I finished Goldeneye two times now in my life. Once 2 years ago and today on the hardest difficulty. Both times on original hardware but with different controllers. The first time was with one of those "better, enhanced etc." controllers, which reshape the N64 gamepad layout to a more modern one. And it was awful. Through the whole game I felt like I could never learn how to precisly aim, making me die over and over in a level I already knew how to beat, but the execution was near impossible. I really didn't enjoy expierence. I stopped playing after the main campain and made peace with the thought, I would never touch this appearently poorly aged game ever again. At least on OG hardware. I tried the keyboard and mouse emulator mod. While the extrem precision I gained was nice, it just didn't feel right. The enemy AI clearly wasn't bulit for this control method. Fast forward 2 years later and I finally replace the old stick of my original N64 controller with a new one, which gets as close to the original sensetivity as possible. And the first game I try is Goldeneye. And it's like night and day. My shots finally land, the precision aiming finally works and Goldeneye suddenly is actually fun now. After the inicial testing I decided to fully complete the game on the hardest difficulty. Goldeneye is still really hard in sometimes even a bit unfair. But during this run, it actually felt like I was only fighting the level design and not the controls. I have no nostalgia for this game, but with this playthrough I learned something important about Goldeneye and retro games in general. Some games belong to their console, they have to be played with their original control method to be fully appreciated. I never hated the N64 controller. But after finishing Goldeneye, I actually like it. It's layout may only work with these old N64 games, but it works way better than people think. And Goldeneye has aged. But more gracefully than I initially thought. Play it, but with the trident.

All in all a solid part of the Classic Sonic series. The level design is classic yet experimental in order to stand out from its predecessors and usually successfully brings a breath of fresh air into the gameplay. However, Superstars is held back by two major problems. On the one hand, the music, which consists of 50% of the usual Sonic bangers, but also 50% of very poorly composed Genesis tracks. In addition, they stand out unpleasantly from the other tracks due to the choice of the"instrument". Almost as if the two halves weren't even part of the same game.
The second problem and my biggest problem personally are the bosses. First of all, I would like to point out that I don't have much objection to the idea of making classic Sonic bosses significantly more difficult and putting more focus on the attack patterns. However, there is still significant work to be done on the execution. Enemy attack phases for almost all bosses are far too long, while the player's attack phases are incredibly short. If mistakes are made, this only prolongs the already long fights (which tend to be close to 10 MINUTES for the later bosses). And this not even includes the first two final bosses (there are 3 in total), which have several phases and should take 10 minutes even if you play perfectly. In addition, these bosses in particular punish almost every mistake and are only too happy to surprise the player with instant death attacks that you NEVER see coming the first time. And there is not a single checkpoint between the individual phases. This means you can easily spend several hours with these bosses, which is not okay in any world. The third final boss isn't really that difficult and more or less a Vicory lap THAT FUCKING DESERVED AT THIS POINT!
But as I said. Sonic Superstars is a good game, but it has two strong low points that could have been avoided fairly easily. It's not just another "step in the right direction", but it's not a masterpiece either. It's a damn fine game. And that's what matters for me at the end of the day.

This game has fantastic music and impressive graphics for 1988. But this is where almost all positives of this game end for me. The combat feels very limited and most of the time you don't feel equiped to fight or defend against the stronger enemies. Which is basically the worst thing you can do designing a Beat 'em Up. Another big problem are the non-existent health pick-ups. You are forced to get through the whole stage with only one health bar. And you don't want to lose a life in basically every stage, because you will need every single life for the final section of the game. The Ninja Warriors in its original form is sadly a far cry from it's two remakes on SNES and Switch. The Switch-Version even has the good music from this version as an unlockable. So there is basically no reason to play the original (except you really can't help yourself).

Tropical Freeze is definitly one of the best 2D-Plattformers you can get on the Switch. Organic and creative leveldesign, beautiful artstyle and a soundtrack which stays on the same level like the SNES trilogy. But you have to get used to the rather unique physics of Donkey Kong. I don't know any other Jump 'n' Run character who feels so heavy but is still able to build a lot of momentum. I can imagine mastering the levels can give you a similar feeling like classic Sonic games. I have only one gripe with this game: The difficulty curve. Tropical Freeze isn't an exremly hard game, especially not if you are not going after 100%. But I have the feeling that there is a huge gap between the difficulty of the first 3 worlds and the last 3 worlds. The game doesn't become impossible or anything, but the jump in difficulty really caught me off guard and I think a bit more balance could have been done to make the difficulty curve more natural. But other than that, I enjoyed my time with Tropical Freeze and recommend it to everyone who seeks a challenging and unique platformer, which you can't find anywhere else.

As with so many media, it happens with video games that in the long history of their existence, entire works are forgotten by time. Be it through their similarity to other games that came before them, or through the fact that only a few played them at the time of their release. And in the case of Soleil, at least if you consider West, both are true.
Soleil was part of Sega's grand project to stock up on RPGs and adventure games, which had long been rather scarce on the Mega Drive. While the SNES spearheaded the golden age of RPGs and adventure games, Sega limited itself to the niches that competitor Nintendo served comparatively less. Be it action games, sports games and arcade ports. However, this meant that Sega missed out on a large target group, especially in Japan, who had a far greater interest in RPGs, which Nintendo only had in abundance on offer. Soleil was the first game of Sega's RPG project, which actively tried to compete with Nintendo in this niche. That the RPG project was crowned with little success hardly needs to be made clear. When you think of the RPG machine of the 90s, you're talking about the SNES with absolute certainty, and hardly the Mega Drive. Among other things, this "failure" ensured that most of the games from this project were increasingly forgotten over the years, usually completely regardless of their quality. Among these "lost gems" is unfortunately Soleil, which indulges its internet existence in a few Wikipedia articles and ancient playthroughs on YouTube. Which dismays me deeply, especially now that I've had a chance to play it myself.

