DeviousJinjo
1992
A game that needed a remake, deserved a remake, and got a remake.
The best Contra game.
The problem with Monkey Island 2 is that it's puzzles are straight up bullshit.
Incredible for its time and still holding up well, but I can't in good conscience still call it the best of 2D Zelda. To do so would be to sell the likes of Link Between Worlds and the Oracle games a bit too short, and Link to the Past a bit too long. Its dungeons have cool ideas but haven't quite reached their final forms. Link's sword swing feels adequate, but inferior to that of the games to follow and even to Zelda 1, at least to me. For better or for worse, Link to the Past began the redefinition of items in the Zelda franchise and with that redefinition brought both the potential of puzzles and the shackles linearity.
1991
People favor Sonic 2 heavily over Sonic 1, but I don't see much of a difference. This game deserves almost as much praise.
1990
This game is sick AF, play this shit.
1990
Truly underrated. Basically a pretty good Zelda game.
1990
I first played F-Zero a few years ago on the SNES classic. I didn't expect to spend much time with it, but I was wrong, this game is dope. I am not generally a fan of these "2D" racing games, but this one really does pull it off.
1990
SMB3 was not a fluke. It was not an accident. Super Mario World is living prove that Nintendo could absolutely just do it again whenever they wanted. Super Mario World is only worse than SMB3 because it has too many ghost houses. That's it. It's beautiful and smooth and clever and whimsical and it has one of the best soundtracks of all time.
They did it again, and it BORED them. Nintendo stopped doing this because they'd already won. The only thing left to challenge them was a third dimension, and they'd soon demolish that too.
They did it again, and it BORED them. Nintendo stopped doing this because they'd already won. The only thing left to challenge them was a third dimension, and they'd soon demolish that too.
1990
FF3 is in love with its job system and gimmicks just a touch too much. The game is so eager for the player to alter their party make-up to get around certain challenges that the player realistically ends up with little freedom to explore the systems on their own terms. The end of the game is a ludicrous gauntlet, and no matter how dishonorable you may find it, I strongly encourage you to use save-states. The final boss is a nonsense numbers check which all but requires a party exclusively made up of the two "secret" optional jobs, almost rendering it a "gimmick boss" like so many others in the game. FF3 is gorgeous and sounds incredible, as all of these games do, but rare is the day when I reach for FF3 instead of FF1 or FF5.
1990
The episodic story concept is an interesting spin and it's done very well, though some episodes are better than others. Pacing is brisk and frequent party changes keep things more engaging than a lot of other Dragon Quest games. The characters are memorable, and in what is a very rare case for Dragon Quest, the antagonist is actually interesting.
The original Monkey Island is decently funny, charming, and the puzzles aren't terrible.
1989
Despite being one of the only NES games I owned as a child, this almost never got played. There is a reason for that.
1989
I was actually shocked by how trash Golden Axe is. It's an EXTREMELY simplistic beat-em-up.
1989
The boobeam trap alone is enough to keep Mega Man 2 from a perfect score, it's also a bit disappointing how the robot masters in this one just instantly disintegrate if you touch them with their weakness. Metal Blades are genuinely overpowered in a way that detracts from things. It's the easiest, breeziest Mega Man, and if I'm looking to throw one on just for a few hours of quick messing around, it's gonna be this one. The visuals of the stages and the soundtrack are just so compelling that people are willing to overlook the flaws it has.