CozartMonopoly
2023
I enjoyed it, enjoyed it plenty with friends at that, but honestly the progression here isn't too exciting to want to make more than 1 world and replay it the same way Minecraft's potential has to offer.
I was expecting this game to be more wasteland and machine backgrounds but this game really caught me off-guard with the very beautiful sprite work. the shop system is cool but the game starts droughting the currency as you progress and I'm not too content knowing that I'm probably supposed to be saving up all the early game zenny for a more optimal experience.
the gameplay itself isn't too crazy but I find it pretty neat that the game gives you options on your loadout that's also dependent on the type of plane you bring. I could believe someone if they told me they were able to beat this game off a sole quarter cause it seems very forgiving outside of the boss fights. I think its unintentionally funny that the most unrealistic thing about this game isn't the air force shooting through buildings or the ability to let you shoot civilian vehicles but the fact that the 35 premium rockets go for under 6 figures in the buy screen. it's kind of wild to think that when this game released in 1990, a military having technology to have fighter jets equipped with rockets that assist you by shooting their own rockets before detonating themselves unto the target was considered science fiction until the US military introduced something with a similar approach a decade later.
It's a pretty novel concept I just don't think the overall gameplay is satisfying. It makes sense that this was one of the few titles they rebooted later on because the gimmick here has plenty of potential. I've heard of Bionic Commando for so long that it seems weird to think that it's a spin off of a generic WW2 shooter that itself comes from a style of games Capcom isn't interested in doing anymore
I need to know who was mixing robot aliens, general science fiction, and Greek mythology at Capcom because they were cooking here. I love certain design elements here like your character flying to fight the robot boss fights and the text explaining how much of the game you have left.
man I was so used to playing the older catalog in this collection that I was in genuine awe seeing an arcade game of theirs with plenty of frames in the animations. a game that lets you reflect enemy attacks in a bullet hell instantly getting the best rating possible. plenty of cool sci-fi design to be seen here.
I like the game's premise but the gameplay is a bit to strict (mostly with input layout on controller feeling awful to use). I imagine there's a very specific way to play this game to make it infinitely easier however my impressions of it is that its tough as hell, a challenging game for the right person it's just not my thing personally. the devs making you play this game twice just so you can see "the end" is crazy why would they do that to someone.
if this game didn't come out when Capcom's games reset the stage upon death the rating would probably be higher up cause its pretty nice overall aesthetically and gameplay wise. the pinball sequence caught me off guard never seen a side scrolling shooter do that before
I was drawn in by charming visuals and the gameplay was pretty much what I had expected until it randomly decided to throw a curveball the last 2 levels. the game just decides it wants to be strict and punishing even though the gameplay doesn't feel polished enough to warrant asking for frame perfect platforming at all so I stopped playing on Normal at that point and finished on Easy.
As basic as the overall gameplay is I think this is miles better than 1942. the section where the grunts are firing at you from under the bridge where you cant see them from was definitely doing its job at getting people's quarters I bet lol
pretty straightforward with decent visuals, after like 3 minutes you pretty much see everything there is to offer here.
if this game didn't have such inconsistent controls this would easily be a perfect rating cause it's genuinely the only fun and memorable older cabinet in this collection without a doubt
Pretty cool game to play when you consider it's impact within Street Fighter for sure. as a beat em up the game can be pretty tough, I'm glad I dont have to spend quarters on a game with controls that feel a bit slow and boss fights that will abuse the fact that the player is nowhere near as capable as catching up to them.
2023
This game enjoys being relentless but that's where half the fun and thrill comes from. Very tailored to make a group session with friends entertaining.
this is definitely from the guys who made Ghosts n Goblins cause the game enjoys throwing things at you just to throw things at you. visually the game appears to have its roots on more comedic Akira Toriyama manga aesthetic which is why, which I'm assuming, when they transferred the game to the West they removed the "bikini-clad" (shoutout to this collection for having game manuals cause I genuinely wouldn't have know about this otherwise) ladies that give you bonus points for saving them because from a glance this game could come off as childlike.