2007
The cake is a lie...
Just beat this again to warm me up for the sequel once again.
This game is timeless, still better than several modern games, straightforward from beginning to end, excellent visuals and story. We get that Portal 2 nailed it in every aspect ever, but they had the first one as a base to improve on, but this one had nothing behind it, so the level of innovation here is mindblowing.
Still think that the only low point here is the game's duration, it ends abruptly when the narrative is becoming better, but the ending is still awesome.
Just beat this again to warm me up for the sequel once again.
This game is timeless, still better than several modern games, straightforward from beginning to end, excellent visuals and story. We get that Portal 2 nailed it in every aspect ever, but they had the first one as a base to improve on, but this one had nothing behind it, so the level of innovation here is mindblowing.
Still think that the only low point here is the game's duration, it ends abruptly when the narrative is becoming better, but the ending is still awesome.
1990
Retro Yearly List #16 [1990: River City Ransom]
For the first beat 'em' up game in my personal list, I've chosen what is considered a hidden gem.
RCR offers a different approach for the genre, adding elements of RPG and almost an open-world experience, since you can walk through the screens back and forth and skip the enemies if you want, but you wanna beat them to collect coins and upgrade your character, otherwise, you will have a hard time beating the bosses, that's the overall system of progressing here, and I kind of like it, but there is a chance you will get stuck with all options you have.
Some bosses are optional but there are a mandatory few to reach the end, they look all pretty much the same, there is no big difference between their attack patterns, in fact, all enemies in the game use just punches, kicks, and weapons to hit you, so there is no diversity on this point.
I liked both the graphics and the music, which are really catchy, with a little great reference towards the end.
The game offers several options of items to purchase which will give you different abilities, which are just buffed versions of the basic attacks. You will also increase your HP and your status by purchasing them, but the game does not provide details of what you are getting until you do, this can be annoying if you don't know the game, I used a little guide for it and it helped me a lot to not making bad deals.
Difficulty is ok if you know what to do, since you can overpower your character with the right items and farm points. But in any case, if you die you just respawn at the next already visited mall, with half of your cash.
Overall, it's a beautiful game with an innovative approach and a good blend of different genres.
And by the way, wtf are these passwords?
BARF!
For the first beat 'em' up game in my personal list, I've chosen what is considered a hidden gem.
RCR offers a different approach for the genre, adding elements of RPG and almost an open-world experience, since you can walk through the screens back and forth and skip the enemies if you want, but you wanna beat them to collect coins and upgrade your character, otherwise, you will have a hard time beating the bosses, that's the overall system of progressing here, and I kind of like it, but there is a chance you will get stuck with all options you have.
Some bosses are optional but there are a mandatory few to reach the end, they look all pretty much the same, there is no big difference between their attack patterns, in fact, all enemies in the game use just punches, kicks, and weapons to hit you, so there is no diversity on this point.
I liked both the graphics and the music, which are really catchy, with a little great reference towards the end.
The game offers several options of items to purchase which will give you different abilities, which are just buffed versions of the basic attacks. You will also increase your HP and your status by purchasing them, but the game does not provide details of what you are getting until you do, this can be annoying if you don't know the game, I used a little guide for it and it helped me a lot to not making bad deals.
Difficulty is ok if you know what to do, since you can overpower your character with the right items and farm points. But in any case, if you die you just respawn at the next already visited mall, with half of your cash.
Overall, it's a beautiful game with an innovative approach and a good blend of different genres.
And by the way, wtf are these passwords?
BARF!
1985
Retro Yearly List #11 [1985: Bomberman]
The first ever Bomberman, the classic, the original. ...Except it's not, since I just learned this was based on "Eric and the Floaters" (what?) for MSX and ZX Spectrum.
So this is one of those rare cases where I will play not the first ever, but the most well-recognized/popular version.
