Very creative and ahead of its time, honestly. It's a bit shocking how well the mechanics are utilized here for an early NES game, predating Mega Man 2 and Metal Storm for example. I played this in a vc and pretty much everyone thought this game was a much later NES title at the least.

Speaking of Metal Storm, it bears a lot of similarities with this game and now I'm in the mood to revisit it soon I think. I'm sure fans of that game will definitely like this one, and vice versa. Reminds me also of Mr. Gimmick in that with some fine tuning (and some more varied colors) you could probably fool someone into thinking this is a retro indie game or something like it.

Painstakingly attempted to complete each game on the Genesis version, managed 46 before I ultimately threw in the towel. Which seems pointless when you're that far in, but like, I'm really tired and want to stop playing this now. Not a single game here is close to acceptable, but the "high" and low points are probably Alien Attack and Dedant respectively. A couple games listed are impossible without dying at least once or twice, even with savestates (Dedant, Man at Arms), a couple appear to be outright impossible (Bonkers, Challenge), and Darksyne, while likely possible, was simply way too fucking hard for me. I don't know why I bothered with this, really. I initially thought it wuold be amusing but as I went on I was just very sad. I have other and better games to waste my time on, and at the end of the day this was just one of my very many poor decisions.

This seems to be more popular than I had assumed. I think it is the third Batman game I've done thus far, but the other two have less plays on here. I do prefer them, but this one is pretty cool too for sure. It reminds me a lot of Journey to Silius in particular, which is very nice compared to a lot of the NES library.

Just one thing, it's absurdly fucking hard. Like, brutal for 80s standards even. Manageable early on, but the clock tower for example is a total nightmare as are the two last bosses directly afterwards (and if you have to use a continue on them, you're back at the start of the tower). It's not as hard as like, Battletoads or Ghosts n' Goblins or something, but it's definitely worth a mention and not super far off from those two. I'd probably like it more if it was a bit toned down in that field, but maybe I'm just a scrub or whatever.

had to restart this review from scratch bc i accidentally clicked log next to playthroughs and lost the whole fucking thing i was on like the last paragraph or so👁️👄👁️

Decided on a whim to revisit this game on SNES after beating the original NES version two months ago. I had a slightly better and easier time than before, but it may be due to some level of familiarity. I know for sure Dark Queen was easier, though.

The big differences in this version are the graphics and the sound. This game's 16-bit facelift is similar in a way to Super Mario All-Stars (albeit much less ugly imo), with more muted colors and mostly similar sprites with more detail. I'm not sure which look I prefer, but I might be leaning a little bit on the original for being more colorful and more impressive for the hardware. This version also features a guitar-driven soundtrack by David Wise, who in the following two years would also compose the OSTs for Donkey Kong Country 1 & 2, both some of the greatest soundtracks out there.

I figured I would enjoy it less this time, because a lot of my enjoyment on my initial playthrough was from the relief after the hell of the first Battletoads, but I actually liked it more this time and just honestly think it is a great game. It definitely has moments that are slogs, like level 4 and the fight with Shadow Master, but otherwise it's very fun. Level 2 features some gameplay callbacks to the original Battletoads, such as the bike, but it's toned wayyyy down and actually fun this time.

It really is still crazy just how much better this game is than the first Battletoads. It's like night and day, or like Street Fighter vs Street Fighter II. As I originally stated, you should definitely pick up this instead, or at least first, if you're interested in Battletoads. I don't think the version you choose really matters, but it might be interesting to skim around playthroughs and see all the differences.

I call this the Thunder Blade Strat: go in a square or whatever rectangular shape is available on your track and shit will Never hit you. It's even more effective here than in Super Thunder Blade, it works wonders on every boss! Anyway, you'd think comparing it to that first off is a very bad sign, but it runs much better because of Mode 7 and is honestly more like Space Harrier anyways with a dash of F-Zero. It's pretty cool for a while, kind of becomes goofy and trivial after figuring out the trick though.

