Write-up by: {% rauserpic Whynot15 %}
What happens when you mash Mario Party and a classic Disney movie together onto a portable console? You get this surprisingly refreshing game concept. In Beauty and the Beast: A Board Game Adventure, you play a (surprise surprise) board game that runs like a cross of Candyland and a slimmed-down Mario Party. Rather than trying to gather stars or points, each board is a simple race to reach the end first. Each space you land on will spring a challenge, penalty, or bonus on you - often in the form of a minigame. The minigames are single player affairs more like a Game and Watch style arcade games themed after the movie rather than the competitive brawls in Mario Party. Doing well with give you bonuses to your next dice roll, giving you a better chance at quicker moves, while failing will penalize you.
The Story Mode reenacts the final stretch of the movie, having you race against a Gaston token across several boards you progressively unlock. After unlocking a board, you can play them in a more standard board game against computer opponent and/or other players in pass-and-play style. You can also play the mini-games separately in either practice mode (where clearing all games on each difficulty level unlocks more freeplay boards) or challenge mode (where the game continues until you lose and tracks your high scores).
Overall, this a fairly interesting spin on a licensed property, rather than the typical generic platformer that was popular at the time. While it lacks the variety and complexity of Mario Party, it does contain a decent amount of content for a GBC game. There are only 10 mini-games, but each one is distinct from one another and there are a fair number of unlockables and difficulty levels to keep you playing at least a little longer.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
| Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire | Sangokushi IV |
SNES | Grand Strategy |
- Write-up by: {% rauserpic cicadahuman %}
If you know Dynasty Warriors, then you already know a little about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Set in the same time period, the fall of the Han Dynasty(189-280 CE), the many iterations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms take a strategic approach to the heroic deeds of the many Dynasty Warriors characters.
The fourth title in the series, Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire, on the SNES, is considered a high water mark by many fans of the older titles. It's difficult to blame them, especially after seeing the SNES opening cutscene of Zhou Yu standing atop a Wu warship while Cao Cao's fleet and dreams of uniting China burn at Chi Bi. The artwork and the music make it one of the best SNES intros on the console.
In later titles, there are two major types of Romance of the Three Kingdom games: Officer Play, where you control a single officer, and Ruler Play, where you control a whole faction and manage the state as a whole. Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire is of the latter. You choose between famous rulers such as Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Jian, Yuan Shu, and Gongsun Zan, and battle it out for control of China. Despite which famous warlord you pick, Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire, whether on the SNES(please), PS1, or Saturn, would be a great start for the series getting some achievement love.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Romancing SaGa 2 |
SNES | Role-Playing Game, Sandbox |
- Write-up by: {% rauserpic TheMysticalOne %}
While I don’t have extensive experience with all the SaGa games, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for them. I spent hours upon hours in the three Game Boy releases that came west (called Final Fantasy Legend here), especially the second one, which took me years to be able to finally finish. This was in part due to many restarts of the game because the way you can choose characters and build them was really cool to me, by doing things in battle and you gain stats or skills accordingly.
Romancing SaGa 2 was extremely ambitious and managed to pull off its main gimmick exceedingly well. You see, there are Seven Heroes who saved the world in the past, but are now back and apparently evil, and instead of building a party and just going off and trying to save the world, you instead play the game across quite a few generations. Each generation, the new heir to your Empire takes the reign. If you get wiped out, a new heir takes your place and you'll form a new party again, and so on. One thing that's interesting is how the world changes over the course of gameplay. You have increasingly more options of where to go, and which of the main bad guys to go after, leading to a very non-linear experience. Stat increases happen as you do things in battle, and you can spark new skills in battle depending on which enemies you face and which things you have equipped. As such, no two playthroughs really feel the same. In one playthrough you might face one of the Seven Heroes early on and defeat him or her soundly, but in another, you might save them for later only to find out they've grown much more powerful.