Bomberman gameplay is already known, with not too much to say about this version, except that it is EXTREMELY repetitive and tiring, you will see almost all game content by level 10, but it has 50, which will randomize the walls and enemies' positions with an increasing difficult, as expected.
There are a lot of power-ups for Bomberman spread along the stages, and if you manage to gather them without dying, you have an overpowered hero destroying everything in your path, and in that case, the game will be funnier, right?
No. It's just boring.
On ending we will learn that Hudson was ahead of its time and already thinking in multiverse and crossovers.
The first ever Bomberman, the classic, the original. ...Except it's not, since I just learned this was based on "Eric and the Floaters" (what?) for MSX and ZX Spectrum.
So this is one of those rare cases where I will play not the first ever, but the most well-recognized/popular version.
Bomberman gameplay is already known, with not too much to say about this version, except that it is EXTREMELY repetitive and tiring, you will see almost all game content by level 10, but it has 50, which will randomize the walls and enemies' positions with an increasing difficult, as expected.
There are a lot of power-ups for Bomberman spread along the stages, and if you manage to gather them without dying, you have an overpowered hero destroying everything in your path, and in that case, the game will be funnier, right?
No. It's just boring.
On ending we will learn that Hudson was ahead of its time and already thinking in multiverse and crossovers.
1988
Retro Yearly List #14 [1988: Contra]
Instant classic. This was one of the most popular games featured in those "famiclones", which were very well known in South America, with "100 games in 1"cartridges.
I played this a lot but never get past Waterfall level tho, time to correct this.
Contra 1 is pretty solid and offers a complete experience, the controls are one of the most responsive of games from that time, and even modern games, running, ducking and shooting are satisfying things to do here.
The graphics are good enough for NES, even though they are "nerfed" in US version, I've played the Japanese one instead, which has some additional stuff like animated palm trees and snowstorms. There are also cutscenes at the start and between stages, which were also cut off on US release, sadly.
Difficulty is... well, hard. Not a nightmare, but requires some training to master the game, fortunately, I was able to beat this without the Konami code and not using continues after some tries within 3 days (not straight).
The music is nice and catchy, although they forgot to make the level 7 music so they put the level 1's instead, but nothing that breaks the immersion. Enemies are also a little bit repetitive, with tons of them coming by at random moments and sometimes in places that does not make sense.
The bosses are ok, but difficulty scalability is broken, the Door one is the easiest on the game and it appears among the last levels, the Base2 boss in other hand, is a true pain, on just level 3, even harder than the final boss, which has medium difficulty.
The weapons are also unbalanced, with most of them being useless, and just one alone capable of change the pace of the entire game, Spread Gun is basically the "select difficulty" of the game, once you keep it, you will play the game on easy mode, but with a level of challenge to keep it with you without taking damage, if you do, back to hell mode.
The series started with a massive potential to improvement in the future, but still has extremely solid experience.
Instant classic. This was one of the most popular games featured in those "famiclones", which were very well known in South America, with "100 games in 1"cartridges.
I played this a lot but never get past Waterfall level tho, time to correct this.
Contra 1 is pretty solid and offers a complete experience, the controls are one of the most responsive of games from that time, and even modern games, running, ducking and shooting are satisfying things to do here.
The graphics are good enough for NES, even though they are "nerfed" in US version, I've played the Japanese one instead, which has some additional stuff like animated palm trees and snowstorms. There are also cutscenes at the start and between stages, which were also cut off on US release, sadly.
Difficulty is... well, hard. Not a nightmare, but requires some training to master the game, fortunately, I was able to beat this without the Konami code and not using continues after some tries within 3 days (not straight).
The music is nice and catchy, although they forgot to make the level 7 music so they put the level 1's instead, but nothing that breaks the immersion. Enemies are also a little bit repetitive, with tons of them coming by at random moments and sometimes in places that does not make sense.
The bosses are ok, but difficulty scalability is broken, the Door one is the easiest on the game and it appears among the last levels, the Base2 boss in other hand, is a true pain, on just level 3, even harder than the final boss, which has medium difficulty.
