Take me on home to the asylum,
Never alone in the asylum
Anarchy ruled,
It was wild!
But through it all,
You never smiled
Joke’s on you,
I’m in your head
Look who’s laughing now!

Remember in Arkham City?
I killed your girl, so… pretty.
That was the night you let me die,
But when you looked me in the eye
That’s when I knew we’d be together,
Look who’s laughing now!

I’m stuck in your head and I’m laughing,
I fill you with dread, and I can’t stop laughing,
Your parents are dead, and I can’t stop laughing! HAHAHAH
What else can I do?
Now I’m part of you!

I am the clown prince of crime,
And we’ve had a hell of a time!
you’re part of me,
I’m part of you
Now there’s nothing we can’t do!
I can’t wait till I’m in control
Who’ll be laughing then?

I drove you round the bend and I’m laughing,
I’m with you till the end, and I can’t stop laughing,
I killed all your friends and I can’t stop laughing! HAHAHAH

Oh yeah!

Think I can taste your fear,
Now that my time is near
I’m in your blood, I’m so alive,
I only wish you’d let me drive
It won’t be long till I make you kill
Who’ll be laughing then?

Barbara’s dead, and I’m laughing,
Jason Todd’s dead, and I can’t stop laughing,
I’m even dead and I can’t stop laughing HAHAHAH
What else can I do?
Now I’m part of you.

I drove you round the bend and I’m laughing
I’m with you till the end, and I can’t stop laughing
I killed all your friends and I can’t stop laughing! HAHAHAHA
I’m cock-a-doodle-do!
All because of you.

I’m stuck in your head and I’m laughing
I fill you with dread, and I can’t stop laughing
Your parents are dead, and I can’t stop laughing! HAHAHA

I’m stuck in your head and I’m laughing,
I fill you with dread, and I can’t stop laughing,
Your parents are dead, and I can’t stop laughing!
What else can I do?

Now I’m part of you.

Im not a big fan of Telltale or this style of game, and Borderlands only barely works in this format - but Tales From The Borderlands is captivating for one real reason: it is meta-commentary. I have no clue if its on purpose but Rhys running around haunted by the literal ghost of Handsome Jack seems to curiously mirror how the series struggled to get out from under the shadow of Jack itself. Its a very poetic observation.

Its even more poetic considering that it doesnt seem like its worked out for Borderlands as a franchise quite as well as it did for Rhys. I also personally mourn the loss of mystique for Hyperion, made all too mortal and comprehensible by the events of Tales (made partially as a companion to the events of Pre-Sequel). Something of a bittersweet feeling emerges here: yes, Tales From The Borderlands is entertaining but its also…. not really Borderlands.

At this point in 1992, the Contra franchise was killing it, not only having two successful titles for both arcades and the NES, as well as one moderately successful one for the Game Boy, but it also had a brand spanking new installment for the SNES that, needless to say, was praised for being the best game in the series up to that point, as well as possibly the best Contra game ever made. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Konami was developing a separate game for the NES in Japan known as Arc Hound. Not much was known about this title, but it was originally supposed to come out sometime before Contra III, and based on screenshots from magazines, you could tell that it was pretty much just another Contra game in all but name. However, somewhere along the way, the game was ultimately canceled in Japan, but would see the light of day exclusively in North America, where it would take on the Contra name, thus resulting in the third and final game in the Contra series for the NES, Contra Force.

Out of all the early Contra games, this is definitely the one that is the least talked about, as most people, even fans of Contra, probably don’t know it exists. I myself didn’t know about it until earlier this year when I saw an incomplete playthrough of it, and judging from what I saw, I was pretty unimpressed. It looked like every other Contra game, except somehow worse, and it definitely made me not wanna touch it any time in the near future. But hey, it has been almost a year since I initially saw that playthrough, so who knows, maybe my past judgment was a little harsh. After all, you don’t know how good a game is until you actually try it for yourself, right? So, I tried it and… yeah, it is very mediocre. It is not necessarily terrible by any means, and it does do some things differently from the other titles, but if you have already played either of the other NES Contra titles, then you have no reason to seek out this one.