A full set that covers the vast possibilities for this game would be amazing to behold. Something that encourages a player to try out many different things and explore the world in different orders would be ideal. This game has a ton of replayability, thanks to the way the generations work, and how your previous actions in the world affect the areas you can go to in the next. You just never fully know what kinds of companions you'll recruit next, or the battle formations you'll get to try out to overcome your foes.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Destrega |
PlayStation | Fighting |
- Writeup by: {% rauserpic AssClownKing %}
Koei and Omega Force are best known for Dynasty and Samurai Warriors, Musou action games where the entire goal is to slaughter hundreds of thousands of enemies, repeatedly, for hours upon hours at a time, occasionally using a flashy move to eliminate more of them in one shot. So imagine my surprise when I realized that these are the same guys that made one of my favourite fighting games ever!
I remember my first time with this one: It was from a Demo disc for the Official Playstation Magazine. You had one arena (a wide open Grasslands area), two tracks while fighting, and four characters you could choose from. The Fire guy was the strongest, so naturally you pick him and everyone else gets destroyed.
The story mode, while not super riveting stuff, and the voice acting is about par for the PS1 course yet still ahead of its time strictly for the amount of effort put into it. The cast of characters, while not the largest and hardly the most balanced, was still diverse and played pretty solidly. The crux for me is actually in its simplicity: Much like with Super Smash Bros. where the button combos are the same for every character and it's just the moves themselves that are different, Destrega uses a similar style. The moves will also change between physical punches and kicks, and magical long range energy beams depending on the distance when you start your combo. It's a system I have yet to see replicated all these years later.
Back in the day, when the PS3 started selling digital versions of their retro titles, I was shocked and grateful that Destrega was one of the games they put up for sale. It didn't strike me as something like a Crash Bandicoot or Final Fantasy where there would be a big demand for it. As a fan of games preservation, I saw it as a win. I also feel like with an achievement set, it would give more players a chance to give this under-appreciated, under the radar hidden gem a shot.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Space Invaders Extreme |
Nintendo DS | Shoot 'em Up |
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Space Invaders Extreme |
PlayStation Portable | Shoot 'em Up |
- Writeup by: {% rauserpic Chauckles %}
A static image really doesn't do this game justice!
Have you ever thought to yourself "Man, Space Invaders sure is cool, but I really wish it was more of a rhythm game-esque experience"? Well, sorry to say but you're a bit late. 15 years ago, Taito and their team of genius masterminds were all over that. And boy oh BOY did they nail it (twice!).
True to its name, Space Invaders Extreme takes the ayy-busting arcade game you know & love and ramps it WAY the hell up. Instead of regular boring music, you're given a simple funky beat and are asked to fill the rest with the beautiful tones of your lasers and exploding invaders, and it WORKS. It's like audiovisual crack cocaine you can play. Oh, and there are also some gameplay twists such as shielded ships and powerups, I guess.
The game released on both the DS and PSP and as far as I can tell both ports have their own pros and cons (the PSP version eking out a slight advantage with the death of DS online play), but they're similar enough that either choice is entirely valid.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Corvette |
PlayStation 2 | Racing |
- Writeup by: {% rauserpic AstrodomeKid %}
This was an arcade/sim racer published by Global Star Software and developed by Steel Monkeys. Originally released for PC in 2003 (and later ported to PS2) to celebrate the legendary namesake's 50th Anniversary, it allowed fans to drive almost every Corvette ever made at the time, including standard models, limited editions, race models, and even police models.
It has both an arcade mode and a career mode, each with an Amateur mode where you race all the standard Corvettes throughout the years and a Professional mode for the special models. Arcade mode, as you can imagine, is a no-frills mode that lets you race in any order you want, while Career mode uses a more linear path where winning races unlocks upgrades to enhance your Corvette's performance. In addition, it has five unlockable special modes where you can take on time trials, one-on-one, endurance races, etc. And by completing modes or winning every race within a specific generation in arcade or career, you will unlock trophies and movies honoring your accomplishments. And this trophy system would work great as inspiration for devs to create achievements on the site.
