Portable Ops is an odd entry in the Metal Gear franchise. Be it because of its poor accessibility on a handheld console that can definitely not hold its weight, be it because it has sprung countless arguments online to whether it is worth it to play or even debating about its place in the canon story line of Metal Gear, be it because ever since Acid and Acid 2 and countless mobile games people just stopped caring about the handheld titles in the series, being overlooked as mediocre or simply not giving them a try... Pretty much everything that could go wrong with going ahead and making a fully-fledged story made to fit into an already established and moving story line is simply been overlooked and underrated by many.
I've got to say that my first experience with the game wasn't the best. I first picked it up in my PlayStation Vita console, installed a patch that could let me play with dual stick controls(...because if you don't do this, the only way to move the camera would be with the D-Pad that is very conveniently placed on top of the movement stick in the console), and so I booted it up. The first look at it wasn't really all that great.
I noticed how the game ran pretty poorly in its actual hardware, a sub-30 fps at all times wasn't great for a series that is usually pretty slick and smooth in a technical level, coupled that with the fact that I was pretty much counting pixels on my screen when I was trying to take a guard down with Snake's tranquilizer pistol, it wasn't a really great two first hours and I kind of dreaded the fact that I was gonna have to be playing this but not Metal Gear Solid 4 or something else.
So, in my journey to see how could I improve this game experience I noticed that there was a 60 FPS patch for use with the PPSSPP emulator, and naturally I just had to try it. I put my save file in my computer, increased the internal resolution to 1080p and keybinded in dual stick controls... And, oh my god. This game is literally just diet Metal Gear Solid 3 absolutely shackled and limited by its original hardware its insane, and it doesn't surprise me how this didn't catch on to people even today.
Portable Ops is a following story to Snake Eater, if you think about it, it's kind of like a neglected Metal Gear Solid 3.5 and its main catch is on how the operation rolls out. In most Metal Gear games it's mainly Snake sneaking into some sort of facility without any prior objects of utility or weapons, these having to be found in the facility itself in order to get to advance forward, beat bosses easier or take out guards faster. And in that regard, this game is completely different to any other entry that tries to put its spin into the Tactical Espionage series.
In this game, due to how the plot is set up very early on, Snake doesn't have to work all alone anymore, but you instead have to sneak into different places around San Hieronymo and convince the guards that you take out to join your side to aid in the creation of weaponry, medicine, scouting different places to inform you of valuable arms that might be useful for your own mission, and with this you practically get to create your own army that's out to rebel against Gene who longs for a country inhabited by special soldiers at the expense of some of his own troops... And eventually Metal Gear coming into question.
A lot of these recruits have their own special abilities and are more fit to be dispatched in certain areas (such as tech or medical) than to use in battle, because you can opt for playing as 200 or so characters that you can recruit yourself, some even secret only able to be entered through passwords, they can all be equipped with their own weapons and if you have an unit that gets eliminated or depletes its stamina you can just roll out with another one, this works a lot for gathering objects when your inventory full.
Now, the bad part about this system is that in order to recruit members you have to take out guards, generals, medics and scientists, and that's fine since the stealth aspect of this game is pretty easy, but the one thing that turns away people the other direction is having to drag their corpse all the way back to the spawn area behind a truck to count them in. This process takes a long while if you're doing it by hand and you most likely will because I've found that the mechanic of leaving people nearby cardboard boxes with the other members of your team around for them to get captured simply doesn't work. I personally had to use fast forwarding in my emulator to make it less of a chore, and even then I had to repeat a few missions so that I could gather enough members for a sustainable medic team or spy unit, but it's something that you'll do once and never again hopefully, since most of the time you'll use Snake anyways, and unless you fight bosses there's no need for more than your trusty Mk22 since the enemies' routing is pretty basic and most of the maps you're gonna sneak into are pretty much enclosed, smaller spaces because of the console it was put on (but also works at its advantage because it makes for a bite-sized experience you can either binge or hop in and on every so often).
Having explained how the recruitment system works, the only thing that there is left to say about this game is pretty much its story, it's surprisingly good for a spin-off game of a seemingly low budget, it has great pacing, a great retrospective on Big Boss's actions through MGS3, and even a glimpse into the future that is the start of the whole franchise and a small array of familiar faces who make for bosses that are pretty much on par with mainline. I particularly like how they adapted the story to be in this very rough comic artstyle that fits the tone of the series perfectly and manages to absolutely bring the same movie-like vibe and action of the 3D titles to the portable system.
It's a shame that a lot of people won't look back to this game because it's been argued forever whether it is worth it or not because "it's not canon", when it was made carefully so it didn't contradict anything from the main story, expanded upon Naked Snake's story and even had the approval and overseeing of Kojima himself even if he didn't direct or write for it (he literally didn't want to drop MGS4 until this one was finished and out), and people worry about it because it didn't show up on a timeline? Gimme a break, the story is excellent for what it is and you best bet it's canon, it'd be a waste if it wasn't.(Manifesting it shows up as a remastered version in Master Collection Vol. 2 whenever that comes out three years from now on)
Overall, pretty surprising. Calling to the Night is a really good credits song, too.
I've got to say that my first experience with the game wasn't the best. I first picked it up in my PlayStation Vita console, installed a patch that could let me play with dual stick controls
I noticed how the game ran pretty poorly in its actual hardware, a sub-30 fps at all times wasn't great for a series that is usually pretty slick and smooth in a technical level, coupled that with the fact that I was pretty much counting pixels on my screen when I was trying to take a guard down with Snake's tranquilizer pistol, it wasn't a really great two first hours and I kind of dreaded the fact that I was gonna have to be playing this but not Metal Gear Solid 4 or something else.
So, in my journey to see how could I improve this game experience I noticed that there was a 60 FPS patch for use with the PPSSPP emulator, and naturally I just had to try it. I put my save file in my computer, increased the internal resolution to 1080p and keybinded in dual stick controls... And, oh my god. This game is literally just diet Metal Gear Solid 3 absolutely shackled and limited by its original hardware its insane, and it doesn't surprise me how this didn't catch on to people even today.
Portable Ops is a following story to Snake Eater, if you think about it, it's kind of like a neglected Metal Gear Solid 3.5 and its main catch is on how the operation rolls out. In most Metal Gear games it's mainly Snake sneaking into some sort of facility without any prior objects of utility or weapons, these having to be found in the facility itself in order to get to advance forward, beat bosses easier or take out guards faster. And in that regard, this game is completely different to any other entry that tries to put its spin into the Tactical Espionage series.
In this game, due to how the plot is set up very early on, Snake doesn't have to work all alone anymore, but you instead have to sneak into different places around San Hieronymo and convince the guards that you take out to join your side to aid in the creation of weaponry, medicine, scouting different places to inform you of valuable arms that might be useful for your own mission, and with this you practically get to create your own army that's out to rebel against Gene who longs for a country inhabited by special soldiers at the expense of some of his own troops... And eventually Metal Gear coming into question.
A lot of these recruits have their own special abilities and are more fit to be dispatched in certain areas (such as tech or medical) than to use in battle, because you can opt for playing as 200 or so characters that you can recruit yourself, some even secret only able to be entered through passwords, they can all be equipped with their own weapons and if you have an unit that gets eliminated or depletes its stamina you can just roll out with another one, this works a lot for gathering objects when your inventory full.
