This past weekend I spent more than a few hours on my Wii. No I wasn’t playing the new Zelda game, or whatever crapware average game company “A” has put out this week. Instead, I spent the time playing an age old classic by the name of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. A relatively unknown RPG developed by Squaresoft (now Square Enix) and published by none other than Nintendo.

So here’s something that we don’t normally tak about here on AgedGamer. One of Activision’s former RTS games Dark Reign has been given a new release, but this is not for the PC or a release on GOG.com as you might imagine. This one was developed for and released on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Indie Games channel which isn’t exactly known for retro games.

Speaking of GOG.com (we talk about them fairly often here) it looks like their weekend sale could be quite the boon to those of you with a strategy gaming itch that needs scratching as right now, through the weekend, all Staretgy First games are 50% off on the site. That’s quite the sale for quite a few really good strategy games.

Command and Conquer, one of the very best and greatest real time strategy classics. Along with Warcraft 2 and the original Red Alert, I’d say C&C is easily one of the best and most premiere RTS today. In fact, they helped pioneer the entire genre (not top mention Dune). In any case, I guess what I’m trying to say is that the game itself is really fun, especially for those who enjoy RTS games.

Looks like SNK just can’t stay away from the hardware business. After releasing and failing on their Neo-Geo system and, subsequently, their Neo-Geo Pocket which was discontinued in 2001. Still, it looks like they hope a return to the hardware business is is just what the doctor ordered according to a leak by Japanese game blog Famicon Plaza.

So we’ve all heard about the upcoming Kid Icarus: Uprising game for the Nitnendo 3DS. Hell, we’ve been hearing about it for a half year prior to the 3DS’s launch. What we’re interested in, however, is the 3D remake of the classic version of the game which has now been announced as being a pre-order bonus for those who pre-order Uprising.

Legend of Zelda holds a special place in a lot of gamers hearts. It does mine, anyway. Aside from the original Mario Brothers on NES I can’t think of another game that was more memorable than the original Zelda. In fact, I would go so far as to call it one of the best retro games ever made… that’s how much I adore it.

Some minor news for you guys this morning as it appears that the venerable Doom franchise has made its triumphant return to the XBLA channel today for 400 MS Points. If you haven’t ever experienced the original Doom saga (really?) or simply want the chance to play it on your television this is a great addition to pick up that’s also not too terribly expensive.

Great news for classic gaming fans as one of the very best, cream of the crop retro PC games is hitting GOG.com this Thursday. I am, of course, speaking of Syndicate the real-time isometric tactical strategy game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1993. This is easily one of those games that’s up there with the likes of X-Com and Jagged Alliance for best tactical strategy games.

It’s long been known at this point that the Sony Playstation that we know and love today was never actually meant to have existed in that form. In fact, the original plan was for Sony and Nintendo to combine forces and created one super console (or something) to rule them all. Well that idea fell through and the rest is, as we say, history.