Soleil has been compared to A Link to the Past since its release in the West in 1994. Which surprised me little, at least at first: the character looks very similar to Link, combat mechanics are similar, the game has a similar graphic style, there are dungeons with puzzles. That sounds like a real Zelda clone...doesn't it? When I first started Soleil I could have answered that question with a resounding "yes", but after the credits finally appeared on the screen I no longer think I can stand by that statement.

Soleil unquestionably takes some notes from A Link to the Past, but how it finally uses these characteristics and mixes them with its own ideas makes this game very much its own and special.

Soleil tells the story of Corona. On his 14th birthday, according to ancient tradition, he receives the sword and shield from his fallen father to begin his training as a hero of Soleil. After Corona tells the King of Soleil about his 14th birthday and is sent by him to the training camp, Corona seeks out a fortune teller. This one predicts him a future that will determine the fate of the world. For better or worse, it will be up to him. She also tells Corona that he would soon lose something important. A bright flash of light appears and the fortune teller disappears. Corona soon learns that he has lost the ability to talk to other people. However, he can now communicate with animals of all kinds. Corona asks his dog Johnny for help and starts with him, as his first companion animal, his journey through the country to find a way to regain his human language. On his journey, Corona meets other animals who, after he has helped them, assist him as another animal companion.

This is the core mechanic of the game. The animal companions function relatively similarly to items you would find in a Zelda game, but there is a much higher focus on influencing Corona's combat abilities instead of being a mere tool like a grappling hook. Just 4 of the 16 available pets could also be described as clear recreations of Zelda-typical items. Without as too many companions to begin with and no special abilities, fighting is very similar to the familiar A Link to the Past gameplay. However, Corona learns two abilities relatively early on that drastically change. First, Corona learns Sword Throw in training camp, which is Soleil's equivalent to Link's Whirl attack. Only, the sword throw is far more useful and the attack you'll use most often against bosses and masses of enemies. Combined with the animal companions, which can add ice and fire magic to the sword throw, among other things, the applications of the sword throw multiply all the more. Be it in the fights themselves or solving the rather simple puzzles of the game.

While the puzzles inside and outside the dungeons are very easy until the end, the focus of Soleil's puzzles is much more on platforming. This is made possible by Corona's dedicated jump button, which can be used to overcome huge chasms in combination with a certain animal companion. Even though none of the dungeons were really challenging in terms of puzzles, they were able to thrill in a different way with these platforming passages. Dungeons are also intrigued into the world of Soleil completely naturally. For example, Tower of Babel, which is not just any dungeon that stands in the middle of the desert without any context. It's a structure built by humans that was supposed to reach to the heavens, but was never finished. In fact, most of the dungeons aren't even really recognizable as such, as they're usually just part of the linear path that Corona travels on his way through the world. I often didn't realize it was a dungeon until I was face to face with the associated boss.

The bosses were always the highlight of a dungeon. While similar to the puzzles, they are not very complicated, the presentation of them and Corona's fast and dynamic movement makes up for it. All of this is accompanied by a soundtrack that could only exist on the Mega Drive, which makes the boss fights just plain fun.

The soundtrack probably reflects a lot of Soleil's personality. The game actually manages to tickle such atmospheric sounds out of the Mega Drive that you would normally only expect from SNES games. But in doing so, Soleil still preserves the console's musical identity. Soleil sounds like a Mega Drive game, but like no other on the platform.

Unlike most other adventure games, the player does not move through an open connected world, whose secrets can be explored further and further in the course of newly acquired abilities. Soleil builds its upper world according to a kind of level system similar to Super Mario World or Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. However, the available areas can be freely explored and revisited, whether for story reasons or to collect missing golden apples, which correspond to the heart containers of a Zelda game. Thus, Soleil follows a strict linear progression with hardly any deviations from the foreseen path, but this apparent restriction allows the game to convey a deeper narrative, which at the time was really only known from classic RPGs.

Because even though Soleil starts off very lighthearted with its story, it unfolds its true plot point in the middle of the game. Soleil is, I think, one of the first games to seriously ask the question, "Is it really right to kill monsters just because they are monsters?" This is a question that has gained a strong hold in the medium, especially nowadays. A popular example of this would clearly be "Undertale." However, despite the deeper subject matter, you shouldn't expect anything as profound from Soleil as these modern games. Especially the ending of Soleil's story might be considered rather inappropriate or at least questionable by fans of Undertale, for example. However, I won't go into that until later.

Corona's journey finally leads him to Iris, where he is directly confronted with the moral conflict for the first time. Namely, when he enters the village, he exchanges bodies with a slime, which flees in its acquired human form. In search of a cure, the games if briefly views the world from the point of view of one of the weakest monsters in most video games. Only able to move, with a jump that basically does nothing and the fear of being slain by a hero who pounces on you like a madman as soon as you go near him. Corona finally meets the mother of the real slime in a hiding place, who immediately recognizes him as a real human being and tells him what kind of fear they constantly have to live in, although they have never done anything to a human being. For them, monsters are all the same, even though there are obviously just as many differences in character as there are in humans. With the help of a witch, Corona finally succeeds in changing his shape back with the real slime. The latter thanks him because he was finally able to tell a human girl, with whom he fell in love, about his feelings. With this first hard thought, the player finally leaves Iris.