Now, the bad part about this system is that in order to recruit members you have to take out guards, generals, medics and scientists, and that's fine since the stealth aspect of this game is pretty easy, but the one thing that turns away people the other direction is having to drag their corpse all the way back to the spawn area behind a truck to count them in. This process takes a long while if you're doing it by hand and you most likely will because I've found that the mechanic of leaving people nearby cardboard boxes with the other members of your team around for them to get captured simply doesn't work. I personally had to use fast forwarding in my emulator to make it less of a chore, and even then I had to repeat a few missions so that I could gather enough members for a sustainable medic team or spy unit, but it's something that you'll do once and never again hopefully, since most of the time you'll use Snake anyways, and unless you fight bosses there's no need for more than your trusty Mk22 since the enemies' routing is pretty basic and most of the maps you're gonna sneak into are pretty much enclosed, smaller spaces because of the console it was put on (but also works at its advantage because it makes for a bite-sized experience you can either binge or hop in and on every so often).
Having explained how the recruitment system works, the only thing that there is left to say about this game is pretty much its story, it's surprisingly good for a spin-off game of a seemingly low budget, it has great pacing, a great retrospective on Big Boss's actions through MGS3, and even a glimpse into the future that is the start of the whole franchise and a small array of familiar faces who make for bosses that are pretty much on par with mainline. I particularly like how they adapted the story to be in this very rough comic artstyle that fits the tone of the series perfectly and manages to absolutely bring the same movie-like vibe and action of the 3D titles to the portable system.
It's a shame that a lot of people won't look back to this game because it's been argued forever whether it is worth it or not because "it's not canon", when it was made carefully so it didn't contradict anything from the main story, expanded upon Naked Snake's story and even had the approval and overseeing of Kojima himself even if he didn't direct or write for it (he literally didn't want to drop MGS4 until this one was finished and out), and people worry about it because it didn't show up on a timeline? Gimme a break, the story is excellent for what it is and you best bet it's canon, it'd be a waste if it wasn't.
Overall, pretty surprising. Calling to the Night is a really good credits song, too.
I personally think this is the best one in the trilogy. I liked the ambiance, the cases, and some of the characters!
I basically binged it like, 7 hours a day... It was an experience going to sleep at 6 A.M. by the feeling of excitement about the next chapter. The gameplay mechanics and story made it a really big thing for me, that I wish I could revisit for the first time.
I basically binged it like, 7 hours a day... It was an experience going to sleep at 6 A.M. by the feeling of excitement about the next chapter. The gameplay mechanics and story made it a really big thing for me, that I wish I could revisit for the first time.
1999
I've just now finished this game for the very first time in my life, with some friends on Discord I fired it up ironically, thinking I'd just play the first few levels, laugh at the guy running and then leave. I was a fool. This game is frustrating, level design is unfair, infuriating and confusing and sometimes it just doesn't forgive your mistakes whatsoever, it really amps up in difficulty in the later stages.
It's a fun and addictive runner, but it's just too unforgiving and ends up being frustrating and even to master it, but I do appreciate its legacy as the bizarre ad-game that it is for the Japanese market, and it being published by the same house that published old Kotaro Uchikoshi visual novels and him even being the 3D modeller of this one.
It's just something you kinda play once and that's it, I guess.
It's a fun and addictive runner, but it's just too unforgiving and ends up being frustrating and even to master it, but I do appreciate its legacy as the bizarre ad-game that it is for the Japanese market, and it being published by the same house that published old Kotaro Uchikoshi visual novels and him even being the 3D modeller of this one.
It's just something you kinda play once and that's it, I guess.
Pokémon Platinum is a title that resounds loudly when Pokémon discussion comes around, it is a game that has gotten through every stage of fanaticism, with it being the improved version of seemingly one of the worse received and sluggish titles from everyone having played this specific one in the their childhood years thus marking what a Pokémon game would be forever for them. It's truly a generational game that has inflicted in the life of many people to get into the franchise to stay or video games in general... Or so I've heard. People all around me always have considered Platinum to be between one of the best Pokémon, if not just Nintendo DS games of all time and of course that going into this I was a bit excited, maybe they were right all along and I've always adverted myself to the thought of it being that good ever since I first tried out at the ripe age of eight years old... And I simply couldn't feel more disappointed by the end result.
Pokémon Platinum Version is the next big step in the Pokémon series of games, we're talking generational leap from the Game Boy family of handheld consoles to the new and shining, 3D-capable double-screened for double action Nintendo DS, a marvelous invention when it came to the ergonomics of handheld gaming as a whole and a series of handhelds that Pokémon would pretty much see as a home for the next decade or so. With it came completely new graphics mixing 3D objects with the tile-based sprites we've seen before, dynamic day/night cycle due to the clock functionality built into the system and a whole new screen to menu your menus easier I guess, they really haven't found an actual good utility for this one yet so it plays more like just your average GBA game with better graphics and sound.
So, with the new capabilities of the hardware you would expect that they make good use of them and actually bring the experience to a new standard, maybe this new Sinnoh region is vast with never-seen before Pokémon coupled with classics from Generations I-III coming back, right??? The answer would be, kinda? Only one of those is really correct and none of it is really in a good way.
Platinum marks the first Pokémon game to be abnormally long compared to its predecessors, and very little of it is actually used in any sort of meaningful way that would excuse it being this long. The whole game took me 41 hours and with having done a lot of optional stuff, I didn't skip out on any battles nor did I spend time grinding, so I reckon it probably wasn't just me being slow but the amount of padding there is throughout the whole journey, with routes being extra long with trainers that have some killer (hard) teams with little to nearly no time to actually spend in the cities and towns you visit, in Emerald it felt like the location of certain places you needed to go to were in very remote areas but in Platinum it feels like everything is a remote area. It's long, drawn out and so boring because out of those hours spent going everywhere only like 10 of it are actual things of substance relating to the story with Team Galactic and Cyrus, and the story isn't that good to begin with, it has the bare minimum of actual nuance to it and by the end of it I just simply couldn't care no matter what they did, I much prefer how the story was lied down in Emerald with it being spread out through the entire game and the resolve of it tying into the ending and stuff like that.
It being so long could've been somewhat excused if the usage of Pokémon wasn't so badly spread throughout, there's barely any familiar Pokémon from past Generations that aren't just Geodude, Magikarp and Zubat and every single trainer uses the same pool of like 20 mons while Team Galactic goons use the same pool of like 4 (four) mons, by the end of the game I had to check my Pokédex to see if I was actually lacking gray matter in my brain to make me forget about it but in reality is that there isn't nearly as much interesting wild Pokémon, and most of the Pokémon that were interesting enough came from the Ace Trainers that you fight in said long routes.(One particularly interesting one was Tropius being used in one of the teams, Tropius is such an underrated and unknown Pokémon that I was legitimately surprised, but it was an NPC's team so it's not like I could do anything about it) And then when you look at the Pokémon that Generation IV added you notice how bad is the variety of types is and how some like fire type Pokémon are simply neglected if it isn't Chimchar, it's probably my least favorite Regional Dex so far as there's simply nothing to it.