The weapons are also unbalanced, with most of them being useless, and just one alone capable of change the pace of the entire game, Spread Gun is basically the "select difficulty" of the game, once you keep it, you will play the game on easy mode, but with a level of challenge to keep it with you without taking damage, if you do, back to hell mode.
The series started with a massive potential to improvement in the future, but still has extremely solid experience.
2018
For the first beaten game and review of the year, one of the best indie games of all time. I had already beat this back in 2018 but wanted a second run, now I'm doing new stuff like B and C-Sides and Farewell DLC. That second run just helped me consolidate my first impressions, Celeste does everything, the visuals are outstanding to the point that I stopped my run sometimes just to appreciate the background, the OST is beautiful and makes you forget a bit how hard this game is and even frustrating in some sections, making a great counterpoint. The gameplay is on point, all mechanics work well, and is so satisfying to move around and do all that hardcore parkour, although you can just run, jump and dash, all three combined offer complex gameplay for the hardest levels. The game is pretty hard in general, but the base game has medium difficulty for me, if you are more skilled at platforming games, there are tons of optional content for you to try. And the lore... yeah, it's pretty well written as well, it goes with a more artistic approach and deals with delicate stuff not too explored enough in games like mental health, and it gives you an extremely good lesson about it. Definitely a great piece of art to start 2024.
1983
NES port it's alright, but inferior to Arcade's. Graphics are worse, there are no cutscenes explaining enemies' patterns, and they added another possible jump trajectory if you press it in a specific time during Mario physics, so if you are used to Arcade version, you will have some trouble with this.
1998
Got really impressed with how well made this was and how well it aged, after giving it a try for testing purposes, I kept playing over and over while beating the arcade mode and unblocking secret characters, the graphics are beautiful, and the gameplay is pretty smooth, characters are great and I may come back here to beat arcade with the rest of them and understand their lore.
1978
Retro Yearly List #4 [1978: Space Invaders]
Playing this for the first time was a surprising experience. It's a classic and I can see why, almost everything here has been executed right on the general idea. It's a pretty challenging game but is not unfair, the atmosphere is great, as it's one of the first games to introduce background music, which increases its speed while the entire screen is being destroyed, and the controls and mechanics are on point, got pretty invested in this one.
Playing this for the first time was a surprising experience. It's a classic and I can see why, almost everything here has been executed right on the general idea. It's a pretty challenging game but is not unfair, the atmosphere is great, as it's one of the first games to introduce background music, which increases its speed while the entire screen is being destroyed, and the controls and mechanics are on point, got pretty invested in this one.
1977
Retro Yearly List #3 [1977: Combat]
For a game released in 1977, this is pretty well made, I can imagine the good reception by the players since at the time they were having fun with simple games like Pong and Breakout, it truly brings the real experience of the 1x1 using cool stuff like tanks and planes, must have been pretty fun playing it with your friends.
For a game released in 1977, this is pretty well made, I can imagine the good reception by the players since at the time they were having fun with simple games like Pong and Breakout, it truly brings the real experience of the 1x1 using cool stuff like tanks and planes, must have been pretty fun playing it with your friends.
1976
Retro Yearly List #2 [1976: Breakout]
Breakout, right? Pretty ahead of its time, inspired a lot of newer games, nice game to spend some time on, they really improved from Pong's idea, and I personally found it far better (and more challenging). Game has a lot of different modes to ty out like turn the bricks into invisible, catch the ball mode and Breaktrhu mode, pretty fun I'd say
Breakout, right? Pretty ahead of its time, inspired a lot of newer games, nice game to spend some time on, they really improved from Pong's idea, and I personally found it far better (and more challenging). Game has a lot of different modes to ty out like turn the bricks into invisible, catch the ball mode and Breaktrhu mode, pretty fun I'd say
Retro Yearly List #13 [1987: Punch-Out!!]