And it doesn't stop from that point either. Corona reaches the Tower of Babel to find out why no one there can communicate with each other, hoping to find a solution to his language problem. He climbs the tower and beyond, finally arriving in heaven itself. After Corona finally defeats the boss of the dungeon there, he hears a divine voice. This explains to him that Corona received the language of the animals to see the world from the point of view of these and the monsters, to finally end the centuries of bloodshed. Seeing that basically nothing has changed and that Corona, with his victory over the Boss in Heaven, has also desecrated this sacred place, the goddess gives him back his human language. She warns Corona that it is not the words themselves that are important, but what is considered right in one's heart. He should look at the world from the point of view of others and she would pass the final judgment on those who are not able to see this. For Corona the time had come to change history. The laws of nature should no longer apply. Soleil's crusade should come to an end. Corona should see how deep the sins of mankind reach.

This stark departure in the game's tone so far hits hard. Especially when you consider that Soleil is actually aimed at a slightly younger audience than the typical Zelda player.

From this point on, the second act of the game begins. Corona gains the ability to travel back in time at certain locations on the overworld. It is not clearly stated why one does this. But if you interpret the goddess' speech correctly, it becomes pretty clear. Corona travels further and further back in time per area, not only to see how far the cruel conflicts of man have reached, but to unearth the root of all evil. His time travel takes him back to the desert, among other places, where in a society people are branded as monsters and thrown into the dungeon if they don't keep them to strict laws. In the volcanic area, Corona prevents the creation of an entire cave complex in the present where a magician turns ordinary animals into mindless monsters. In the animal village on the beach, Corona gives animals the courage to stand up to evil creatures.

But Soleil draws the player even further into humanity's dark history in the penultimate two areas. In Dahlia Valley, Corona climbs inside the monster mother that created all the monsters of this valley and kills her from the inside by attacking her defenseless heart. With the death of this monster in the past, there will never be monsters in Dahlia Valley in the present. But probably the most depressing place in the past, is Corona's hometown. There, some monsters have broken out of the dungeons. These can be traced to the church. The monsters tell that they only wanted to talk to the king to make him understand that they didn't want to harm anyone. The king's soldiers storm the church and kill all the monsters without being able to prevent it. One of the soldiers is also surprised that none of the monsters fought back. And to add salt to the player's wound, the king announces that a statue will be dedicated to Corona for his services.

This is the statue that adorns the fountain of Soleil City in the present.

A last area finally opens its gate to the past. Corona has arrived at the origin of everything. The point in time before light flooded the world and the point at which monsters entered the world. There Corona meets the still living monster mother, who explains to him that all monsters come from another world and got to Soleil involuntarily. They would have tried forever to return, but the gate through which they came was blocked by an invisible power of spiritual energy.

To fight against this power, the player must face five mini-bosses, which are designed according to the five senses. After defeating these, Corona faces off against the Spiritual Energy, which turns out to be the easiest boss in the entire game once you figure out its weakness. With the disappearance of the Spiritual Energy, all the monsters are sucked back into their world, thus never having encountered humans.
Back in the newly created present, battles against monsters were never fought, which means, among other things, for Corona that his father is still alive and his statue is exchanged for that of the Goddess. In a final speech by the Goddess, she praises Corona for reminding her of the good in people. However, she says, humanity should always remember that they are not the only ones who exist in this world.
Finally, during the credits, Corona takes his dog Johnny for a walk, during which he meets all of his animal partners that he never met in this timeline.

You will notice, especially from modern reviews, that this ending is criticized by some. I partially agree with this attitude and would have definitely liked it better if humans had learned to coexist with the monsters at the end. But I would by no means go so far as to say that Soleil ends up stumbling over its ultimate message of mutual understanding. Indeed, this is reinforced primarily by the newfound relationship between man and beast. Perhaps with the disappearance of the monsters, the developers wanted to communicate that some people are too different to ever live together peacefully, to the regret of all involved. Even if this would be a rather bitter conclusion, with which I would not agree, I can not deny that one could come to this view, if one looks at the real world events, with all its real conflicts. It at least makes you think.
Soleil is a game that, for me, went far beyond the image of a simple "Zelda clone". With its beautiful graphics that stand head to head with the SNES's finest games, a unique OST, and an unexpectedly deep story that, while a bit critical for me towards the end, definitely deserves more attention. Maybe one day Soleil will undergo an "Earthbound revolution" and will see this little game for what it is: A game worth remembering.

A solid remake of the first 3 Mega Man titles, considering the context of the time. The Mega Drive Soundtrack really slaps, while not taking to much of the identity of the NES versions. Performance was improved in all titles, which is especially awesome for MM 3. The power of the 16-Bit Mega Drive also gave the opportunity to overhaul nearly all graphics from the original. Stages have way more background details and replaces a lot of the black spaces form the originals. Mega Man himself looks closer to his actual artwork and less like little Timmy's first pixelart.

The Wily Tower is really fun as a post game reward and adds a lot of replay value.

My only gripe would be the controls. They aren't really sloppy or anything but Mega Man seems to stick to the ground a bit to much while changing directions. The best desrciption would be "Sticky Feet". But you can adjust to that over time, but some sections in MM1 and MM2 are definietly made tougher because of it. I think Quick Man's Stage is nearly impossible without using Flash Man's ability, which makes the boss fight against the bot himself really painful.
But other than that: Really solid for 1994.