By the end of it, with the help of hacked Rare Candies and abusing the hell out of a measly 1.5x fast forward button the geniuses over at MelonDS headquarters crafted for me, I challenged the Pokémon League with a team at around level 50-ish, I struggled, hard. I know I'm not the best at Pokémon battling in general and I think my methods are a bit meat-headed when it comes to strategy but I didn't think it was that bad, and as an amazing surprise, by the end of it... Turns out I was underleveled. So I had to spend the entire Elite Four battles playing like a little bitch reviving and healing and waiting for the numbers to give me their blessing and coincide perfectly so that my damn Whiscash would actually use Surf once and for all. The game not only is 35 hours long minimum but to add insult to injury is also grindy as hell if you actually wanna have a slight margin of error when it comes to beating it, it's no surprise that leveling up anything past level 35 via natural means in Pokémon sucks and it's a long process but damn, you need to be around 65 to actually comfortably get past all the Elite Four challenges and that's just so much adding onto the pile of miseries this game has held for me.
In general I don't think I've ever felt more bored playing a Pokémon game, or a RPG in my life. Nothing really shines through, the story and characters are nothing otherworldly as people like to think it is, it's slow and has no variety when it comes to its monsters in this monster catching video game, and it's sluggish and slow as all hell. But hey, bonus points for the music department because damn did they pop off for some tracks here and there.
Pokémon Platinum Version is the next big step in the Pokémon series of games, we're talking generational leap from the Game Boy family of handheld consoles to the new and shining, 3D-capable double-screened for double action Nintendo DS, a marvelous invention when it came to the ergonomics of handheld gaming as a whole and a series of handhelds that Pokémon would pretty much see as a home for the next decade or so. With it came completely new graphics mixing 3D objects with the tile-based sprites we've seen before, dynamic day/night cycle due to the clock functionality built into the system and a whole new screen to menu your menus easier I guess, they really haven't found an actual good utility for this one yet so it plays more like just your average GBA game with better graphics and sound.
So, with the new capabilities of the hardware you would expect that they make good use of them and actually bring the experience to a new standard, maybe this new Sinnoh region is vast with never-seen before Pokémon coupled with classics from Generations I-III coming back, right??? The answer would be, kinda? Only one of those is really correct and none of it is really in a good way.
Platinum marks the first Pokémon game to be abnormally long compared to its predecessors, and very little of it is actually used in any sort of meaningful way that would excuse it being this long. The whole game took me 41 hours and with having done a lot of optional stuff, I didn't skip out on any battles nor did I spend time grinding, so I reckon it probably wasn't just me being slow but the amount of padding there is throughout the whole journey, with routes being extra long with trainers that have some killer (hard) teams with little to nearly no time to actually spend in the cities and towns you visit, in Emerald it felt like the location of certain places you needed to go to were in very remote areas but in Platinum it feels like everything is a remote area. It's long, drawn out and so boring because out of those hours spent going everywhere only like 10 of it are actual things of substance relating to the story with Team Galactic and Cyrus, and the story isn't that good to begin with, it has the bare minimum of actual nuance to it and by the end of it I just simply couldn't care no matter what they did, I much prefer how the story was lied down in Emerald with it being spread out through the entire game and the resolve of it tying into the ending and stuff like that.
It being so long could've been somewhat excused if the usage of Pokémon wasn't so badly spread throughout, there's barely any familiar Pokémon from past Generations that aren't just Geodude, Magikarp and Zubat and every single trainer uses the same pool of like 20 mons while Team Galactic goons use the same pool of like 4 (four) mons, by the end of the game I had to check my Pokédex to see if I was actually lacking gray matter in my brain to make me forget about it but in reality is that there isn't nearly as much interesting wild Pokémon, and most of the Pokémon that were interesting enough came from the Ace Trainers that you fight in said long routes.
By the end of it, with the help of hacked Rare Candies and abusing the hell out of a measly 1.5x fast forward button the geniuses over at MelonDS headquarters crafted for me, I challenged the Pokémon League with a team at around level 50-ish, I struggled, hard. I know I'm not the best at Pokémon battling in general and I think my methods are a bit meat-headed when it comes to strategy but I didn't think it was that bad, and as an amazing surprise, by the end of it... Turns out I was underleveled. So I had to spend the entire Elite Four battles playing like a little bitch reviving and healing and waiting for the numbers to give me their blessing and coincide perfectly so that my damn Whiscash would actually use Surf once and for all. The game not only is 35 hours long minimum but to add insult to injury is also grindy as hell if you actually wanna have a slight margin of error when it comes to beating it, it's no surprise that leveling up anything past level 35 via natural means in Pokémon sucks and it's a long process but damn, you need to be around 65 to actually comfortably get past all the Elite Four challenges and that's just so much adding onto the pile of miseries this game has held for me.
In general I don't think I've ever felt more bored playing a Pokémon game, or a RPG in my life. Nothing really shines through, the story and characters are nothing otherworldly as people like to think it is, it's slow and has no variety when it comes to its monsters in this monster catching video game, and it's sluggish and slow as all hell. But hey, bonus points for the music department because damn did they pop off for some tracks here and there.
Persona is the first of the anthology series analogous to Shin Megami Tensei, and is probably the one to carry over most of the genes from its thematic predecessor (being Shin Megami Tensei if...), from the high school setting to the first person dungeon-crawling, it's an experience to be had since from here this little spin-off series have taken the original by storm and even though it's a series that often forgets its origins, elements that mark the difference from a common Megami Tensei game to a Persona game are seen very early on.
Persona as a basis has a very big focus on the characters and its story, and the story told with the ensemble cast of St. Hermelin is one highly inspired on paranormal investigation and mystery anime and manga from the 90's (The ones with the wacky dubs and that very distinct traditional artstyle you'd see on Twitter aesthetic accounts), this game is sort of like that, the mystical and abnormal events that occur are nothing short of bizarre and philosophical, yet also somewhat "edgier" and feverish for a JRPG of its time making Persona a title with a unique aesthetic to it and why it has become a cult classic among people who are big into the genre. (It also features a really well produced, immersive and extensive soundtrack that got shafted in its way to the PlayStation Portable, and we're lucky that there's a partial patch for it since this is the most accessible version for now, but please be in the lookout for whenever the de-localization of Revelations: Persona releases if you're planning to dig into this title anytime soon.)
I won't go into detail for the story since it's a bit all over the place, even if it ends up standing on its own quite nicely it feels like they tried to do too much, but it's forgiven just because of the really good mixing of people we have here, all of the main cast you can bring along are pretty nice and act accordingly to situations and every character seems to have that one thing to them and in their majority are well expanded upon, so good job for that one. Except for Brown, we don't like Brown.
Sadly though, every positive of this game kind of goes to the bin whenever the discussion about its gameplay takes place, it's not horribly bad but most of the times fights and the dungeon crawling can be a bore, it's outdated and slow as hell and the dungeons are just hallways, so in case you have the handy Fast Forward button close you're gonna have to engage slowly with the most shoehorned in grid system that had really no place in here at all, couple that with the fact that you have to grind for Persona Levels to make good use of your cards to fuse higher level and powerful Personas, yeah I don't know why they had to add another level count for how high you're actually allowed to fuse, and the fact that not everyone levels up accordingly so you're bound to have one teammate thats lower level than everyone else and makes the ability to actually negotiate with Demons impossible. So even if the game is super easy to go through (I never struggled with anything more than one-shot attacks, I was fine in money and levels and everything else) you're forced to eventually grind to get your Persona Level up and unlock their abilities faster. At least this is somewhat easy when you have the Auto option since you can just replay what you've done before, but this messed me up sometimes when against Demons who could reflect, and costed me a couple of hours of progress.
