Rising up in a comparatively unremarkable mid-sized city, it’s straightforward to change into satisfied that nothing cool ever occurs the place you reside. Save for that point Gladiators stars got here to open the native department of Blockbuster Video, even the movie star sightings are mundane – Glenn Hoddle out for a stroll with the household, or Ray Winstone purchasing in Tesco. That modified in my late teenagers after I had a good friend whose “my dad makes videogames” story was really true. He’d labored with Julian Gollop on video games like Laser Squad, the Rebelstar sequence and Magic & Mayhem. We’d by no means talked about video games a lot as a result of we had been finding out politics collectively, so I didn’t be taught this till we’d already recognized one another for just a few years, and I want he’d instructed me sooner.

You see, round that point I used to be actually having fun with Rebelstar: Tactical Command, the anime-style revival of the model that felt prefer it had quite extra in frequent with X-COM than the unique 8-bit video games. The sport had struggled to achieve an viewers because of the rise of the DS and shortly went on clearance, so I’d picked it up for simply £6 model new. Out of the blue that sensible cut price felt virtually like theft. By no means thoughts that Namco had printed it, the those who made it had been those who I may conceivably stumble upon on the street, and I’d purchased it for a worth that in all probability barely coated manufacturing.

I resolved that the most effective factor I may do was champion it, and I nonetheless like to modify individuals on to it right now. Whereas the Advance Wars video games are the turn-based technique titans on the Sport Boy Advance, Rebelstar is totally different sufficient to enrich them quite than competing with them. Beside the plain distinction in presentation, success relies upon much more on correctly equipping your squad for the mission at hand, and bringing issues all the way down to infantry fight means that you can put money into your particular person troopers far more carefully. If you happen to’re on the lookout for an engrossing single-player technique sport to occupy your time, this can be a sturdy choice that’s continuously ignored.