The story is to take down an evil terrorist organization threatening the city of… Neocity, so hey, if you didn’t like killing aliens, but you LOVE killing terrorists, then this game is right up your alley, the graphics are pretty good, but then again, they look about as good as any other game on the NES at the time, and when compared to the previous two games for the system, it isn’t much of an upgrade, the music is also pretty good, being on the same level as the previous two games, but it is pretty standard stuff for the series, so no reason to go any further then this, the contra is about the same as every other Contra game on the system, but with some extra features that don’t really change things up too mechanically, so no need to worry, and the gameplay is pretty much what you would expect from Contra at this point, but with a few more bells and whistles added on to it.

The game is a run ‘n gun platformer, where you take control of either Burns, Irons, Smith, and… Beans (well, that’s the worst name for a military soldier I have ever heard), take on a set of five levels, ranging from the regular side-scrolling ones and the top-down ones seen in Super C and Operation C, and they are varied, but blend in enough with each other without much of a difference, take out many different soldiers that will try to take you down along the way, gather plenty of powerups to help you upgrade yourself and get an advantage on the enemies along the way, and take on several bosses that will test your skill in either standing completely still and shooting in one direction, or actually providing a challenge that will keep you on your toes. Yes, it is very standard stuff, especially for a Contra game, but there are some things that make this game stand out from the others, even if these elements aren’t too exciting.

As mentioned before, you do get powerups in this game, which, rather than upgrading you immediately, they instead work in a similar way to Gradius, where it highlights a bar at the bottom left that you can activate any time you want. To be honest, I prefer this style of upgrades much more than the typical style in Contra, as it allows you to choose the powerups you want rather than accidentally grabbing one you didn’t want. Unfortunately, the upgrades themselves are pretty lackluster, such as one that allows more bullets on screen, one that allows you to hold down the button for constant fire (which isn’t available right from the start, WHY), and one where you are invulnerable to damage when jumping. But, there is more firepower to be found with the other characters, who each have their own individual stats, and who you can swap with anytime, and take control of in the stages. Not only that, but you can also temporarily spawn a partner in with you to help you out during fights, which can be pretty handy in dire situations.

Now, all of that is fine and dandy, but is any of that enough to save this game? Honestly… not really. It is more or less just another Contra game, and while it is neat that we have all these neat new bells and whistles added on, it is all clearly just more of the same, and while that is usually not a bad thing, it doesn’t help that this game doesn’t feel that good to play. It feels very sluggish and clunky, almost like you are in complete control, but not really, and what doesn’t help it is the sheer amount of slowdown that is present here. You will rarely see instances where the game will function at a proper speed whenever action is taking place on screen, and you could argue “Oh, it’s an NES game, so slowdown is inevitable”, but this was made after two previous Contra games for the system, both of which had little slowdown compared to this, so there is no excuse for this. Aside from that though, it doesn’t have that many problems, so if you somehow played this as your first Contra, you’d probably love it, but for others, not so much.

Overall, despite a lot of neat little gameplay changes, as well as having the spirit and energy of Contra, this game really pales in comparison to the previous two NES titles, and simply just stands as being “ok” and nothing more. I would recommend it if you are a die-hard Contra fan, but for those who have already played plenty of Contra beforehand, or are unfamiliar with the series, then you’d best stick to the other games. We can leave all of those soldiers out to die in their battle, especially Beans. You know what you did, you son of a bitch.

Game #358

Daymare 1998 started off as a Resident Evil 2 fan remake before becoming its own thing. So it is heavily inspired by older Resident Evil games and survival horror, but plays like something a bit more modern, and is crammed full of 80s and 90s references. It is very ambitious but also unfortunately very rough and doesn’t come close to what it is trying to copy. I kind of like it though, maybe even love it a bit.