Feels like they also should've piped down when it came to the sheer amount of elements and ailments there are in this game, there are SO many of them that you can inflict or be inflicted upon besides the fact that you have actual, real guns to fire with and melee weapons. Makes figuring out weaknesses of bosses a real pain when you have to cycle through everything just to find the guy is weak to Earth damage or something and then you can't hit him because the only party member who has access to that is charmed and the grid doesn't let them. They really could've simplified it and I am horrified to actually know what they'll do whenever they eventually remake it.
All and all, can't blame people who couldn't get into it, but when you get on the groove of things and put up with its stupidities of yore, you have a very solid game, with great music and characters and a convincing enough story. Could definitely use a good face washing in this day and age.
(Didn't play Snow Queen Quest because after SEBEC route I felt like I already had my fill of this game, and don't get lied to whoever tells you that is essential, it's more of like a thing you can do that gets sorta referenced later on and nothing else.)
Persona as a basis has a very big focus on the characters and its story, and the story told with the ensemble cast of St. Hermelin is one highly inspired on paranormal investigation and mystery anime and manga from the 90's (The ones with the wacky dubs and that very distinct traditional artstyle you'd see on Twitter aesthetic accounts), this game is sort of like that, the mystical and abnormal events that occur are nothing short of bizarre and philosophical, yet also somewhat "edgier" and feverish for a JRPG of its time making Persona a title with a unique aesthetic to it and why it has become a cult classic among people who are big into the genre. (It also features a really well produced, immersive and extensive soundtrack that got shafted in its way to the PlayStation Portable, and we're lucky that there's a partial patch for it since this is the most accessible version for now, but please be in the lookout for whenever the de-localization of Revelations: Persona releases if you're planning to dig into this title anytime soon.)
I won't go into detail for the story since it's a bit all over the place, even if it ends up standing on its own quite nicely it feels like they tried to do too much, but it's forgiven just because of the really good mixing of people we have here, all of the main cast you can bring along are pretty nice and act accordingly to situations and every character seems to have that one thing to them and in their majority are well expanded upon, so good job for that one. Except for Brown, we don't like Brown.
Sadly though, every positive of this game kind of goes to the bin whenever the discussion about its gameplay takes place, it's not horribly bad but most of the times fights and the dungeon crawling can be a bore, it's outdated and slow as hell and the dungeons are just hallways, so in case you have the handy Fast Forward button close you're gonna have to engage slowly with the most shoehorned in grid system that had really no place in here at all, couple that with the fact that you have to grind for Persona Levels to make good use of your cards to fuse higher level and powerful Personas, yeah I don't know why they had to add another level count for how high you're actually allowed to fuse, and the fact that not everyone levels up accordingly so you're bound to have one teammate thats lower level than everyone else and makes the ability to actually negotiate with Demons impossible. So even if the game is super easy to go through (I never struggled with anything more than one-shot attacks, I was fine in money and levels and everything else) you're forced to eventually grind to get your Persona Level up and unlock their abilities faster. At least this is somewhat easy when you have the Auto option since you can just replay what you've done before, but this messed me up sometimes when against Demons who could reflect, and costed me a couple of hours of progress.
Feels like they also should've piped down when it came to the sheer amount of elements and ailments there are in this game, there are SO many of them that you can inflict or be inflicted upon besides the fact that you have actual, real guns to fire with and melee weapons. Makes figuring out weaknesses of bosses a real pain when you have to cycle through everything just to find the guy is weak to Earth damage or something and then you can't hit him because the only party member who has access to that is charmed and the grid doesn't let them. They really could've simplified it and I am horrified to actually know what they'll do whenever they eventually remake it.
All and all, can't blame people who couldn't get into it, but when you get on the groove of things and put up with its stupidities of yore, you have a very solid game, with great music and characters and a convincing enough story. Could definitely use a good face washing in this day and age.
1996
Pokémon is one hell of a multimedia franchise. Me, personally, I was never that invested in Pokémon besides playing some 3rd and 5th gen games and thinking they were just fine albeit a bit boring by my 9-year-old standards. Now, in full conscious mind I have been pushed to play the series alongside my girlfriend and as we usually like to do, we're starting from the very beginning.
I felt a bit skeptical about this because, well, Pokémon Red Version is prone to suffer from "first-game syndrome" and it is a Game Boy game so a lot of things in it might be dated by today's standards. And yeah, for a lot of it it does kind of suffer from being so old and dated but, hell, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find any charm in it.
Pokémon Red Version is a game that's apart of the very first generation of Pokémon, all 151 creatures were packed in and sent for one of the most successful JRPGs out there, connecting with a lot of people because of its creatures, the simplicity of its design and the whole moving world that you're able to interact with, it's a pretty extense title considering the platform it was released on but it does have some caveats that knock the experience down a bit.
The game is pretty slow at all times, getting from here to there without using any speed hacks is practically a one-way send off to elderhood from just how much time it takes from getting to a place to another, whilst having to fight wild Pokémon, trainers and using abilities (that lead you to having to open your menu and using the ability in the first place), so playing it on actual hardware at the pacing it was intended is a tough task and I can say so because that is how I first started playing this.
Balance is pretty much non-existant in a lot of ways, some Pokémon can pretty much tear other Pokémon to shreds just because of level advantage, not even taking into account the type system and how some moves might be more effective against other types of Pokémon, and then there's stuff like the Psychic type which has minimal weaknesses against a pretty low number of Pokémon in general.
And a lot of people (not me, but just saying) have pointed out how boring this generation is compared to later ones, and they are a bit right, some Pokémon are very uninspired when it comes to what animals they represent and such, even coming down to calling a seal, "Seel" and rolling with it. I personally don't think it is that bad but it is kind of apparent, at least it sets a milestone when comparing it to any other generation(that isn't Generation II) and it is kind of cute seeing how everything was so square and simple at the time.
I think this game truly just shines for its simplicity and just how primitive yet advanced it was for its time.
I felt a bit skeptical about this because, well, Pokémon Red Version is prone to suffer from "first-game syndrome" and it is a Game Boy game so a lot of things in it might be dated by today's standards. And yeah, for a lot of it it does kind of suffer from being so old and dated but, hell, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find any charm in it.
Pokémon Red Version is a game that's apart of the very first generation of Pokémon, all 151 creatures were packed in and sent for one of the most successful JRPGs out there, connecting with a lot of people because of its creatures, the simplicity of its design and the whole moving world that you're able to interact with, it's a pretty extense title considering the platform it was released on but it does have some caveats that knock the experience down a bit.
The game is pretty slow at all times, getting from here to there without using any speed hacks is practically a one-way send off to elderhood from just how much time it takes from getting to a place to another, whilst having to fight wild Pokémon, trainers and using abilities (that lead you to having to open your menu and using the ability in the first place), so playing it on actual hardware at the pacing it was intended is a tough task and I can say so because that is how I first started playing this.
