I remembered this being very fun when I was a kid, but I think it's just kind of mid now. I was interested in how the special stages worked, but I got kind of frustrated with having to collect and hold onto so many rings when there are seemingly no shields to be found. Get hit? kill yourself. You have to start over. And even then, when you get to the special stage, it could just be some stupid pipe maze that's too fast to actually react to. I got to the special stage in almost every level and still did not get all the emeralds because of those stupid fucking pipe mazes.

Otherwise, the game is still painfully mid. The general gameplay is fine, but it's not exciting or really anything worth mentioning. You get to play as tails, but there's not much here besides that. It's not horrible, but it's not great either.

5/10

This game is horrible.

It's not even like me bitching about games being old. If you look at my profile it's pretty clear that "old shit" is all I play. It's just that every level is designed horribly and most decisions are super bizarre.

I mean, lord save anybody who tries to go for the emeralds because some of them are in such strange and barely reachable locations. In the 2nd level, you have to jump on clouds, but you can't tell which clouds you can stand on and which clouds are just the background. The 5th level has you jumping through a fake wall that you would have like no idea is there.

And let's not even talk about Scramble Egg. That entire thing is horribly done. You can make levels that are challenging but not unfair. I think Level 3 (Aqua Lake?) is a great step in that direction. I actually had fun playing that level. Same with (most) of Green Hills.

There's also a lot of little things that just suck. One I hated was how bosses are just there when you get to their screen so you can slam into them and die immediately. And of course, them not giving you any rings or any protection for the fight, and making it worse by including challenges before the fight.

I do not believe a single soul that says that there are no bad sonic games. It's just flat out false.

4/10

Honestly, I really dig 8-bit Sonic. It's definitely way more traditional against the trail-blazing genesis version, but I think something like this works way more for these 8-bit consoles.

I really enjoyed exploring to look for the emeralds. While I might have preferred a good special stage to find them, I enjoyed learning where they all were.

I wish certain levels actually gave you rings. I think bosses not giving you rings is the biggest flaw this game has, because you have to do it all in one shot. I ended up losing a lot of lives getting used to the bosses since I've never gone through the entirety of the Master System version before (I mainly played the Game Gear edition). I especially lost a lot of lives on Sky Base 2. Truly awful level.

The game definitely pales in comparison to its genesis version, and a lot of the blemishes here are revealed through comparison. I think they are pretty close to equals in terms of quality, but the genesis version is still clearly better.

7/10

Sonic the Hedgehog is pretty good. In general, it's still very fun and playable despite its many faults. Though, if you're going into it with future games in mind, you might be a little disappointed.

A lot of my opinions are pretty common. Green Hill is a fantastic first level. Marble and Labrinth, while not horrible, completely fail as Sonic levels and prove that "breather levels" are unnecessary. Spring Yard and Starlight are pretty fun but not Green Hill levels of good. Scrap Brain is a pain but it's not dogshit or anything, it's just kind of mediocre.

Special stages are kind of a mixed bag I'd say. I think in general, they get a lot of shit they don't completely deserve. I think they are pretty fine, it's just that they're really jarring on first play. They are very manageable once you get to understand what everything does. My main criticism is that it's very easy for you to plummet into a goal sphere when trying to press forward through the stage. You gotta really take it slow, but that's easier said than done. Either way, they're not horrible, and you get plenty of chances to get through them (though I wish you could get to the special stages in Scrap Brain).

Of course, the game is so fun because of the physics. I personally don't get many opportunities to fully exploit the physics system, but I know there's tons of little tricks you can do to get around things and to skip annoying parts. And when I do get to utilize it, I really enjoy it.

Very flawed but not a horrible time. There's plenty of fun to be had even if this game is very quickly overshadowed.

7/10

[Played on Retron 5 with the original cartridge]

Jaws on NES is extremely frustrating, not because it's not fun, but rather because it feels like this game was so close to being at least good.

