Yep. This sure is a game that exists. For some reason I had a hankering for a match-3 sort of game and wound up finding this in the depths of my steam library and...
Yeah. It exists. Graphics are plain and cheap, theres nothing here that hasnt been done 100 times and more over. Its slow, cheap and has absolutely no personality to it. I will absolutely forget about this games existence by tomorrow.
Yeah. It exists. Graphics are plain and cheap, theres nothing here that hasnt been done 100 times and more over. Its slow, cheap and has absolutely no personality to it. I will absolutely forget about this games existence by tomorrow.
1985
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 15: Jaleco Collection
That goddamn cat. Every single game over has involved that goddamn cat in one way or another, springing up on me unexpectedly as I'm driving, me swerving away to avoid only for it to appear right behind me also. Cats appearing as I'm mid-jump, Cats appearing as I'm descending platforms. SO MANY SUICIDAL CATS.
Aside from feline vehicular traffic accidents stopping my game randomly every so often, this game isn't too bad and its quite fun trying to score-chase as you paint each level and send police cars spinning and flinging about as you fire cans at them. Fun times.
I do think I would rather play the arcade edition given a choice simply because of the usual NES screen-crunch making some of the jumps a little too precise and picky. Its not horrible and theres certainly a lot of fun here. Again though, those goddamn cats!
That goddamn cat. Every single game over has involved that goddamn cat in one way or another, springing up on me unexpectedly as I'm driving, me swerving away to avoid only for it to appear right behind me also. Cats appearing as I'm mid-jump, Cats appearing as I'm descending platforms. SO MANY SUICIDAL CATS.
Aside from feline vehicular traffic accidents stopping my game randomly every so often, this game isn't too bad and its quite fun trying to score-chase as you paint each level and send police cars spinning and flinging about as you fire cans at them. Fun times.
I do think I would rather play the arcade edition given a choice simply because of the usual NES screen-crunch making some of the jumps a little too precise and picky. Its not horrible and theres certainly a lot of fun here. Again though, those goddamn cats!
1989
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 15: Jaleco Collection
Its not an awful game though its a very much standard mix of platforming that sort of works and combat that sort of meets the mark with some decent enough graphics. Its fun but even after playing through several levels, abusing the hell out of the evercade save state feature thanks to one or two horrible moments, I don't exactly have a lot to say about this one other than decent graphics, nice soundtrack, slightly clumsy gameplay.
Yep. That about solves it. I've been trying to write this review for several days and this probably shows. oops.
Its not an awful game though its a very much standard mix of platforming that sort of works and combat that sort of meets the mark with some decent enough graphics. Its fun but even after playing through several levels, abusing the hell out of the evercade save state feature thanks to one or two horrible moments, I don't exactly have a lot to say about this one other than decent graphics, nice soundtrack, slightly clumsy gameplay.
Yep. That about solves it. I've been trying to write this review for several days and this probably shows. oops.
1994
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 15: Jaleco Collection
I got so excited to play this then realised I had mistaken it for another SNES firefighter game (The Firemen). Like most of the stuff on the Jaleco cart so far, this isnt a horrible game but its certainly very mid thanks to some annoying design choices and a generally slow pace.
Once you get used to the pacing, the game isnt bad but its certainly lacking in places. Part of this is down to the rather messy level design thats overly maze-like and on a first play, has plenty of areas that are easily missed or places where you'll just go 'huh' and wonder what you're supposed to do.
The other is that despite the occasional goofy-ass moment, the game takes itself way too seriously and acts entirely too po-faced than it should be.
Again, its not horrible, theres moment of fun action, running about and saving people is interesting and the claustrophobic nature of some levels leads to some very tense moments... it just needed to be cleaner, faster and willing to have a bit more fun with itself.
I got so excited to play this then realised I had mistaken it for another SNES firefighter game (The Firemen). Like most of the stuff on the Jaleco cart so far, this isnt a horrible game but its certainly very mid thanks to some annoying design choices and a generally slow pace.
Once you get used to the pacing, the game isnt bad but its certainly lacking in places. Part of this is down to the rather messy level design thats overly maze-like and on a first play, has plenty of areas that are easily missed or places where you'll just go 'huh' and wonder what you're supposed to do.
The other is that despite the occasional goofy-ass moment, the game takes itself way too seriously and acts entirely too po-faced than it should be.
Again, its not horrible, theres moment of fun action, running about and saving people is interesting and the claustrophobic nature of some levels leads to some very tense moments... it just needed to be cleaner, faster and willing to have a bit more fun with itself.