That Mega Man 2 is still highly praised today would probably be a fair understatement, and it's no secret that for many this game is the best part of the entire series. Now it would be easy to say that with these introductory words, "completely surprisingly" I would go against the mainstream and contradict that and everyone else is blinded by their nostalgia. However, this would simply be childish and would contribute little to a fair review. I already let assume with this explanation what I will now say straightforwardly: Mega Man 2 is not the best or second best Mega Man game in my opinion, let alone one that I would immediately recommend to a beginner. However, I agree in almost all respects that Mega Man 2 far surpassed its predecessor and could be considered the real beginning of the franchise, since from here on the basic formula of the series was clearly defined. Mega Man 2's goal was basically to improve on its predecessor's formula and reach a larger audience, keeping the franchise alive. The team succeeded in both, making Mega Man 2 probably the most important game in the franchise.
But what about the game itself? I actually have to say that about 2 thirds of the game is really great and probably a milestone for the series. The levels are much more structured and now constantly follow the simple rules of a 2D platformer that the Super Mario series set: "Show the mechanics of the level and test the player over its course with increasingly complex applications of them." Mega Man allows itself more freedom than Mario, but it rarely hurts the levels. The battles against the Robot Masters have also been greatly improved. While each one is still challenging, and has a clear pattern that must be understood in order to master them. The weakness dynamic is now expanded to 8 robots, but the fair structure of the fights means that it is possible to defeat each Robot Master in any order imaginable without being subconsciously punished by the game for doing so. Trying out the different routes is rewarded by the Dr. Light items, since they make individual passages in the levels easier with clever use. The new E-Tanks are also helpful here, as they replenish Rock's full life bar, but you always have to assess whether it's the right time to use them.
With all this praise, however, the legitimate question arises as to why I explicitly only referred to 2 thirds of Mega Man 2.

This is because I would argue that once the blue bomber sets foot in Wily's fortress, Mega Man 2 falls back into old habits of its predecessor level-wise and boss design.
The first level is actually still fine, at least up to the point where the mega dragon appears. I don't like this boss for two reasons: First, the sprite flickering gets so bad that most of the time I don't even know where the bursts of fire or Mega Man himself is. On the other hand, you are forced to jump back and forth between three platforms to avoid said bursts of fire while you are over an abyss. This means that one wrong jump or unfavorable burst of fire can mean instant death. The reset point, which is relatively far from the boss fight, only makes all of this more annoying. While the second stage is hardly challenging, it feels pretty jumbled and doesn't have an explicit theme or any interesting mechanics. However, the boss of this stage is to be viewed relatively positively and would have preferred to fight him first instead of the much heavier mega dragon.
As a level, Wily Stage 3 actually comes close to the first in terms of quality. Only the Guts Tank seems ridiculously simple, and many times I've just fought it with the stock weapon instead of its weakness in order to have some sort of challenge. And one could hope that things will get better from here. But unfortunately even Mega Man veterans know only too well that Wily Stage 4 is terrible from start to finish: Annoying invisible holes in the floors, slow platform rail parquors and in the end probably the worst boss of the entire Mega Man series and the only point in the game where I always do a quick save. Not even a real boss per se, Boobeam Trap is a collection of glowing demi-shells that fire an almost unavoidable laser at Rock every few seconds. These half-shells are located behind blastable walls. Both can only be destroyed with Crash Bomber. And. Everyone. Separate. Shot. counts. One mistake and you've already lost. There isn't a part of Mega Man 2 that I hate more and wish I could skip, however, the password system doesn't cover each Wily stage, so I have to deal with this junk every time I play Mega Man 2. Stage 5 is the well-known boss rush, which is quickly completed before you finally have to deal with Dr. Wily takes care of himself. And this one is also filled with Mega Man 1 garbage or in its second phase. In the first one you simply have to dodge his energy balls flying downwards. And you should survive this with as little damage as possible, otherwise you have already lost the second phase, since it is impossible to avoid Wily's projectiles in this one. And impossible is not meant as an exaggeration. The second phase is literally a mindless race to see who can smash the other's life bar down the quickest. It's not hard, it's just stupid. The third phase is just weird as Wily seems to be trying to confuse Mega Man with an alien hologram and give him the easiest boss fight in the entire game.

And unfortunately, my criticism doesn't stop at the mere boss or level design of the final stages. Let me talk about balancing. As I mentioned at the beginning, Mega Man 2 should reach a larger audience since its predecessor had a rather moderate success with buyers. Mega Man could have already become a dead franchise at this point. So in order to reach the desired audience the developers did two things: The whole design and level philosophy was rethought and improved and on top of that Mega Man 2 was made a lot easier than the first part. On top of that, Western players got different difficulty levels to appeal to players with different skill levels. At least it seems so. However, the "Normal Mode" is actually a hidden "Easy Mode" which dullly doubled item drops and halved the health bar of enemies, including bosses. The "Difficult Mode" is the difficulty that Mega Man 2 was actually originally designed with and was the only one available in Japan. I don't have anything against different levels of difficulty, but they shouldn't be misnamed and the balance of the game shouldn't go completely against the wall. Robot Masters have almost no chance in "Normal Mode", especially not with their weakness. Air Man, for example, doesn't even need two hits to die from Leaf Shield. And this problem runs through the entire game. I would even go so far as to say that the two modes are fundamentally different gaming experiences. Except for the level layout, "Normal Mode" doesn't really prepare the player for "Difficult Mode" either. How are you supposed to learn the patterns of the bosses when they die in 30 seconds anyway?