Balance is pretty much non-existant in a lot of ways, some Pokémon can pretty much tear other Pokémon to shreds just because of level advantage, not even taking into account the type system and how some moves might be more effective against other types of Pokémon, and then there's stuff like the Psychic type which has minimal weaknesses against a pretty low number of Pokémon in general.
And a lot of people (not me, but just saying) have pointed out how boring this generation is compared to later ones, and they are a bit right, some Pokémon are very uninspired when it comes to what animals they represent and such, even coming down to calling a seal, "Seel" and rolling with it. I personally don't think it is that bad but it is kind of apparent, at least it sets a milestone when comparing it to any other generation
I think this game truly just shines for its simplicity and just how primitive yet advanced it was for its time.
This game has left conflicting feelings inside of me. For one part, I like it, I like the characters and thought it was fun especially when things went down, but the other part of me wishes it was better in some regards, in the script, in the world around this futuristic version of Tokyo and most importantly, in its pacing.
Like how other reviewer said in this very site, I liked it but I wish I loved it. It's a very good murder mystery, but it's no Zero Escape. It takes a very long time to set in and put you in a spot where you just want to read more and more, ESPECIALLY if you go down the right route in the first Psync sequence, it's like they never meant for you to go down there in the first place if you haven't experienced half of the game because of how lame it feels as they don't introduce you correctly to a lot of concepts and the characters.
And, about Psyncing, I'm bittersweet about it, for one part it felt right coming from Zero Escape, having these small puzzle-solving sequences to continue further in the story seemed neat, until it wasn't.
I get that the puzzles are supposed to be in a dream world where only vague reconstructions of our memories take place in, but that doesn't equal to a good puzzle-solving experience, in Somnia, everything is so bizarre and arbitrary that sometimes you don't know how to start in doing certain things while also causing confusion, and it doesn't help at all that the time system forbids you from completing all actions and just looking for all dialogue inside of these. Sometimes they felt like a roadblock in an otherwise smooth experience, when I knew I had to enter a Somnium at some point I rolled my eyes because I thought again of having to stress over saving TIMIEs and making sure I'm doing everything in order so I don't run out of time doing many actions. It feels poor and without much reason.
My problems with the script are mainly how fast the tone-shifting is in this game, you see somebody die then two scenes after Date is already lusting and doing some weird stuff, and I normally wouldn't have a problem with it but it happens so often in-between what's supposed to be serious and delicate situations that it just makes me wonder how worth it was it to keep there and not for some comedic relief in another time entirely.
I'm pretty sure an Uchikoshi happened again and he (and his team) didn't have enough budget to make a very ambitious title, as you can see they recycle the same overworld places, animations (That are very stiff, by the way! Making action scenes very awkward), models and other things, I won't blame it on him but I just wish there was more to amplify the world that these characters inhabit because moving from ABIS to Matsushita Diner to Marble got repetitive very quick, as you can see.
In the other hand though, the story was well thought out, classic for Kotaro Uchikoshi. Its not his best work but he did a good job on writing it, I just wish it did more towards the direction it was heading, the sequel looks promising just because of that, so we'll see!
Like how other reviewer said in this very site, I liked it but I wish I loved it. It's a very good murder mystery, but it's no Zero Escape. It takes a very long time to set in and put you in a spot where you just want to read more and more, ESPECIALLY if you go down the right route in the first Psync sequence, it's like they never meant for you to go down there in the first place if you haven't experienced half of the game because of how lame it feels as they don't introduce you correctly to a lot of concepts and the characters.
And, about Psyncing, I'm bittersweet about it, for one part it felt right coming from Zero Escape, having these small puzzle-solving sequences to continue further in the story seemed neat, until it wasn't.
I get that the puzzles are supposed to be in a dream world where only vague reconstructions of our memories take place in, but that doesn't equal to a good puzzle-solving experience, in Somnia, everything is so bizarre and arbitrary that sometimes you don't know how to start in doing certain things while also causing confusion, and it doesn't help at all that the time system forbids you from completing all actions and just looking for all dialogue inside of these. Sometimes they felt like a roadblock in an otherwise smooth experience, when I knew I had to enter a Somnium at some point I rolled my eyes because I thought again of having to stress over saving TIMIEs and making sure I'm doing everything in order so I don't run out of time doing many actions. It feels poor and without much reason.
My problems with the script are mainly how fast the tone-shifting is in this game, you see somebody die then two scenes after Date is already lusting and doing some weird stuff, and I normally wouldn't have a problem with it but it happens so often in-between what's supposed to be serious and delicate situations that it just makes me wonder how worth it was it to keep there and not for some comedic relief in another time entirely.
I'm pretty sure an Uchikoshi happened again and he (and his team) didn't have enough budget to make a very ambitious title, as you can see they recycle the same overworld places, animations (That are very stiff, by the way! Making action scenes very awkward), models and other things, I won't blame it on him but I just wish there was more to amplify the world that these characters inhabit because moving from ABIS to Matsushita Diner to Marble got repetitive very quick, as you can see.
In the other hand though, the story was well thought out, classic for Kotaro Uchikoshi. Its not his best work but he did a good job on writing it, I just wish it did more towards the direction it was heading, the sequel looks promising just because of that, so we'll see!
2011
This review contains spoilers
Pushmo is a 3D tile-based puzzle game released exclusively on the 3DS eShop back in 2011, the year of release of the console. And it is an oddly charming and cute title fitting for the handheld, the story is pretty much null but the objective is very clear, you're playing as Mallo, a sumo looking lil' guy mascot of the series that must solve these "Pushmo" wall thingies by pushing tiles and climbing to the top of these most of the times, the idea is that all tiles that are connected and are of the same color move along, so with that and the three levels of depth you can move them in the three-dimensional space you basically have a few things to think ahead of when climbing these puzzles, luckily enough you're equipped with a Rewind button so you can fix up any mistakes you make. It's a simple premise, and kind of made so you chip away at it slowly as a sort of "night table" game, you beat a couple of puzzles one day and then come back the next to hopefully beat some more and so on, quintessential grandma gaming basically.
So, this might strike as weird, why do I decide to make a review out of a game this simple? If the game was just baby puzzles this would've ended a while back, but I'm here to expose the absolute demonic intent this game hides behind the cutesy facade...
First of all, this game has a bit of a problem with its difficulty curves, there's no real gradual difficulty and it's all over the place, one puzzle can be absurdly easy but then the other one is hard hard, the indicators with stars that define the difficulty also seem to be off sometimes, I've had some trouble with some three-star puzzles more than I've had with some five-star ones and that's just weird, and this wouldn't be a problem if the hardest puzzles weren't such a headache to figure out. With the medium comes that you have to use much more of your senses to actually play the game, it's not just some crossword that you can do pretty much in automatic, so when a puzzle is very hard instead of getting the satisfaction of beating it you instead beat yourself over it for not getting it, later on they become exponentially longer so it's not really a thing of popping one to play every now and then or before going to bed.(ESPECIALLY looking a those DAMNED Bonus Murals you unlock at the end when you think you're done, they're a nightmare.)