2012
Honestly not a bad game for a quick throwaround as its fast, frantic and absolutely a blast in short bursts which honestly made it perfect for its Vita port.
On the PC its a little more difficult to love but its still a rather fun, if shallow little affair with a decent amount of stuff to unlock.
On the PC its a little more difficult to love but its still a rather fun, if shallow little affair with a decent amount of stuff to unlock.
2013
You know you're in for an interesting time when you first start the game and Steam gives you an EULA that just says 'have fun'.
This game is just a jank-filled mess with very little redeeming it. The voice acting is abysmal, the controls are awkward, the menu and UIs are dull and lifeless, the graphics are ugly and the music is generic as it comes.
But wait, its gets worse, text hangs often on some screens, there's multiple pickups that haven't been coded properly so they just come up as 'Undefined', combat is slow and dull but the game can never decide when to do long range attacks or short range melee properly so often you'll just be wailing at random hoping for the good attacks to come out.
There's NPCs who spin while rooted to the ground, there's ground elements that block your progress that look exactly like the walkable ground, there's passageways and doors the character just flat out refuses to interact with for no reason other than 'I Cant do that' and there's text errors and spelling issues all over the place.
Just a total mess.
This game is just a jank-filled mess with very little redeeming it. The voice acting is abysmal, the controls are awkward, the menu and UIs are dull and lifeless, the graphics are ugly and the music is generic as it comes.
But wait, its gets worse, text hangs often on some screens, there's multiple pickups that haven't been coded properly so they just come up as 'Undefined', combat is slow and dull but the game can never decide when to do long range attacks or short range melee properly so often you'll just be wailing at random hoping for the good attacks to come out.
There's NPCs who spin while rooted to the ground, there's ground elements that block your progress that look exactly like the walkable ground, there's passageways and doors the character just flat out refuses to interact with for no reason other than 'I Cant do that' and there's text errors and spelling issues all over the place.
Just a total mess.
1991
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 16: Piko Interactive Collection 2
I kind of get what they wanted here but theres absolutely no way the Mega Drive could handle the 3D effects they attempted here. What we have is six mostly similar variants of 'throwing yourself down a snowy mountain' with three of the six given to ski related activities, two to luge based events and one ice skate-race game.
There isn't really much variety in the levels themselves, the controls are stiff and unfriendly but the worst issue is the fact that everything is so slow and laggy with most events just feeling like a slog to go through despite the rather short runtimes. Graphically its a rather ugly affair and whatever music that plays is just Sierra from wish. The computer players are rather mean spirited to go up against and the whole thing just feels tired.
Again, I can see what they were going for but this wasn't the way to do it.
I kind of get what they wanted here but theres absolutely no way the Mega Drive could handle the 3D effects they attempted here. What we have is six mostly similar variants of 'throwing yourself down a snowy mountain' with three of the six given to ski related activities, two to luge based events and one ice skate-race game.
There isn't really much variety in the levels themselves, the controls are stiff and unfriendly but the worst issue is the fact that everything is so slow and laggy with most events just feeling like a slog to go through despite the rather short runtimes. Graphically its a rather ugly affair and whatever music that plays is just Sierra from wish. The computer players are rather mean spirited to go up against and the whole thing just feels tired.
Again, I can see what they were going for but this wasn't the way to do it.
1993
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 16: Piko Interactive Collection 2
Eesh. I had this game back on the Amiga and I always wondered if it would play better on a console with more than one fire button. Answer is... No. In fact its actually worse here than on the Amiga.
It plays like absolute arse. Its basically bad Ocean platformer design at its very worst with chunky level designs, enemies that run at you quick from offscreen, boring looping music, collectables strewn across the level like troll dolls in a 90s kids bedroom and a terrible control setup with the football attacks whiffing and sailing over enemies heads 9/10 times. Trust me, any actual hits on enemies is completely unintentional.
Sure theres some decent enough sprite art that manages to 'just' make this game dodge a 0.5/5 but its not like 1/5 is anything to talk about either. If you absolutely need to try this game, please just pick up the Amiga original. I mean the Amiga original still isnt that great but its sure better than this mess of a SNES port.
Eesh. I had this game back on the Amiga and I always wondered if it would play better on a console with more than one fire button. Answer is... No. In fact its actually worse here than on the Amiga.
It plays like absolute arse. Its basically bad Ocean platformer design at its very worst with chunky level designs, enemies that run at you quick from offscreen, boring looping music, collectables strewn across the level like troll dolls in a 90s kids bedroom and a terrible control setup with the football attacks whiffing and sailing over enemies heads 9/10 times. Trust me, any actual hits on enemies is completely unintentional.