This franchise never caught my attention enough to try playing its games, and I never did until now, one nice example of why I'm challenging myself with these retro challenges, hence, now I've just discovered a very nice game.
Some people tend to compare this with Dark Souls, not just because of difficulty, but due to the pattern-learning style of gameplay to beat the opponents, others say that it's a puzzle game disguised as a boxing game. I agree with both definitions, it's more than a sports game, this is a "practice makes perfect" type of game, (or "almost perfect").
Every opponent requires different strategies and will have to learn the hard way: trying and failing, tuning your reflexes in the process, you will have to react fast and faster once you reach the final challenges.
It truly gave me a good time to challenge myself, I managed to beat everyone fairly but Tyson, which I saved mid-match to progress, but I'm willing to try him the right way in some time, considering playing this on emulators is far worse than the original hardware due to the input lag.
Overall, the difficulty is fair and the learning curve is fine, the only opponent that got really on my nerves was Super Macho Man, but I managed to learn his secrets as well.
I just think there is a layer of repetition with the opponents, some of them will return for rematches and others have their sprites reused, even on completely different boxers. But overall the game is pretty good and I now understand its popularity, and I'm glad I finally learned to play this properly.
This franchise never caught my attention enough to try playing its games, and I never did until now, one nice example of why I'm challenging myself with these retro challenges, hence, now I've just discovered a very nice game.
Some people tend to compare this with Dark Souls, not just because of difficulty, but due to the pattern-learning style of gameplay to beat the opponents, others say that it's a puzzle game disguised as a boxing game. I agree with both definitions, it's more than a sports game, this is a "practice makes perfect" type of game, (or "almost perfect").
Every opponent requires different strategies and will have to learn the hard way: trying and failing, tuning your reflexes in the process, you will have to react fast and faster once you reach the final challenges.
It truly gave me a good time to challenge myself, I managed to beat everyone fairly but Tyson, which I saved mid-match to progress, but I'm willing to try him the right way in some time, considering playing this on emulators is far worse than the original hardware due to the input lag.
Overall, the difficulty is fair and the learning curve is fine, the only opponent that got really on my nerves was Super Macho Man, but I managed to learn his secrets as well.
I just think there is a layer of repetition with the opponents, some of them will return for rematches and others have their sprites reused, even on completely different boxers. But overall the game is pretty good and I now understand its popularity, and I'm glad I finally learned to play this properly.
1986
Retro Yearly List #12 [1986: Wonder Boy]
Man, that was... awful.
The first entry of Wonder Boy is pretty bad, seriously, I struggled to beat this even with save states, the game looks nice at first and the first levels are really fun, the graphics are great, the movement is a bit frustrating, but there are fun sections when you use your running and jumping properly, WHEN the game design allows you to.
After a few levels it gets old pretty fast, the next ones are just recreations using the same assets placed differently and creating new challenges, but using the same stuff, the same mechanics, it's like they have worked hard on the first levels and then used a randomizer to generate the sufficient amount to have freaking 32 levels... yeah that's right, game has 8 worlds each one containing 4 "sub-levels" with repetition until the end, that's the definition of unnecessary. Also the bosses are all the same only with increased difficulty, so that's reciclated as well.
The axe mechanic is a mistake, you will start with it but if you die, you have to beat some sections just avoiding enemies positioned chaotically, without having a chance to knock them out, until you find another axe, the skate power up is just ok, is another hit to take and you will most likely press back to walk slowly with it anyway, there is no room to rush here, although they may have intended to create that feeling, it simply doesn't work since there are enemies everywhere doing hell-pattern movements.
Game design is also atrocious to the point that you have cloud platforms placed in crucial sections, that when you hit them, they fall off and you die, forcing you to do everything again, I did not expect to play I Wanna be the Guy or Cat Mario, but that's it.
The ONLY music that plays on the entire game is nice until you hear it again for the 5th time, it just gets to the point where you don't even bother anymore and just want to finish it.