Jank, awkward and occasionally frustrating, Daymare 1998 is in severe need of more time and polish. The environments and objects look good but they are let down by everything else. The zombies stumble towards you, limbs passing through things they shouldn’t, with weird rubber necks causing funny and unpredictable reactions to head shots. That’s if these zombies figure out which direction to move in, as they regularly spin on the spot and struggle to navigate doorways. And that’s if they’re not quietly hiding right behind a corner ready to try and jump scare you for the 20th god damn time when it didn’t work the first time. The best scare in the game came when I killed a zombie in a doorway and then as I walked through the doorway the zombie somehow got caught on the door and dragged upwards to become face to face with the character. The tougher zombies, who I think are known as Correct Form, just look goofy in movement and appearance. The Melted Man is generic and the bosses aren’t much better. There’s not much enemy variety here and none of them are intimidating or scary. The whole game isn’t scary or atmospheric either. The humans in this game aren’t a whole lot better. They just look low budget. Things get worse when you hear the dialogue and voice acting too. Anything emotional or dramatic falls flat not that these characters and their choices could be taken seriously anyway. Sadly the game never achieves a charming style of bad. A lot of it is just subpar and bland.

The gameplay has problems too. Exploration is often very straight forward. It rarely has that satisfying survival horror experience of slowly working your way deeper into a location by finding keys, solving puzzles and backtracking. Daymare 1998 is more linear but with roadblocks, there is nothing here that comes anywhere near close to the mansion from RE1 or the police station from RE2. The hospital is probably the area that comes closest to this except it still feels rather simple. Things are made worse by how long and tedious the game can feel at times; some of those chapters just drag on. It has a limited inventory, inventory management and its own brand of save rooms and items boxes but they don’t feel well implemented. Save checkpoints plus a small number of save rooms? Just pick one and do it right. There’s limited item space but not limited enough that I cared. It has a very basic hacking game that requires an item that will break if failed. It is pointless when you have checkpoints to abuse not that you’ll fail the hacking often anyway. There are pointless items and crafting and trading that don’t really add anything or get used well.

Shooting enemies doesn’t always go well because of the enemy issues I already described and other weird little things like a shot will go off but then there is a strange delay before the enemy gets hit. The enemies grab attack is a very long lunge that is a god damn homing missile that pretty much always requires sprinting to avoid. Don’t even get me started on the three stage tedious final boss that can be completely broken and silly in stage one and three if you take advantage of the pathetic enemy AI. The game never feels natural to control and this is coming from someone that loves tank controls and thinks they are excellent. There’s more to go through (bugs, technical issues, animations, gameplay issues) but I’ll stop here. You get the point – Daymare 1998 is not a completely awful, broken mess of a game, it’s just not very good in many ways.

However, I never once considered dropping it. Not only that I actually played through it twice. It’s rough, low budget, not great and was Invader Studios first game. On the other hand it is a likable game that is so ambitious, overflowing with passion and has good ideas. Imagine making your first survival horror game and not just focusing on a single location and character. Imagine going, nah we’ll have a few playable characters, multiple locations and shoot for something as good as our favourite game series. This is where all the problems come from. A tiny team shot for the moon on their first try and I can’t help but love and appreciate that even though Daymare 1998 ended up like this.

I really liked a bunch of the puzzles. I loved a lot of the ideas in the story and loved the effort put into the lore and documents. I liked the reveals at the end and the way things came together. I liked the environments and the zombies (when nothing is going wrong with them). I enjoyed the references throughout and that it is set in the 90s. One of the characters has a condition that causes hallucinations, which means getting attacked by false enemies. I loved that it’s viable and encouraged to try to dodge enemies and run past to save ammo. There is even a little melee attack that lets you clumsily bonk zombies, pushing them back and stunning them so you’ve got time to shoot or get away. I like that one type of the collectables and the secret rooms are found by sound. I like that they offer multiple difficulties and two modes. There is a classic mode and a modern mode that is a bit simpler and doesn’t use the games ammo management. Ammo and reloading is interesting as it requires you to combine bullets with the magazine, then when reloading there’s a slow reload and a fast one. The fast reload will drop the magazine on the ground and you need to pick it back up. It’s a cool idea that can add tension and could add to inventory choices and it feels like it belongs in survival horror.

These good ideas, and the ambition, the passion and that it is a type of game I like was enough to carry this experience for me. Daymare 1998 isn’t a very good game but it’s worth playing and there was more than enough here that I am going to purchase Invaders Studios follow up, the prequel Daymare 1994. Don’t let my score or the many other less than impressive scores this game has received scare you off. While I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone I would say that if you like survival horror then you should give this a try.

5.0/10