In Pushmo there are also some hidden elements of platforming, it's more seen in the later stages but sometimes it isn't enough to climb up but you need to actually make tight jumps, jump all the way down to go elsewhere to set up a path or make a movement without activating a switch that will move tiles to the front, now, if this is the thing with the later and more difficult stages I have no idea why movement is so limited? There's a lot of jumps that could be done theoretically, and you can even buffer your Zoom Out button for precise frame movements and you'll notice how Mallo is purposefully not allowed to do those jumps, he gets sent back. And then these nerfings work against you in the last stages of the Bonus Murals where you actually need to make some intricate platforming, and that's really annoying because it's not like the 3DS circle pad is the best for those kinds of moves too.
Cutesy and iconic of the long-past Nintendo 3DS eShop era, however could probably have used some more refining to make it more of a zen puzzling experience, but if their objective was to indeed hurt people who think they're smarter than the game (me) then I salute, you've done it. Now take your mid rating and go.
So, this might strike as weird, why do I decide to make a review out of a game this simple? If the game was just baby puzzles this would've ended a while back, but I'm here to expose the absolute demonic intent this game hides behind the cutesy facade...
First of all, this game has a bit of a problem with its difficulty curves, there's no real gradual difficulty and it's all over the place, one puzzle can be absurdly easy but then the other one is hard hard, the indicators with stars that define the difficulty also seem to be off sometimes, I've had some trouble with some three-star puzzles more than I've had with some five-star ones and that's just weird, and this wouldn't be a problem if the hardest puzzles weren't such a headache to figure out. With the medium comes that you have to use much more of your senses to actually play the game, it's not just some crossword that you can do pretty much in automatic, so when a puzzle is very hard instead of getting the satisfaction of beating it you instead beat yourself over it for not getting it, later on they become exponentially longer so it's not really a thing of popping one to play every now and then or before going to bed.
In Pushmo there are also some hidden elements of platforming, it's more seen in the later stages but sometimes it isn't enough to climb up but you need to actually make tight jumps, jump all the way down to go elsewhere to set up a path or make a movement without activating a switch that will move tiles to the front, now, if this is the thing with the later and more difficult stages I have no idea why movement is so limited? There's a lot of jumps that could be done theoretically, and you can even buffer your Zoom Out button for precise frame movements and you'll notice how Mallo is purposefully not allowed to do those jumps, he gets sent back. And then these nerfings work against you in the last stages of the Bonus Murals where you actually need to make some intricate platforming, and that's really annoying because it's not like the 3DS circle pad is the best for those kinds of moves too.
Cutesy and iconic of the long-past Nintendo 3DS eShop era, however could probably have used some more refining to make it more of a zen puzzling experience, but if their objective was to indeed hurt people who think they're smarter than the game (me) then I salute, you've done it. Now take your mid rating and go.
1987
This game truly shows its age by its absence of guidance throughout all of it. None of the supports on the Radio help you do anything ever (only Jennifer, because she gives you a rocket launcher and that's my fucking GOAT) and unless you go get a guide from very ancient LPs or from GameFAQs you will be pretty lost. Such was my case.
The layout of Outer Heaven is pretty mazey, and a lot of zones don't really have any difference with one another and it can feel very frustrating to backtrack all the way to where you first started only to find something or open a door you couldn't before.
And, for a tactical espionage game it sadly doesn't have that great of a stealth mechanic, characters won't forget about you after a few screens, sometimes even approaching them in order to kill them with your fists and put a level 2 alert on you and that's never nice.
Massive lack of items anywhere, so much that you have to resort to enter and exit the few rooms you have that can give you rations or ammo again and again to make infinite resources, I don't think that was intended at all but I guess it works?
The bosses are pretty cool though, even though they're easy to beat they have a way on how you get your satisfaction in this game, that's pretty neat.
Now, I played the ported-over MSX version for PC (that GOG sells around) and I realized it was slow, the control scheme is more than not weird and sadly, it was pretty choppy compared to guides I saw on the NES version, which honestly kinda made me want to for that one more but didn't, stuck with delayed controls and a choppy frame rate, and it was fine but knowing there was something better felt a bit bad.
The layout of Outer Heaven is pretty mazey, and a lot of zones don't really have any difference with one another and it can feel very frustrating to backtrack all the way to where you first started only to find something or open a door you couldn't before.
And, for a tactical espionage game it sadly doesn't have that great of a stealth mechanic, characters won't forget about you after a few screens, sometimes even approaching them in order to kill them with your fists and put a level 2 alert on you and that's never nice.
Massive lack of items anywhere, so much that you have to resort to enter and exit the few rooms you have that can give you rations or ammo again and again to make infinite resources, I don't think that was intended at all but I guess it works?
The bosses are pretty cool though, even though they're easy to beat they have a way on how you get your satisfaction in this game, that's pretty neat.
Now, I played the ported-over MSX version for PC (that GOG sells around) and I realized it was slow, the control scheme is more than not weird and sadly, it was pretty choppy compared to guides I saw on the NES version, which honestly kinda made me want to for that one more but didn't, stuck with delayed controls and a choppy frame rate, and it was fine but knowing there was something better felt a bit bad.
2015
This review contains spoilers
Portal Stories: Mel is a mod that has left me sort of conflicted. As a lifetime fan of Portal I've always heard that this mod was one of the best there was for the game and that it was pretty much on-par with the actual releases and their stories, and somehow I managed to delay it so far into my life that even more modifications have come around to make a run for Mel's money, but alas, I finally dug in and played it... And I think it's okay?
Mel is a bait-and-switch mod that at first hides in the facade of being yet another Portal prequel mod and then gets sidetracked to be more like the average campaign for these games, you're actually trapped in this large and cold facility and your objective is to get through many test chambers and climb your way up until you can technologically murder the technological murderer that wants to kill you (technologically), in this case being AEGIS, a pretty underwhelming replacement for GLaDOS. You're accompanied by Virgil, a Maintenance Core that fell down all the way to Old Aperture and is trying to get out, this guy is the Wheatley replacement and a pretty average guy at that I'd say, sad to say that he will never be him as he's a pretty boring companion overall.
And so the journey begins, you have to climb all the way up to the surface while leading on a Core that might as well just be some average ass guy as he blabbers on about so many things, I think a part of this is where the humor kinda falls flat compared to Portal 2's ironic, sarcastic yet effective jokes and humor in its script, Mel's writing is nowhere near that so seeing them try is cute but ultimately it does feel like they're trying too much to accomplish the same things Portal 2 did back in the day. So that's enough about the plot and characters of the work, I sadly cannot expect much considering Portal 2 is my favorite game of all time so not much in that regard will really please me.
The test chambers and puzzles in this mod are most popular for their rampant difficulty compared to the base game and the rest of mods out there, so bad that they had to make a whole new mode of nerfed test chambers because people complained about it too much I guess, I played the entire game in this "Advanced Mode" which is comprised of the original mod before the nerfs and while I thought some puzzles were really nervewracking and some took me a while, in general I think I do understand why people complained about them and why maybe adding the nerfed mode was a good option. I am uncertain how common this is in puzzle games in general but there's a very weird balance between tests that are actually very hard to do, versus ones that you can figure out very easily and don't take nearly as long as the other ones, and then some gimmicky ones put in the mix every now and then, in Advanced Mode there's this sort of inconsistency when it comes to the chambers themselves that vary in difficulty so much that it's hard to actually find satisfaction in completing a lot of them because they're either too hard or too easy, it also isn't really gradual as the entire game is consistently inconsistent when it comes to it, and after sort of playing through some chapters in Story Mode to get some achievements, I think I'd much rather have those that are pretty much more straightforward and don't require fourth dimension thinking to then swap to the easiest puzzle you've ever beaten in your life. Then there's also some more open-ended puzzles akin to those of Chapter 6 "The Fall" in Portal 2, this time they're in the facility and they're just okay, when they're too open there's a lot more decorations in a lot of places which lead me to some confusions and getting lost while playing.