The main issue that holds this game back so much is how much you're punished for losing lives. You don't just lose your live, you also get docked down a power level, lose your Jaws radar, and your shell count (the currency needed to up your power level) is cut in half. That's a HUGE setback, and it gets to the point where you might as well just reset the game and start over. I believe the reason this was done was because this is a pretty short and easy time otherwise. Like the only way they could introduce challenge into this game was to fuck you over and punish the shit out of you for failing rather than implementing alternative gameplay challenges like so many other, better titles do.

You only ever contend against 3 enemies in the ocean levels. I think that's part of the issue. The game only ups challenge in those sections by altering how the jellyfish move and adding to the enemy count. I think adding more enemy varieties could have helped keep the gameplay fresh and exciting throughout.

Once you shoot down Jaws' health bar, you have to spear the boat through him (I haven't watched the films but I can assume this matches one of the movies' climaxes. If so, cool) and you only get 3 shots. If you fail, you have to shoot down Jaws all over again. This seriously bothered me a bit because I kept failing and failing. though the benefit here is that Jaws always comes to you, so you don't have to hunt him down, you just have to wait for him to come to you and then spam him to death (he doesn't really fight back). I think I would have preferred if this final leg of the game wasn't there, or rather that it was retooled into something more entertaining to play through.

I don't know. With the flaws that I see here the game just becomes nothing. I wouldn't say it's bad, but I wouldn't say it's good either. Just a passable title. I'd skip it if I were you, but I don't think you'd have much of an issue with picking it up, as I got my copy at a very cheap price.

5/10

[Played on the Retron 5 with the original cartridge]

I remembered this game being a perfectly passable platformer when I first played it. I never played it very far or for very long so I just thought it was fun for what I saw. I think now that I've seen the whole thing I can say that it's kind of boring.

I don't really have any in-depth reasoning for this opinion. I just played it and thought it wasn't very entertaining. I think a major part of this was figuring out how to beat all the bosses. I found most of them to be really frustrating without the egg bombs. Additionally, the levels themselves were littered with rather frustrating setpieces, like the lava climb in the castle level or the way the slippery ice worked in the snow level. The game functions well but everything around that solid ground is really flimsy and annoying to work through.

About the only thing I can enjoy about this game is the Grand Dad bootleg and how strange it is.

6/10

[Played on Retron 5 with the original cartridge]

I haven't played DuckTales in a very long time and I have to say it's still just as great as the last time I played it. I have no real familiarity with the cartoon beyond a couple of episodes of the original series, so none of my enjoyment was derived from that. This is just a really really good game, certainly to be expected since this is a Capcom NES title.

This is certainly a game built around exploring for treasure. You're always given plenty of time to roam around and look for secrets, and there's certainly a lot of hidden gems. Yet this never gets overwhelming. You're not required to find many secret items to complete levels and finding the actual end-level bosses is no issue. Really, I can see a lot of Wario Land in this, and that's something I highly respect.

I think my only real issue might be that it's pretty easy. Thankfully DuckTales has 3 difficulty options to choose from, and the difficult option is perfectly fine. I don't actually remember much of what in particular makes the difficult option the hardest, but it certainly felt more challenging, as I was usually close to dying by the time I got to a boss, and that made figuring out patterns a lot more fun (because when you do, the bosses are nothing).

Really, you have no reason to NOT add this to your collection. This is a must-have title, like plenty of the other Disney titles, and plenty of the other Capcom titles.

8/10

[Played on Retron 5 with the Original Cartridge (patched with the Japanese ROM]

Playing Dragon Power has been pure misery. It's not fun in any way, shape, or form, which is absolutely tragic considering this is one of the first Dragon Ball games. None of the unmatched fun and excitement from the manga is translated here, especially if you're playing the western release.

As an adaptation, this is fine I guess? The first story arc is ran through mostly accurately, playing like an abridged version of the manga as it cuts out a lot of exposition. You also don't get Oozaru at the end, but I guess that's understandable when you want to make a game where you purely play as Goku.