Sure theres some decent enough sprite art that manages to 'just' make this game dodge a 0.5/5 but its not like 1/5 is anything to talk about either. If you absolutely need to try this game, please just pick up the Amiga original. I mean the Amiga original still isnt that great but its sure better than this mess of a SNES port.
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 16: Piko Interactive Collection 2
Blah blah. Honestly I could copy and paste most of my review for 'Winter Challenge' and get away with it. The faux-3D graphics still chug away slowly, the music is still questionable and the CPU players are still rather miserable to play against.
The only upsides here in comparison to Winter Challenge is theres generally more variety here and some of the new stuff thats more track and field focused actually plays half-decent but thats not really enough to make this a game worth playing.
Blah blah. Honestly I could copy and paste most of my review for 'Winter Challenge' and get away with it. The faux-3D graphics still chug away slowly, the music is still questionable and the CPU players are still rather miserable to play against.
The only upsides here in comparison to Winter Challenge is theres generally more variety here and some of the new stuff thats more track and field focused actually plays half-decent but thats not really enough to make this a game worth playing.
1993
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 16: Piko Interactive Collection 2
Finally onto Top Gear 2... Sorry I mean 'Top Racer 2' and honestly its more of the same from the first game with a few steps forward but then a few steps back.
Firstly before we hit those, lets just copy and paste a lot from the first games review. The controls are still really good, the music banging and the AI often feels aggressive but generally quite fair.
That said, onto a negative, the game's difficulty curve is a little off. Its actually quite hard at the beginning, you'll often be hurting to catch up with others and it can sometimes feel like you've been stacked against impossible odds. On the other side, the late game is really easy thanks to the AI not really keeping up with you as you upgrade way past them.
On the plus side, the entire screen now is yours, no more forced split-screen. Huzzah.
So yeah, if you enjoyed the first game, theres a lot to like here.
Finally onto Top Gear 2... Sorry I mean 'Top Racer 2' and honestly its more of the same from the first game with a few steps forward but then a few steps back.
Firstly before we hit those, lets just copy and paste a lot from the first games review. The controls are still really good, the music banging and the AI often feels aggressive but generally quite fair.
That said, onto a negative, the game's difficulty curve is a little off. Its actually quite hard at the beginning, you'll often be hurting to catch up with others and it can sometimes feel like you've been stacked against impossible odds. On the other side, the late game is really easy thanks to the AI not really keeping up with you as you upgrade way past them.
On the plus side, the entire screen now is yours, no more forced split-screen. Huzzah.
So yeah, if you enjoyed the first game, theres a lot to like here.
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 16: Piko Interactive Collection 2
You know the idea that you're always better off focusing on one thing and making that thing good. Clearly nobody told the developers of Top Gear/Racer as this essentially is their take on Road Rash, the motorcycle stuff clearly is the bit they put all their passion in. Sure its occasionally a little clunky and the range of the kicks when attacking other players is absolutely questionable, but it mostly works.
What doesn't work is the jet-ski component. While the motorbike racing still has that Top Gear/Racer sense of speed and excitement, the Jet-ski parts are just boring with bad track design and a general dull pace. These cut into the Motorbike stuff too by forcing you to often pace and save up money for the better upgrades as both the Motorbike and Jet-Ski have separate upgrade menus.
If this was just the Motorbike stuff, i'd call it a 3/5. Not bad but certainly has its moments. The Jet-Ski stuff just sinks it lower.
You know the idea that you're always better off focusing on one thing and making that thing good. Clearly nobody told the developers of Top Gear/Racer as this essentially is their take on Road Rash, the motorcycle stuff clearly is the bit they put all their passion in. Sure its occasionally a little clunky and the range of the kicks when attacking other players is absolutely questionable, but it mostly works.
What doesn't work is the jet-ski component. While the motorbike racing still has that Top Gear/Racer sense of speed and excitement, the Jet-ski parts are just boring with bad track design and a general dull pace. These cut into the Motorbike stuff too by forcing you to often pace and save up money for the better upgrades as both the Motorbike and Jet-Ski have separate upgrade menus.
If this was just the Motorbike stuff, i'd call it a 3/5. Not bad but certainly has its moments. The Jet-Ski stuff just sinks it lower.
2005
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 16: Piko Interactive Collection 2
I don't want to be too harsh on this since this is obviously a beta/prototype that Piko bought up when hoovering up small companies but its just bland. The UI is cheap and basic, the controls are on the loose side and the AI isn't really anything to talk about.