Let's see how they will improve it for the next entries.
Man, that was... awful.
The first entry of Wonder Boy is pretty bad, seriously, I struggled to beat this even with save states, the game looks nice at first and the first levels are really fun, the graphics are great, the movement is a bit frustrating, but there are fun sections when you use your running and jumping properly, WHEN the game design allows you to.
After a few levels it gets old pretty fast, the next ones are just recreations using the same assets placed differently and creating new challenges, but using the same stuff, the same mechanics, it's like they have worked hard on the first levels and then used a randomizer to generate the sufficient amount to have freaking 32 levels... yeah that's right, game has 8 worlds each one containing 4 "sub-levels" with repetition until the end, that's the definition of unnecessary. Also the bosses are all the same only with increased difficulty, so that's reciclated as well.
The axe mechanic is a mistake, you will start with it but if you die, you have to beat some sections just avoiding enemies positioned chaotically, without having a chance to knock them out, until you find another axe, the skate power up is just ok, is another hit to take and you will most likely press back to walk slowly with it anyway, there is no room to rush here, although they may have intended to create that feeling, it simply doesn't work since there are enemies everywhere doing hell-pattern movements.
Game design is also atrocious to the point that you have cloud platforms placed in crucial sections, that when you hit them, they fall off and you die, forcing you to do everything again, I did not expect to play I Wanna be the Guy or Cat Mario, but that's it.
The ONLY music that plays on the entire game is nice until you hear it again for the 5th time, it just gets to the point where you don't even bother anymore and just want to finish it.
Let's see how they will improve it for the next entries.
2014
Pretty solid game, this is the first release of Brazilian JoyMasher, and they started with an awesome game, its difficult is balanced in a way you are able to get better on every failure, there are no checkpoints so you have to re-start from the beginning of each level, but there is no game over on standard mode, and levels aren't that long, so I found it fair enough.
Had some little problems with control responses sometimes that annoyed me a little bit, and that damn knockback, geez! Music team did also a pretty good job here and the graphics took me back to the NES era entirely. Overall, pretty good game and a great first entry by the team.
Had some little problems with control responses sometimes that annoyed me a little bit, and that damn knockback, geez! Music team did also a pretty good job here and the graphics took me back to the NES era entirely. Overall, pretty good game and a great first entry by the team.
Excellent concept, a fighting game with the genre fundamentals simplified as much as possible, with only horizontal moving, block, parry and 1 button-attack actions allowed, it's a great way to train your reflexes and increase your skills on fighting games, hence, I'm rating it based on what the game set out to be.
1983
Retro Yearly List #9 [1983: Mario Bros.]
After jumping over barrels and rescuing Pauline, here Mario started his violent path of beating animals, so he's been doing this for a long time, he also debuted his punching and running abilities, and used to kick as well, but did not learn how to jump on enemies yet.
It's just a simple, point-based, arcade game, but is well-designed, there are different enemies with unique characteristics and it becomes pretty difficult at a pixel-perfect level, forcing you to use your time wisely and train some moves. Controls are a bit stiff, but you'll get used to it after some practice. This took more time than I imagined, really instigating my challenging spirit, and more important: it's fun.
Also there is a 2-player mode which works like a co-op experience, featuring Luigi, which debuted in this game.
After jumping over barrels and rescuing Pauline, here Mario started his violent path of beating animals, so he's been doing this for a long time, he also debuted his punching and running abilities, and used to kick as well, but did not learn how to jump on enemies yet.
It's just a simple, point-based, arcade game, but is well-designed, there are different enemies with unique characteristics and it becomes pretty difficult at a pixel-perfect level, forcing you to use your time wisely and train some moves. Controls are a bit stiff, but you'll get used to it after some practice. This took more time than I imagined, really instigating my challenging spirit, and more important: it's fun.
Also there is a 2-player mode which works like a co-op experience, featuring Luigi, which debuted in this game.