What I've also mentioned throughout the review so far are the new weapons that Rock has to choose from. All are great in their own right and have at least one practical use throughout the levels. However, there was not a good balance here either with one specific weapon: The Metal Blades. Needless to say, how overpowered they are. Everyone knows it, everyone has mentioned it dozens of times and I hardly need to go into more detail about what makes this weapon so good. Or rather too good. The Metal Blades basically ensure that you rarely use the other weapons, no matter how useful they would be in the given situation. Metal Blades are almost always stronger and much more efficient. Metal Blades are so good that they can easily replace Rock's default weapon for the rest of the game. Metal Blades are essential to Mega Man's Super Shotgun from Doom 2: Popular for their power, however, this greatly overshadows the other weapons in the games. Not only does the Metal Blades unhinge Mega Man 2 even more, but they go against the philosophy of the game itself, which actually wants to encourage the use of the various weapons, but really can't. The first Robot Master that almost all players run to when they restart the game is Metal Man, and that's only because his weapon right at the start makes the game a whole lot easier on any difficulty.
These balance issues were actually addressed by the developers themselves. The reasons for this were not necessarily a lack of expertise, but rather a lack of time, which is mainly reflected in the final levels. While Mega Man 2 was a huge success, the developers wanted to make a lot more out of this game than they ultimately could.
Finally, what is left for me to say? Despite my harsh criticism, especially in the second half, this review shouldn't be taken to mean that I think Mega Man 2 is a bad game. Because that's clearly not the case. It's one of the better games, even for me. However, I firmly believe that Mega Man 2 has been surpassed more than once in terms of gameplay and quality as the classic series progresses. Which is also an frankly difficult place to hold, considering this series has 11 games as of this writing.

The NES era is known for one thing, among others: This console was the birthplace for many game series that people still know today. Mega Man is also one of these series. Even though it took a whole 6 games for the blue bomber to leave his console of origin. However, the classic Mega Man games up to part 6 show perfectly what limitations and possibilities were possible on an 8-bit console alone. It's as if you can watch the developers per game, how their own learning process went. And that there was a lot to learn is shown almost too perfectly by the first part of the series. "Mega Man isn't an extremely difficult game per se, but it contains more than enough unfair sections that can be justified either by the developers' lack of experience or by the simple stretching of game time. Whereby I would rather assume the former, in the context of the following games. Nowadays, I couldn't recommend Mega Man to anyone who isn't a rabid fan of the series, let alone as the game to start with. The level structure already shows the game's first problems. While these are the shortest levels in the entire series, the difficulty in them is so inconsistent that it fluctuates between incredibly easy and unfairly difficult. Added to this is the placement of enemies, which are often placed in such a way that they are guaranteed to injure the player or hurl them into the nearest chasms or spikes. Equally inconsistent are the Robot Masters, which either have a clearly visible and learnable pattern, or they are Fire Man and Ice Man, which hurl inescapable projectiles and are almost impossible to defeat without their weak points. And even the Robot Masters whose combat doesn't simply consist of spamming the opponent dead before he does, suffer from having no chance against their weak element.
The Wily Fortress at the end of the game is one of the most enjoyable stages of the game in terms of pure level design, even if it was an absolutely terrible design idea to use the "optional" Magnet Beam as a necessary weapon to advance in the level. However, I can't say the same for the bosses. At least the first boss "Yellow Devil" probably needs no further introduction. The entire medium should know how unimaginably difficult this boss is. And like many others, I only defeated it via the infamous "Pause Glitch". Admittedly not a fair victory, but I can't say that "Mega Man" itself was a fair game. The following bosses are all easier and Wily himself is probably the easiest boss in the game.
In the end, my harsh criticism is in the grand scheme of things, but not immensely weighty. It was the first game in its series, and it's probably unwarranted, especially in the NES era, to expect a first game of a series to be an instant masterpiece. And obviously "Mega Man" was successful enough that Capcom commissioned more games that far surpassed their predecessor in quality. "Mega Man" is probably more to be considered a nice piece of history than a game you could have fun with nowadays.