Theres not much progression outside of a basic 'RACE 1, RACE 2, RACE 3' linear set of levels and none of them are worth talking about. Add in a rather bland looping track that plays across most of the game and you've got a racing game that barely makes the grade. It may be 2/5 but theres so little to talk about here.
I don't want to be too harsh on this since this is obviously a beta/prototype that Piko bought up when hoovering up small companies but its just bland. The UI is cheap and basic, the controls are on the loose side and the AI isn't really anything to talk about.
Theres not much progression outside of a basic 'RACE 1, RACE 2, RACE 3' linear set of levels and none of them are worth talking about. Add in a rather bland looping track that plays across most of the game and you've got a racing game that barely makes the grade. It may be 2/5 but theres so little to talk about here.
2020
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 17: Indie Heroes Collection 1
First game up. Usually I try and do these things in release date order but honestly im not sure that'll make a difference here so here we go and... Yeah. This is nice.
What we have here is a rather fun and breezy little puzzler where you guide both the titular main cat and 'cat clones' around each stage, picking up items and reaching an exit. The 'snag' here though is you move every character all at once, so careful positioning and movement is the name of the game.
And it all just works, the music is nice and boppy, the puzzles are tricky without being too overly mean spirited in their design and none of the level gimmicks ever really go on for too long.
So yeah, quite fun. Will I be singing its praises long after? Probably not.... But its still worth playing through none the less.
First game up. Usually I try and do these things in release date order but honestly im not sure that'll make a difference here so here we go and... Yeah. This is nice.
What we have here is a rather fun and breezy little puzzler where you guide both the titular main cat and 'cat clones' around each stage, picking up items and reaching an exit. The 'snag' here though is you move every character all at once, so careful positioning and movement is the name of the game.
And it all just works, the music is nice and boppy, the puzzles are tricky without being too overly mean spirited in their design and none of the level gimmicks ever really go on for too long.
So yeah, quite fun. Will I be singing its praises long after? Probably not.... But its still worth playing through none the less.
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 17: Indie Heroes Collection 1
Theres a lot here im wanting to like, graphically this game absolutely pops, the sprite art is lovely, enemy graphics are nice and chunky...
But overall the gameplay itself is a little on the bland side. The dungeons are a little lifeless, the attacks are a little on the too-shortranged side and enemies can often soak up just a little too much damage. Its annoying because I can see what the developer was going for but it just doesnt quite hit the mark.
Theres a lot here im wanting to like, graphically this game absolutely pops, the sprite art is lovely, enemy graphics are nice and chunky...
But overall the gameplay itself is a little on the bland side. The dungeons are a little lifeless, the attacks are a little on the too-shortranged side and enemies can often soak up just a little too much damage. Its annoying because I can see what the developer was going for but it just doesnt quite hit the mark.
2019
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 17: Indie Heroes Collection 1
Having a game thats clearly very inspired by a very specific game unfortunately leads you to consistantly compare it to that specific game. Here is a game thats very clearly took inspiration from Metro-Cross (or Retro-Cross if you've only ever played it in Europe on the Xbox360 Namco collection).
So running from left to right, hopping over items, picking up collectables and using boost pads to try and hit the finish line before the time limits run out. Its a fairly basic enough game and its one that works decently enough.
Chain Breaks main problem is just its sense of speed... or even just its flow through the entire game. It would honestly be better off cutting down on the point total screens and having a speedier cut from level to level.
The levels themselves are also just lacking a little bit of variety. While what is here is decent enough, by the halfway point, despite the occasional new obstacle, the changes are not drastic enough to make things feel different so you feel you've seen most of what the game has to offer already.
Its a shame because when the game really gets going, its a fun and frantic take on metro-cross with the gameboy's limitations being worked around in a wonderful way... It just needed to be snappier.
Having a game thats clearly very inspired by a very specific game unfortunately leads you to consistantly compare it to that specific game. Here is a game thats very clearly took inspiration from Metro-Cross (or Retro-Cross if you've only ever played it in Europe on the Xbox360 Namco collection).
So running from left to right, hopping over items, picking up collectables and using boost pads to try and hit the finish line before the time limits run out. Its a fairly basic enough game and its one that works decently enough.
Chain Breaks main problem is just its sense of speed... or even just its flow through the entire game. It would honestly be better off cutting down on the point total screens and having a speedier cut from level to level.
The levels themselves are also just lacking a little bit of variety. While what is here is decent enough, by the halfway point, despite the occasional new obstacle, the changes are not drastic enough to make things feel different so you feel you've seen most of what the game has to offer already.
Its a shame because when the game really gets going, its a fun and frantic take on metro-cross with the gameboy's limitations being worked around in a wonderful way... It just needed to be snappier.