I wouldn't call this game a masterpiece, but I love it nonetheless, especially with all the childhood memories I have of it. If you're a Corvette fan like me or just have a thing for racing games, definitely give this one a shot.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Vegas Dream |
NES | Casino |
- Writeup by: {% rauserpic NekroG %}
I have super fond memories of playing this game on NES. You may think with casino games that if you've played one, you've played them all, and while that is usually the case, this game was different. There are multiple interactions with various guests, which may cause you to gain or lose money, invest in business opportunities, get married or become heartbroken, and end up penniless or rich. It was a classic for me then, and I am shocked it doesn't have more requests. Its sequel Vegas Stakes on SNES does have achievements, and I hope some day this one does too.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 ~Hack~ Donkey Kong Country 2 Unveiled |
SNES | 2D Platforming |
- Write-up by: {% rauserpic wolfman2000 %}
There is no question that Donkey Kong Country 2 is a classic game. Instead of playing as the famous Donkey Kong, you must rescue him. Instead of exploring your world, you are deep into enemy territory. Perhaps you've beaten the game. Perhaps you've gotten 102%. Perhaps you've mastered the art of damageless runs via removing the DK barrels from the levels. Unfortunately, I have bad news. You have not even begun to unveil everything.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Unveiled is a comprehensive level and assembly hack for DKC2. This game will test all players about the mechanics of the DKC2 engine to its fullest. How well can you play levels where you only get one Kong? How well can you dodge enemies that have been made impervious to damage? How can you access the Lost World when Klubba is even more stubborn than usual? Will the in-game tutorials help explain how to do speedrunning tricks well enough? And what's with this hack's fascination about frogs anyway?
Some may even call it a Kaizo-like or Kaizo-lite experience, and they would not be wrong. You do get 15 lives to start as compensation, so there is plenty of room to experiment. Still, those who are able to persevere and eventually master this hack will prove that they have unveiled everything not only what this hack has to offer, but also what the core engine inside offers.
| Game | Console | Genre |
|---|---|---|
 Adventure of Randar |
MSX | Role-Playing Game |
- Writeup by: {% rauserpic AmazingBaha %}
I only started messing around with MSX games a few years back. Besides a lot of untranslated games, getting it to work can be a pain (like any emulated computer). Disk swapping can be a hassle, emulating the wrong hardware or CPU speed can cause issues, and often it takes forever to get a game you just wanted to check out to boot properly. In a way it helps me appreciate computer emulation as well. One day I hope to see the C64/Amiga/DOS trinity get their spots in RA support as well, but also see how getting to that point could be difficult.
One thing that MSX has going for it is a lot of translations and Ys-likes: your Xaks, your Hydlides, and I think some of the old Dragon Slayer games are in there too. Many of them don't even have dedicated pages yet and I feel like the system could use more love. Technically it's a trilogy, but I'll start small and wish for the first Adventure of Randar.
A fantasy RPG starring the large blue dot that in the future helps save your progress in The Guardian Legend was what drew my attention at first. It looks sort of like Hydlide except encounters are random and turn based. Death is forgiving as after dying you just respawn at the last town you went to, with half the money. And despite the sluggish response you get with MSX games, the game is compact, fun as hell and doesn't overstay its welcome.
There's also a sequel that takes everything from this game and reskins it into a short and sweet space adventure. A Randar III exists as well, but instead of taking our blue hero on another completely different journey, it goes back to the fantasy setting and your character is redesigned as a human squire guy. I passed on that. The last appearance of the actual Randar that I know of brings us back to The Guardian Legend. Right now my headcanon is that his tale ends prematurely shortly after the second game by finding himself on Naju and failing to escape when it self destructs.
His story deserves to be told. His heroic deeds deserve the set to make it achievable. His memorial is long overdue and I look forward to the day someone steps in to set things right.