Then, the game kind of goes all over the place in terms of adaptation. They try to do some sort of tournament to at least feel like the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, but everything is all messed up. You at least fight against Krillin and Yamcha, characters who were present during the arc but ones Goku didn't actually fight against, but then you also have to fight against sergent metallic and Buyon from the Red Ribbon Army arc? It's weird. You don't even fight Roshi as Jackie Chun. I found it kind of disappointing.

Then after that, they kind of just do their own thing. It's understandable because, by the time of release, the Red Ribbon story arc hadn't been completed (Toriyama was in the middle of the Baba tournament, with Goku stepping up to fight the Mummy Man, so the arc was almost finished). Still wasn't any actual fun to play though.

Yeah, that actual gameplay is pretty frustrating and I couldn't find a single thing to enjoy about it. Your health is tied to a lowering power meter. It only goes up if you eat food which you really just find randomly. I can commend the developers for tying health to hunger like Dragon Ball did up until around the point where Senzu Beans were introduced, but it just plays as really frustrating. I never feel like I have enough health or enough time to actually accomplish anything, so by the time I'm near the end of a stage, I'm nearly out of life. I know that's mostly me being inexperienced, but the game is no fun to play without experience. Most challenging games on the NES like Castlevania are extremely fun to play even if you suck at them.

I guess it kinda just comes down to fighting not being any fun. I kind of end up just slamming myself at enemies and hoping a punch is registered rather than a hit on myself. I try to be more strategic during bosses but with the constantly depleting health to take note of, I end up not having time to take it slow. It kind of just feels like you have to know exactly what you're going to do at all times and it's not fun, especially when you're in the process of learning what it is that you want to do.

Please do not play this game. Please play Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure instead.

2/10

[Played on the Retron 5 with the original cartridge]

Dr. Mario is a pretty good puzzle game. It's relatively easy to get into and it gets really difficult the farther you get into it. Even at those hardest points and at your worst of chokes it's always possible to salvage your run. On all fronts this is a well designed and entertaining puzzle game on the NES. The only thing holding this back for me is that there are much much better puzzle games on the NES like Tetris and Yoshi's Cookie and Wario's Woods. With games like those I have little reason to ever go back to this one because I vastly prefer those. I know it's kind of a bad move to judge the game based on other games rather than its own individual strengths and weaknesses, but it's something that's always on my mind when I play.

Worth the buy but not the best puzzle game you can pick up.

[Game played on Retron 5 with the Original Cartridge]

It took a bit for me to get used to Contra. I previously haven't played Contra for longer than maybe a couple of minutes every once and a while. I never actually sat down and saw it all the way through until now. After taking the time to actually beat it, I really enjoyed it. It's very hard, with lots of enemy placements that are extremely frustrating, but it's not so hard that you don't want to play it.
There's plenty here to keep you going, and I think what really makes it work is the various weapons. While there is obviously a specific one you always want (spread shot), every weapon is worth trying out and using. When the game gets really difficult and you start dying, you really start to appreciate every item and use each to their benefit to get by. They're all very fun to use.

This game seems like another very excellent co-op title, but sadly I don't exactly play games with other people. Either way, I think it's really cool to see simultaneous co-op on the NES.

I'm pretty happy with all the bosses in the game. Each is surely difficult, but they're all manageable. I think my favorite part of them is how they range in difficulty based on your weapon loadout. If you're on your base gun, the bosses will go easier on you, but if you have the spread shot they'll be quicker and harder to work with as compensation for your enhanced firepower. It's something that on paper sounds kind of unfair but it really works and keeps the game from getting so easy that its boring.

Of course, this game also has a lot of the quality you can expect from Konami titles. Very good graphics and very good sound. They're not on par with Castlevania, but it's still rather great. I guess that sums the entire game up. It certainly has plenty in common with Castlevania, and Castlevania is better in pretty much every way, but this is still head and shoulders above a whole lot of the NES library.

8/10