Toaplan #09

While I appreciate the effort of trying something different, the end result is not great at all. 

Hellfire is one of the hardest games I've played, but that's hardly a compliment since its difficulty feels consistently unfair.

First of all, the game expects you to switch to the right shooting type at the exact moment, and the issue is that there's absolutely no way you can react as fast as the game expects your first time playing, so the challenge comes down to trial and error since enemies come at you incredibly fast and projectiles can very quickly fill the screen with bullets with no way to get out if you don't destroy them in time.

Not only that, but since there are four different shooting styles and they are all designated to the same button, you'd have to press it as much as three times in order to get the one you need for a specific situation.

There's also a severe lack of imagination in the ending levels, as they heavily rely on repeating the same enemy coreography over and over again for far longer than they should.

Bosses suffer from some notorious inconsistency; some are bullet sponges, and others are a complete joke. I kid you not, the last one died in less than 15 seconds. 

There are some neat sections and sudden sparks of imagination, but they are rare occurrences and not a good representation of the game as a whole. 

Music is alright I guess.

Well, I have a lot to say.

I'll start by saying that the music is absolutely outstanding, on the same level as the absolute best Sonic games in the franchise, and the graphics are delightful. I love how they have a very unique yet Sonic-esque look; they are super detailed and stylish. 

Now, for the bad.

The game is just outright boring. I find it fascinating how only Yasuhara and the Sonic Mania team managed to understand what makes Sonic games fun: they are full of unique enemies, different kinds of platforms, gimmicks, environmental hazards, obstacles, and things that will change the way Sonic plays. Sonic and the Fallen Star has so little going on; the vast majority of the game is just a very pretty-looking running simulator. There's no neat or original ideas, nothing sets one level apart from the other besides the obvious change of the backgrounds. It's just a rough sketch of what Sonic games can and should be. I also find hilarious the complete overabundance of checkpoints since the game has quite literally nothing that can kill you.

Even the special stages are about the most uninspired thing I've ever seen; it's just a small loop that repeats over and over again until you've completed enough laps. I don't joke when I say that even the Sonic 3D blast special stages were better designed.

Now, there are a couple of things I really liked about the game: All of Sonic's power-ups have a unique shape, like the bubble one, which is now a square, the electric one, which is a triangle, and the fire one, which even plays entirely differently now, allowing you to perform a triple jump. 

Bosses are, for the most part, pretty cool too, and I definitely can see the inspiration in the advanced titles and games outside the franchise, but that's just about it. 

So, yeah, very pretty, but where's the substance?

If videogames like Cuphead or Gunstar Heroes are called 'Run and Gun', Alisia Dragoon needs to be called a 'Walk and Gun'.

I see her going at the speed of sound on the title cards before every level, yet the moment they actually start, she just moves as if she were shopping at Target.

Not only that, but the developers had to make her even more stiff by having to press the D-pad twice in the direction you want to go, which more often than not will result in her not being able to react in time and getting hit.

This is also one of those games where everything and everyone can and will hit you; not only do you constantly have to look out for all sorts of hazards, but enemies will attack you before they appear on the screen, while they are on-screen, and even once they disappear from it.

The biggest issue for me, though, is that Alisia has a giant sprite, but enemy projectiles are microscopic; they just get you from all directions without you even noticing; it feels as if you were getting your health bar drained by invisible bacteria.

So, does this game have any redeeming qualities? Well, the music is nice, the graphics are cool, and the Japanese cover art is pretty. So, yeah, there's that. 

The absolute vibes in this game, though!

Cosmic Smash is an absolute blast, a weird yet compelling tennis (puzzle?!) game that's always delivering unique and challenging levels. There are also branching paths and bonus points you can get depending on how fast you are and if you've performed one of the bazillion special trick shots the game has. 

I need to keep going with my backlog, but if there's a game I'll definitely come back to, it will be this one, since I feel like I haven't unraveled all of its mysteries

Toaplan #08

Trust me, being a massive shoot 'em up and run and gun fan, I'm well aware of the influence Truxton had in the genre and the multiple nods it has received over the years (in much better titles, may I add).

However, I couldn't enjoy playing it at all. I feel like the power-ups suck compared to other Toaplan classics, and its enemy patterns, especially the bosses ones, are all over the place; they are not very well designed and are almost unreadable at times, at least for me, of course.

The music is nice, and it has some genuinely great moments, but I would not consider it one of the company's best.

Toaplan #07

Unfortunately, I'm having a lot of problems emulating this one. Sometimes the emulator won't read the ROM, random visual glitches will pop up out of nowhere, and for some reason my controls won't work after getting refueled. 

So, sadly, those issues stained my experience with the game.

That aside, there was nothing in Rally Bike that rocked my world. It's an alright racing game with not much to offer.

It suffers from almost unbearable slowdowns, and the framerate is absolutely inexcusable. Gameplay-wise, Arthur loses his ability to shoot up and down, which makes defeating enemies way more difficult and annoying than it should be. You do have a brand new double jump, which lets you escape from troubling situations, but I still won't consider it a good trade-off. 

And yet somehow, Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts manages to balance out their flaws in every other aspect.

The graphics are gorgeous and very detailed for a 1991 game; the franchise has never looked any better on consoles, and the music is delightful from start to finish, making it one of the best video game soundtracks in the Super Nintendo's early days. 

Levels are big and inspired; there's no two quite alike, and each and every one has their own unique gimmicks, making the experience never boring. 

I still think it's not as memorable as its predecessor, but it's a really good addition to the series.

Toaplan #06

I need to move on and keep my backlog going, but Twin Cobra is the shit, miles ahead of Sky Shark, which was a huge disappointment for me.

Different shooting styles, secret stars bonus to collect, banger music, super fast action and a slightly bigger loop make all the difference. I could pop this bastard in at any time and have a wonderful time.