Now, I'll be completely honest and fair. This is just me nitpicking as a very big Portal fan, the project in itself has an immense amount of care put into it from the soundtrack, the ambience, the mapping work, art and everything just being practically a love letter from notorious people in the community released completely for free(something that can't be said for the OTHER mod) and it shows, it's a pretty cool end result that translated in probably one of the most iconic full-conversion story mods in PC gaming for years to come. And to that I think Portal Stories: Mel might be worth your time if you're interested in it, it has some cool and easy achievements as well that will only really require you to replay some sections of the game. Overall, as there is no overarching gimmick or anything of the sort I'd just mark this up as more Portal 2 designed for people who liked the original and are seeking for more, and I think that's cool, this has set the bar pretty high up in that regard.
Mel is a bait-and-switch mod that at first hides in the facade of being yet another Portal prequel mod and then gets sidetracked to be more like the average campaign for these games, you're actually trapped in this large and cold facility and your objective is to get through many test chambers and climb your way up until you can technologically murder the technological murderer that wants to kill you (technologically), in this case being AEGIS, a pretty underwhelming replacement for GLaDOS. You're accompanied by Virgil, a Maintenance Core that fell down all the way to Old Aperture and is trying to get out, this guy is the Wheatley replacement and a pretty average guy at that I'd say, sad to say that he will never be him as he's a pretty boring companion overall.
And so the journey begins, you have to climb all the way up to the surface while leading on a Core that might as well just be some average ass guy as he blabbers on about so many things, I think a part of this is where the humor kinda falls flat compared to Portal 2's ironic, sarcastic yet effective jokes and humor in its script, Mel's writing is nowhere near that so seeing them try is cute but ultimately it does feel like they're trying too much to accomplish the same things Portal 2 did back in the day. So that's enough about the plot and characters of the work, I sadly cannot expect much considering Portal 2 is my favorite game of all time so not much in that regard will really please me.
The test chambers and puzzles in this mod are most popular for their rampant difficulty compared to the base game and the rest of mods out there, so bad that they had to make a whole new mode of nerfed test chambers because people complained about it too much I guess, I played the entire game in this "Advanced Mode" which is comprised of the original mod before the nerfs and while I thought some puzzles were really nervewracking and some took me a while, in general I think I do understand why people complained about them and why maybe adding the nerfed mode was a good option. I am uncertain how common this is in puzzle games in general but there's a very weird balance between tests that are actually very hard to do, versus ones that you can figure out very easily and don't take nearly as long as the other ones, and then some gimmicky ones put in the mix every now and then, in Advanced Mode there's this sort of inconsistency when it comes to the chambers themselves that vary in difficulty so much that it's hard to actually find satisfaction in completing a lot of them because they're either too hard or too easy, it also isn't really gradual as the entire game is consistently inconsistent when it comes to it, and after sort of playing through some chapters in Story Mode to get some achievements, I think I'd much rather have those that are pretty much more straightforward and don't require fourth dimension thinking to then swap to the easiest puzzle you've ever beaten in your life. Then there's also some more open-ended puzzles akin to those of Chapter 6 "The Fall" in Portal 2, this time they're in the facility and they're just okay, when they're too open there's a lot more decorations in a lot of places which lead me to some confusions and getting lost while playing.
Now, I'll be completely honest and fair. This is just me nitpicking as a very big Portal fan, the project in itself has an immense amount of care put into it from the soundtrack, the ambience, the mapping work, art and everything just being practically a love letter from notorious people in the community released completely for free
1989
Playthrough was done using the Super Mario Land DX romhack for the game.
Even though this is the very first Game Boy game, I'll give it merits for all it tried to do and at least what it led to (SML2), I still think it's a very intricate platformer that more often that not plays very weirdly, as the physics and momentum when you jump are sometimes Just Not There and ultimately it fails when some jumps are tight and you just barely make it or don't which, and if you fail enough times and get a Game Over it's back to the beginning and that's kinda annoying.
I like that they did so much with the music with the limited Game Boy soundchip, and the levels are distinct enough with one another, it really makes me wish a New Super Mario Bros. game was actually set in Sasaraland with the alternate versions of power-ups (like the Super Ball) and enemies (like the Koopas that explode when you stomp on them), it would give a lot of play and I'm rather sad it is not utilized anywhere else.
Even though this is the very first Game Boy game, I'll give it merits for all it tried to do and at least what it led to (SML2), I still think it's a very intricate platformer that more often that not plays very weirdly, as the physics and momentum when you jump are sometimes Just Not There and ultimately it fails when some jumps are tight and you just barely make it or don't which, and if you fail enough times and get a Game Over it's back to the beginning and that's kinda annoying.
I like that they did so much with the music with the limited Game Boy soundchip, and the levels are distinct enough with one another, it really makes me wish a New Super Mario Bros. game was actually set in Sasaraland with the alternate versions of power-ups (like the Super Ball) and enemies (like the Koopas that explode when you stomp on them), it would give a lot of play and I'm rather sad it is not utilized anywhere else.
1987
This game is simply not that good, Classic Mega Man is usually pretty nice but its starts are very rough around the edges and sometimes it's just weird how they pumped out a game like this, this short, without seemingly not much care put into it when it comes to the stages, sprite work or music. It's weird knowing that this was the game to birth a whole series of 10 other games and so much more.
If not for the abuse of rewind those bosses would've taken me so damn long, and it's not even because they're super difficult or anything, they're just artificially harder because they do just way too much damage, the stages are either too plain and simple or the level design is too questionable, the collectibles are placed randomly and seem arbitrary as you're not told or implied anything they do, you even need to backtrack a stage which is never implied anywhere to get through Wily's stages, and holy shit are these questionable by themselves.
Overall, it reeks of making it hard just to have young kids in the '80s having to play it over and over and milk the hell out of that playtime, which is a common thing between these games. But in Mega Man it feels more nonsensical as it would benefit so much more of being a short and sweet experience instead of a short and rough one.
If not for the abuse of rewind those bosses would've taken me so damn long, and it's not even because they're super difficult or anything, they're just artificially harder because they do just way too much damage, the stages are either too plain and simple or the level design is too questionable, the collectibles are placed randomly and seem arbitrary as you're not told or implied anything they do, you even need to backtrack a stage which is never implied anywhere to get through Wily's stages, and holy shit are these questionable by themselves.
Overall, it reeks of making it hard just to have young kids in the '80s having to play it over and over and milk the hell out of that playtime, which is a common thing between these games. But in Mega Man it feels more nonsensical as it would benefit so much more of being a short and sweet experience instead of a short and rough one.