Talking about Mother 1 has become something of a rarity these days. Once one of the mysterious games that never left Japan, most people nowadays tend to remember Mother 1 as the one game that takes place before the beloved classic Earthbound. But it's hard to speak of a strongly appreciated game. There are countless reports from people who don't recommend the game and see it as one of those games you should only touch if you really can't help it. While there is still a certain respect for this game, as it was after all the beginning of the mother series, Mother 1 is considered more of a piece of history than a game you can still have fun with nowadays. So, before I started this game, I was already worried that the seeds of one of my favorite game series and sub-genre would disappoint me immensely.
Fortunately, for the most part, this was not the case. If I had to quickly describe Mother 1, I would describe it as a more "primitive" version of Earthbound. It's amazing how many elements from the SNES game have their origins in the first part. Whereas Mother 1 surprisingly has a much more involved story. Earthbound lives mainly from strange moments and the story is rather in the background. In Mother 1 there are also the strange moments that are familiar to the series, but the story takes center stage. This makes Mother 1 even more amazing, as it was able to offer such complexity at the time, unlike other NES RPGs. However, I don't want to spoil the story even after more than 30 years.
In terms of structure, Mother 1 and Earthbound are like two peas in a pod. The goal is once again (or for the first time?) to collect seven melodies and defeat the villain Giygas, who is causing chaos all over the country. However, this time we are not in Eagleland but in America. Mother fans know about the strong American influence the series has always had, but Mother 1 is very direct, even though probably none of these cities in the game exist in real America. Mother 1 is also a little less abstract than Earthbound when it comes to enemies, offering normal humans, wild animals, or various vehicles as opponents for most of the time. Later, stronger opponents, however, become much more imaginative, with various combat robots, aliens, etc.
As far as it goes, everything sounds good, but Mother 1 has many teething problems, especially in its mechanics, which were later eradicated piece by piece by its successors.
One of the biggest problems is probably the encounter rate. With such an old game, it should be no wonder that an RPG like Mother 1 relies on random encounters. The real problem, however, lies in how often you encounter enemies. It happens all the time that you can either run thousands of meters without having an encounter or you find yourself in a fight every 2 steps, which is frustrating especially with stronger enemies, as they eat away at the player's resources bit by bit. The almost ridiculously large map design does not make this any better. The world of Mother 1 is extremely vast, but at the same time just as empty. It is hardly worth deviating from the main path and searching for secrets, as they simply do not exist. "America" has an incredible number of empty spaces and dead ends that lead nowhere and artificially inflate the world.
This also has little to do with the level curve. If you follow the main path as normal, you level up the characters as the game intended, which makes this huge world almost even more nonsensical. The individual towns suffer from a similar problem, with countless inaccessible houses, which at least "decorate" the area.
Problems that exist, but which I didn't dislike as much as other people, would be the level curve and the inventory. In the former, Mother 1 suffers from the same problem as many early RPGs. If a new character comes into the party, it must first be grinded up so that you can progress in the game at all. What many don't realize in the case of Mother 1, however, is the fact that Nintendo's friends’ level up much faster than him, making the grind much less tiring than other NES RPGs. The tiny inventory would really be a problem without the existence of Magicant. I also noticed that you don't have to carry a lot of items with you. Like Earthbound, I didn't use much healing items and relied more on PSI powers to heal myself. Lloyd was the only one who kept a full inventory for most of the time.

However, at the same time I would consider Magicant a blessing for Mother 1, but a curse in the design of an RPG. With all armor items in one place and the ability to heal for free, there's little reason to venture out into the world and, like other RPGs, find not only stronger but better gear along the way. Although leveling during the journey takes place in Mother 1, the best equipment was only a question of money, of which one always has enough. But Mother 1 doesn't just live like other RPGs from getting stronger and pursuing an exciting story. Mother 1, like every other installment in this great series, draws on its characters. Despite being an ancient NES game, Mother 1 is probably one of the most dialogue-rich games on the console. There are rarely NPCs who say the same thing. Almost every character you meet has something to say. No matter how absurd what is said should be. This infuses the world of Mother 1 with that unmistakable charm that the series would later become known for. This makes the journey through "America" not one in which the protagonists become stronger and stronger, but one in which you meet many different people, be they friend or foe.
And that's what holds this game together for me. While it's the weakest part of the series overall, due to obvious technical and design issues. But I don't think you can blame this game. After all, it was the first of its kind. And I have to say that Mother 1 has aged almost too well compared to other NES RPGs. However, for people who have no connection with the mother series, it will probably be difficult to get into this game. It was easy for me because I've played Earthbound and Mother 3 before and always had a certain familiarity on my side during my playthrough. In the end, I would say that Mother 1 is a recommendation for any mother fan, or fans of games inspired by this series, such as Undertale, Omori or Lisa. If only to see where this sub-genre got its start all those years ago.

Starfox 2 is in a dilemma which, as far as I know, is unique to this one game alone. Completed in 1995, Starfox 2 was supposed to be the direct sequel to the revolutionary classic Starfox. But veterans should already recognise from the date why it was completed but not released. The N64 was on the horizon, the SNES was an aged console and Nintendo feared that the once revolutionary 3D graphics of the SNES would look outdated in comparison. Eventually, Starfox 2 was shelved for seemingly eternity. A few years later, a dumped ROM was released, which was apparently an early build of the game. However, the mystery remained as to what the official 100% finished game would have looked like. In 2017, this eternal question was finally to be answered with the help of the SNES mini.

But was all the waiting really worth it? Can a game that was technically released only a few years ago, but is based entirely on outdated 3D technology from the 90s, still be convincing today?
I can answer this question with a deliberate "yes" and would even go so far as to say that Starfox 2 overshadows its predecessor by far. On a technical level alone, the game uses pretty much the same visuals, but runs much smoother than Starfox 1. Or at least as smoothly as a Super FX game can run. Starfox 2 also uses a lot more textures, but this is probably only noticeable if you play both games in succession.

The biggest difference to Starfox 1, however, is in the gameplay. Instead of choosing from 3 different routes, which you travel with your Arwing in typical rail shooter fashion, in order to finally defeat Andross himself, Starfox 2 is about the direct defence of Corneria itself. On an open star map, Andross has taken over various planets and sends space cruisers and bombs from them to blast Corneria off the face of the solar system. The goal now is to liberate the infested planets from Andross' army and at the same time protect Corneria from as much damage as possible. Starfox 2 has a tactical element here, where the player must always decide which targets should be attacked first in order to defend themselves as efficiently as possible against Andross' squadron. Once you have decided on a target, contrary to expectations, you do not get into the rail-shooter gameplay of the predecessor. In fact, Starfox 2 introduces what would later be known as the all-range mode in Starfox 64. Most of the "levels" are in this mode and work surprisingly well despite the absence of an analogue stick. However, Starfox 2 does not yet have manoeuvres like U-turn or somersault. When selecting the attack targets and completing the levels, it is also noticeable that both on the map and in the level itself, the enemies move further and further in the direction of Corneria.