Never watched Tiny Toons, only really familiar with the characters from hearsay and also the Particle Man video. I would imagine Buster Busts Loose captures the spirit of the show very well, though. All throughout I was thinking to myself "Wow, this is exactly how Road Runner's Death Valley Rally should've been!" I guess it's no surprise though, since this is from Konami. Similarly to that game though, when you run it feels a bit too fast and slippery, though not nearly to the same extent. It did get me in trouble various times nonetheless. I would recommend this one anyway, all in all it's quite good.

The Combatribes kind of sucks. I see sometimes that people consider this game more worthy of the title Double Dragon 3 than the games that actually got it, and more than anything that just worries me about the quality of those. This is like, not fun at all. It's really slow and choppy (though that may just be a problem with the SNES version), stages are only one screen long without much to see at all, and bosses are really irritating, especially the third boss (some guy named Trash) and the final boss who is just absolutely broken. Also it's like, really ugly? That can't just be me, it just does not look appealing at all regardless of version. Technos' other games that I've seen don't really have this problem, my best guess is that this is their first 16-bit game but I'm not even sure that is the case. Either way, it's ugly. And annoying. Not worth a shot.

This game is my first experience with the Bonk series, originally trying it around 2016 or so and then accidentally ditching it about halfway through. Super Bonk is both cutesy and completely insane, just about nothing in it makes any sense whatsoever and I love it for that. A lot of the appeal is in seeing what crazy things will happen next, but the gameplay itself is very fun too, although generally it's pretty basic platformer stuff. There's a few detours and shortcuts you can take, allowing for more replayability. The weakest aspect is probably the bosses, a lot of them are rather underwhelming both to play and in comparison to all the goofiness of the rest of the game. That's all that really springs to mind right now, though. I would definitely recommend this one, if you're not really into its antics it'll probably just feel mid or something but I found myself thoroughly amused almost all throughout.

Excerpt from "list of things that can kill silver surfer with minimal trouble"
-frogs
-ducks
-turtles
-various small fish
-eyeballs
-cartoon ghosts
-pumpkins
-small hands
-any wall in the known universe
-hats
-the green giant

(played as Max Steiner, though i hardly think it makes a difference)

Playmates Interactive published this one, and their only other games I know are Earthworm Jim 1&2, so I'm not terribly surprised that the level design and overall feel is quite similar. This is not a good thing, but I did find it slightly less frustrating than at least 1 (I'd have to get back to you on 2). It's kinda like if you mixed it with Contra III: The Alien Wars, but a much weaker and lamer incarnation where all the cool setpieces and action is sacrificed for gorn. It's pretty monotonous, and the difficulty doesn't really help, but at least it's short I guess? Still longer than Contra III. Don't see why you'd play this over that unless you just need more bloody explosions, or you're a fan of Mutant Chronicles, which honestly I hadn't heard of until this.

Addendum: earthworm jim 2 clears

Presumably known at the time for having a blood red cartridge that sticks out like a sore thumb, these days it's more known for being an actually competent game published under the LJN brand. Would you believe it's by the same developers as The Tick as well?

Well actually, it's just okay. It kicks ass at first, I do love the cutscenes especially and the music is cool too (although it's by Green Jellÿ, who otherwise do ""comedy rock""), but it doesn't have a lot of enemies and it gets pretty monotonous with time. You always fight the same few bosses as well, none of which are particularly fun and later on they kind of become damage sponges, although not near to the extent of Streets of Rage 3. Carnage in particular is just miserable to fight, especially at the very end.

Despite its flaws, though, it's probably the best Spider-Man game released up to that point, and as for Software Creations it's a big improvement over stuff like The Tick and Plok. In the grand scheme of things it's kind of just alright, but it stands out across superhero games as a whole at that time.

Also, Morbius is there according to the opening credits and he's a fucking laughingstock as of recent, so that was amusing to see, but I never actually saw him during the course of my playthrough. Oops.