1993
Mega Man 6 is the last evolution of the franchise in its original hardware, before moving onto different consoles and having many revivals of the sort. It shows how they practically have already reached a point of the series where they didn't knew what else to do, after subsequently having done a bit of everything, my guess is they tried to make the idea simpler by making the game have a constant thematic, a seemingly "fresh" ""plotline"" and a lot of quality of life adjustments that would've been really welcome in years prior.
While this game practically took its platforming to another level making you able to take the form of the abilities Rush had in previous games (making for a whole new array of potential mechanics with it that I think they used well enough, these being the alternate paths you can reveal with the Power Suit and the higher ground you can find with the Jet Suit.) it does fall short in what would be the next big innovation of the franchise so far. Mega Man 5 was impressive and actually pretty damn good, but Mega Man 6 while also good, it's a tad bit unremarkable as yeah, it came out at the dying years of the NES, that meant that developers knew their hardware and developer tools by heart practically, but at least after the whole idea with the mysterious Mr. X, the Grand Tournament and the Robot Masters being based on different locations of the world, they just didn't seem to do that much new compared to previous entries, which is kind of a let down. But it isn't a bad game by any means.
While this game practically took its platforming to another level making you able to take the form of the abilities Rush had in previous games (making for a whole new array of potential mechanics with it that I think they used well enough, these being the alternate paths you can reveal with the Power Suit and the higher ground you can find with the Jet Suit.) it does fall short in what would be the next big innovation of the franchise so far. Mega Man 5 was impressive and actually pretty damn good, but Mega Man 6 while also good, it's a tad bit unremarkable as yeah, it came out at the dying years of the NES, that meant that developers knew their hardware and developer tools by heart practically, but at least after the whole idea with the mysterious Mr. X, the Grand Tournament and the Robot Masters being based on different locations of the world, they just didn't seem to do that much new compared to previous entries, which is kind of a let down. But it isn't a bad game by any means.
1986
(before the review starts i wanna thank my girlfriend for guiding me through the game i love u so much honey)
While I admire and respect the amount of things that came out of this game, the plain innovation in so many staples of adventuring and exploration games came from this very one, but, that's where the appraisal pretty much ends. The actual game is very primitive when showing its basic concepts, and ultimately falls in a very repetitive loop of things that straight up haven't aged well at all.
So, first of all, the exploration of the world while it works it's definitely confusing to not end, in a tile-based world where everything just looks sort of similar except for formations and other objects in tiles (such a trees in a forest, or rocks in a mountain) everything looks just about the same, making it hard to actually develop a sense of direction if it wasn't for the arbitrary placement of some things in some screen. And talking about arbitrary, the placement of secret pathways or stuff you have to move or interact with is pretty much at random or without any indication whatsoever, making some of them very nonsensical and frustrating to get as you have to move everywhere in the map without a real sense of accomplishment.
The game from this point onward becomes very formulaic. You go to a dungeon, the dungeon gives you some sort of special item you'll use at a later point, you beat countless rooms of bad enemies (we'll get to that in a bit), get keys, get very poorly translated hints from the old man, beat the boss that usually has a gimmick and then get the piece of the Triforce, and rinse and repeat. Nine times.
Now, this would not be a problem if the process was still fun by at least the fourth time you did it, at first it being relatively straight-forward whilst increasing the difficulty(albeit in a very fake manner, just putting in upgraded versions of common enemies as a way to level with the player as they adquire upgrades and damage boosts) up until the final dungeons which are just rooms galore, no real puzzling is ever employed in any of these either, it's always just kill enemies, get keys, move boxes (!), look for secret rooms (!!!), and getting the special object to assist in the elimination of the boss.
All of this while having poor movement options, and while having the game put more crap in the screen out to kill you at once as much as they see fit, it ultimately is not fun playing a "bullet hell" with a D-pad but that's what you just gotta do in Ganon's dungeon at the same time of dealing with annoying upgraded Wizzrobes which will die in three hits, or the very much so annoying upgraded Dark Nuts which only die if you hit them in the back, sounding easy but it is hell when there's a plethora of Bubbles and obstacles in the way of actually dodging them or getting them in place for you to actually hit them.
With a game like this, you'd have to do the whole process of going into dungeons or combating enemies more fun if you're gonna repeat the process so many times, but ultimately, The Legend of Zelda failed on this, and while it is a pioneer in these games period, it very poorly stands the test of time.
Now, I'm not excited for whats next...
While I admire and respect the amount of things that came out of this game, the plain innovation in so many staples of adventuring and exploration games came from this very one, but, that's where the appraisal pretty much ends. The actual game is very primitive when showing its basic concepts, and ultimately falls in a very repetitive loop of things that straight up haven't aged well at all.
So, first of all, the exploration of the world while it works it's definitely confusing to not end, in a tile-based world where everything just looks sort of similar except for formations and other objects in tiles (such a trees in a forest, or rocks in a mountain) everything looks just about the same, making it hard to actually develop a sense of direction if it wasn't for the arbitrary placement of some things in some screen. And talking about arbitrary, the placement of secret pathways or stuff you have to move or interact with is pretty much at random or without any indication whatsoever, making some of them very nonsensical and frustrating to get as you have to move everywhere in the map without a real sense of accomplishment.
The game from this point onward becomes very formulaic. You go to a dungeon, the dungeon gives you some sort of special item you'll use at a later point, you beat countless rooms of bad enemies (we'll get to that in a bit), get keys, get very poorly translated hints from the old man, beat the boss that usually has a gimmick and then get the piece of the Triforce, and rinse and repeat. Nine times.
Now, this would not be a problem if the process was still fun by at least the fourth time you did it, at first it being relatively straight-forward whilst increasing the difficulty
All of this while having poor movement options, and while having the game put more crap in the screen out to kill you at once as much as they see fit, it ultimately is not fun playing a "bullet hell" with a D-pad but that's what you just gotta do in Ganon's dungeon at the same time of dealing with annoying upgraded Wizzrobes which will die in three hits, or the very much so annoying upgraded Dark Nuts which only die if you hit them in the back, sounding easy but it is hell when there's a plethora of Bubbles and obstacles in the way of actually dodging them or getting them in place for you to actually hit them.
With a game like this, you'd have to do the whole process of going into dungeons or combating enemies more fun if you're gonna repeat the process so many times, but ultimately, The Legend of Zelda failed on this, and while it is a pioneer in these games period, it very poorly stands the test of time.
Now, I'm not excited for whats next...
2020
It's fun, it can definitely use some more polishing though. Sometimes it feels unresponsive or not responsive enough, it lacks of basic modern rhythm game options such as custom maps, skins (or any type of mod loader in general), multiplayer and remaps for the keys. These types of games must be played with keys on a horizontal line because the way they're layed out on a normal keyboard makes it uncomfortable to play at times.
A lot of people love the presentation but I honestly hesitated to try it for that motive, I think the "quirky simplistic" artstyle has already died down for me.
Honestly, it's free, you can try it out and it's fun. I just hope it gets some more basic features because the week system gets old quickly. A multiplayer mode could really benefit from the "duel" type of rhythm game in which both sides are displayed.
A lot of people love the presentation but I honestly hesitated to try it for that motive, I think the "quirky simplistic" artstyle has already died down for me.
Honestly, it's free, you can try it out and it's fun. I just hope it gets some more basic features because the week system gets old quickly. A multiplayer mode could really benefit from the "duel" type of rhythm game in which both sides are displayed.