So it is always important to note how much time you spend in a level. Because too much elapsed time means another blow to Corneria. And if the damage level reaches 100%, it's Game Over. The only point where time doesn't pass is when you're not interacting with the map, so that should be used to plan the next steps. Not enough tactics, Starfox 2 adds an expanded character roster. There are now 6 members in Team Starfox, whose Arwings have different strengths and weaknesses. Fox and Falco form the middle ground with common stats with a slight propensity to attack. Peppy and Slippy are tanks. They have the largest life bar and can heal themselves with their special weapon. However, the weapon output and speed is quite low. Finally, we have the two new members Miyu and Fay, who have an enormous attack but can't withstand much. This was also to be the only appearance of the two glass cannons in a Starfox game. Depending on the difficulty, you should adjust your team accordingly, which this time consists of only two people. Unlike in Starfox 1, there aren't really 1-ups either. If the two team members die, it is also game over. The Arwings have also received a new form. As a walker, you mainly move around on the individual planets, which makes the game more in the direction of a 3D person shooter, which is a refreshing change from the typical space glider.

This game also marks the first appearance of the infamous team star wolf antagonist, who must be defeated in a similar way as in Starfox 64. Once you have finally eliminated all opponents, the way to Andross is free, who defeats in much the same way like in Starfox 1. The only difference is that this time he doesn't spit out bathroom tiles.

If you look at it in the context of the time when Starfox 2 was originally supposed to be released, I would stick to the statement that this sequel is much better than Starfox 1. The better performance makes it much easier to maneuver the Arwing or Walker and that tactical element, may be unusual for the series, but it gives the player much more creative freedom to choose how to play the game, and I find it a shame that none of the sequels have attempted a similar system again. However, Starfox 2 is far from perfect. Above all, the level design is rather short and attacks on Andross's spaceships usually don't last much longer than a minute. The longest encounters are the fights against the Starwolf members and the interior of the large battleships, which consist of simple interconnected battle rooms, with the respective reactor core as the target. This was the highlight of the game for me. In terms of difficulty, you should rather throw yourself into the hard mode, because only there can the game show its true strengths. Normal mode is ridiculously easy and you only see a few of the planets, since logically you can only visit the infested ones.
In conclusion, however, it remains to be said that Starfox 2 is a lost classic that can actually surpass its predecessor by far thanks to the strengths of a strategy and better maneuvering system. The significantly better frame rate also makes it significantly more enjoyable to play than Starfox 1. However, Starfox 2 will probably never come under the nostalgia umbrella of its predecessor. Because Starfox 2 is officially only 5 years old. Still, Starfox 2 gets my highest recommendation for retro lovers. Especially if you want to see the origin of many mechanics from Starfox 64.

Starfox is a revolutionary rail shooter that dared to do what was thought to be impossible and display 3D graphics on a 16-bit console. Outside of this context, Starfox may seem very clunky, primitive and outdated, but it is still fun. However, I can't recommend Route 3 (the highest difficulty) without Savestates. The game throws so many enemies and obstacles at you that occasionally neither the player nor the game itself, with its flagging framerate, can keep up. But since there are no different endings, there is no shame in taking either route 1 or 2. Especially the latter has the most solid difficulty level.

It's hard to say anything about Banjo-Kazooie that hasn't already been said by thousands of other people. So I won't even try in this review. As a 3D platformer, Banjo-Kazooie is iconic and rightly takes its place as one of the best games of the N64. As such, a comparison with Super Mario 64 is obviously inevitable. Banjo-Kazooie takes the best elements of that pioneering work and builds on them to such an enormous degree that it far overshadows SM64 in many areas. This is not to be seen as derogatory towards SM64. Banjo-Kazooie is better in many ways, but it probably would not have been possible without SM64's groundbreaking design.
The first differences can already be seen in the art direction. Gone are the days of rather abstract worlds. Banjo-Kazooie aims for a much more organic look, which is carried by a cartoony touch. This is reflected above all in the model design of the individual characters, which looks much more expressive and lively than SM64 ever could. And characters are a good keyword. Because Banjo-Kazooie is filled to the brim with them. One of the things SM64 is known for these days is that you feel very lonely, especially inside the castle. One could think that Rare wanted to avoid this feeling by all means. Even if no character other than Banjo and Kazooie is on screen, Gruntilda's insulting comments will ensure that you don't easily forget her constant presence. After all, it is the dialogue that gives the charming characters of Banjo-Kazooie the final touch. And a character doesn't even have to say much, but the player always learns a tiny piece of their personality. Something SM64 could only dream of with its handful of toads.
In terms of gameplay, however, Banjo-Kazooie is primarily carried by its individual worlds. There are fewer than in SM64, but the game does not run into the problem of repeating individual themes. Instead, the individual worlds are also much larger than a typical SM64 course, but manageable enough that you don't lose track of them while collecting the puzzle pieces, music notes, empty honeycombs and jinjos. That's because Banjo-Kazooie takes the collectathon element of SM64 and adds several items that actually have a progressive impact on the bird and bear's journey. While the individual worlds are structurally very different, there are always the same amount of items to collect at any given time. 10 puzzle pieces, of which one is obtained from five collected jinjos, 100 musical notes and 2 empty honeycombs. Puzzle pieces serve as keys to the individual worlds. Music notes behave similarly to stars in SM64 in that they enable further progression into Gruntilda's realm (the hub world). And empty honeycombs serve as an extension to Banjo and Kazooie's life bar. Banjo-Kazooie is also one of the few games where I would say that it is mandatory to reach 100%, because only then Banjo-Kazooie can unfold its full potential. Banjo-Kazooie also dares to be more difficult than its spiritual predecessor. People who are only used to the gentle introduction to a 3D world of SM64 might start sweating, especially in the later worlds. Which doesn't stop almost every world from frothing over with creativity and great level design. However, I have to stick with an "almost" as there is one of the nine worlds that I actually dislike less than any of the latter levels in SM64. Rusty Bucket Bay has a thoroughly interesting premise and the external layout is no less fun than the other worlds, but one room kills the experience in a whole. The ship's engine room, which is the main attraction of the level, is arguably the hardest and the only unfair area in the entire game. Not only do you have to jump around on spinning gears, axles and between spinning rotors. You have to do all this over an instant-death chasm, which is the only one outside the final boss fight. New players may not understand how this is of any greater importance. As mentioned earlier, you have to collect 100 musical notes in each world. However, you should avoid dying, at least in the N64 version.
If this happens, you lose all music notes and have to collect them again. In previous worlds, this wasn't a problem, as player mistakes were never penalized too severely. Except stop at Rusty Bucket Bay. Where a single false jump in engineering will result in instant death. If you play this world and have the opportunity, you should definitely use savestates in order not to completely lose your nerve on this level. That Rusty Bucket Bay is the only blunder in Rare's design is only reinforced by the fact that the subsequent level, Click Clock Wood, is considered by many to be the best world in the entire game.

However, what has always struck me about the structure of Banjo-Kazooie compared to SM64 is that it's a much more linear experience. No matter which Banjo-Kazooie playthrough you watch, the player will always complete the worlds in the same order. Also how to interact with the levels is much stricter than in SM64. Rarely have I seen ways to solve an imposed puzzle or platforming challenge other than what the developer imagined. The only freedom open to the player is which of the items to collect first. While Banjo-Kazooie may be generally harder than SM64, it doesn't have that "easy-to-learn but hard to master" mentality that Nintendo is known for. I don't really think it's a bad thing though. However, I see myself playing through SM64 more often than Banjo-Kazooie, since I now know the former like my backhand and can already see the end credits after a few hours.
What I'm really not a fan of, however, is the fact how anticlimatic each individual world has to be left. Banjo-Kazooie improves the gaming experience by not being thrown out of the world after each piece of the puzzle. However, no world gets a grand finale after every item has been collected. SM64 didn't really need that, since each star was the conclusion of a chapter of each world and worked towards one of the three fights against Bowser. Banjo-Kazooie does have mid-bosses here and there, but they're never much more complex than regular enemies. The only one I remember would be Conga. But probably only because he is the first of these intermediate bosses and reminds me of Donkey Kong, who was able to supplement this missing climax in the worlds with real boss fights in his 3D platformer.
The only real boss in Banjo-Kazooie is the witch Gruntilda herself, who, in all fairness, puts up a really impressive fight, challenging every single ability of the odd duo.
Finally, I would like to commend the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack that Grand Kirkhope has thrown into the game. There isn't a bad song in Banjo Kazooie. As you jump through the individual worlds for hours and hours, you won't be able to avoid humming along at some point. The soundtrack is also one of the big things that fans of the game remember most when they think of Banjo-Kazooie. Through Banjo-Kazooie, among others, Grant Kirkhope became one of the most popular and respected composers in the video game industry.

Banjo-Kazooie is a great game, which for me is the face of the N64 era and, despite minor weaknesses, is one of the best games on the console and even the medium itself. Nowadays it's almost a miracle to find a good 3D platformer other than Super Mario Odyssey, which is why Banjo-Kazooie is still a talking point for a lot of people even after all this time. Above all, the desire for a sequel to the sequel Banjo Tooie is still alive after more than 20 years.

The NES has a rather negative reputation these days for having a game library that is flooded with games that are either poorly aged by today's standards, lacking in quality, or have a merciless difficulty level. Often they have all three of these attributes. This leaves a manageable amount of games that can be enjoyed by more than just masochists like myself. And one of those games would probably be Kirby's Adventure, which I would call the most modern game on the NES. Conveniences like an auto-save function, unlimited continues and multiple checkpoints, are things that shouldn't have been a given until the N64 era, and yet are offered by Kirby's Adventure. It's kind of amazing that this game appeared on the same console as Super Mario Bros. 1-3. Kirby also scratches the next generation graphically. Several times I wondered if this game wouldn't find a more fitting home on the SNES.
After all, Kirby's Adventure still has to contend with the typical limitations of the NES. Be it sprite flickering, massive slowdowns when there are more than three enemies on the screen, etc.,
However, none of this detracts from the enjoyable gameplay I felt with this game. Some call this game Kirby's true first incarnation, and not without reason. After all, it was the first Kirby game with the copy ability.
By not stretching out its playtime with unfair mechanics like countless other NES games, Kirby's Adventure keeps its length very short by modern standards. Just under 2 hours and you've seen everything the game has to offer, including the 100% to reach, which unlocks the mini-games and a hard mode, which however only limits lives and robs the performant save function.
If you're curious about old NES classics, but don't want to be immediately slain by the aforementioned problems of that era should start with Kirby's Adventure.