Grind points or you'll be very handicapped later down the line. Yes this is real, yes this is dumb.

Pit moves better, and most of the levels aren't too bad, but my main complaint goes to the dungeons and bosses. A lot of the rooms in dungeons are the same 3 or 4 layouts repeating again and again which makes navigation tricky as you can't really make landmarks for yourself. The bosses meanwhile are massive damage sponges that take a gorillion hits to die, even once you figure out their patterns. I'm also not fond of Pit powering down as you take damage, it's very discouraging and would make me choose to lose a life rather than fight with my slow limited range arrows.

It's better than the NES version in some respects, but worse in more obtuse and frustrating ways.

My friend said he was going to buy me Balan Wonderworld but hit me with this instead, so if it's a trick or a pleasant surprise that's for you to decide.

Tunic has some really interesting ideas that, should you dare go for completion, will really demand you work your brain for it. I think the Instruction Manual is a brilliant concept that cutely made and several times as I flipped through it I thought "damn, they're probably selling this for money they'd make a killing". I got the standard ending because eventually the demand for guessing what you input at the secret input spots for so many puzzles got too much for me (I likely would have been more interested had I known earlier, but I only found out near the end of the game). Mid-Late game collecting the keys and the dungeon after was where it peaked for me, unraveling more of the world as I explore and clear dungeons, now that's my kinda game.

I also think the bosses are pretty fun, the Librarian getting a special shoutout. Some bosses like the final boss and Scavanger Boss can get stuck in a loop trying to dodge as they're against the wall which lets you combo a good amount before they get unstuck. Combat is all around solid although not knowing what items did kept me from experimenting with a few of them.

If you have a giga brain (or a cheater but that goes against the spirit of the game) you'll enjoy the puzzles, if you have an average brain like me I think going for the standard ending is sufficient enough, even if the endings felt a little simple. Better than Balan most likely as I can see me genuinely recommending this to some people.

This is an improvement over the NES game, because it's actually a beat 'em up for most of its runtime this time! Your move set is still rather limited with no defensive options outside attempting iframe abuse but hey, the bulk of the game isn't instant death traps now! The sprites are very expressive and the Toads are filled with personality. I will say that the extreme violence like blood spurting out and decapitation don't fit with the vibe I got from the NES game, but it's definitely a remnant of the style at the time. Extreme Violence and cartoon physics don't work at their best here. Grabbing a giant rat man by the dick and repeatedly punching them in the balls is definitely...a decision. I also like the shmup level, but I don't think it should have been the final level, as placing that right at the end betrays all the skills the player has been using up to this point. I'd add one more level with the Dark Queen since you don't face her here.

Just because it isn't the NES game doesn't mean Battletoads Arcade isn't relentlessly hard. Too hard in some spots I'd say, getting hit will wombo combo you and the finale of the game doesn't use the skills you learned and requires a completely different skillset. I imagine it gets easier with multiple players though.

Better than the NES game still.

It's Super Monkey Ball 1 on the Gameboy Advance. There's a lotta pop-in, but the mad lads at Realism actually did it, it and it's impressive it for the most part works and everything is recreated faithfully. Even the minigames, Monkey Fight is still stupid fun.

Digital Control with Monkey Ball's camera absolutely kills this game (instead of speeds based on how you move the stick, you can adjust your acceleration rate with A to increase and B to decrease), it's not bad until some of the expert courses which really demand you work with the much more limited monkey. That one part of Expert 7 with the slope killed me so many times just because it was asking a lot to align my monkey and the camera with the slope. It's like Mario 64 DS but a generation earlier and with a less popular IP so no one's really defending it.

They worked with what they had, which is really impressive from a technical standpoint that they got this much Super Monkey Ball to work in 2002 on the GBA, but I don't think the GBA was ready for Super Monkey Ball. Unless you like the one level with the realism name, I'd stick to the console releases of SMB1.

An improvement over RC Pro AM for the most part, with elevation adding cool tricks, upgrading in the shop adding more strategy, and the AI being more fair for the most part (it will rubber band to be infront of you, but it'll slow down a bit if you get too far behind to make it feel like you have a chance)

I will say though airplanes are an awful addition of a hazard, and the upgrade system for the AI makes no sense since cars will still automatically become better than you when logic dictates that you should generally remain on top.

I counted playing through all 24 tracks and being ontop of the leaderboard as beating the game, as asking you to repeat 12 tracks so the number can reset just feels like unnecessary padding when I've already seen everything the game has to offer, even if it isn't "X but slightly harder". Again it's from a different era where games weren't meant to be beat but played as long as you could go arcade style, so I can't hold it against the game too much.

It's an impressive game on the NES, and if someone can explain to me how an NES game can have 4 player I'm curious to know.

If you're looking for more Psychonauts, good news, because this game is Psychonauts too!

It still maintains a lot of the imagination fo the original game, leading to lots of visual spectacles and some solid comedy bits. My favorite dungeons had to be the Casino and the Feast of the Senses, while I wasn't as big a fan of the Gardening Island's boat mechanics.

The music and voicework are also top notch. Richard Horvitz is always great to hear, even if I only heard Daggett in most of what he was saying he's still got it. I do wish that some of the minds weren't as interconnected to the deeper plot, like how Psychonauts 1 had, to explore some stories of people who's minds got warped by their own stories rather than all of them having a fallout after the same single incident. After all, that was where some of 1's most memorable moments came from, as it helped them stand out. Not to say 2's story is bad in any way, the unraveling of the grand mystery and the humor along the way was a great time. Likewise the dungeon structure of "Do 3 X to get to the end" repeated a few too many times, but the dungeons themselves are still as mentioned before excellently crafted and fun to explore. Any critique I have in relation to the first game is immediately refuted in my mind with "but what's on display here is still great though", it's a give and take that just goes to show how equal these games are.

Like the first game, if you like 3D platformers, you'll love it no doubt!

The Man Who Erased His Name is about the adventures of...somebody, and of his becoming an agent in the Daidoji group. He even gets a new Agent moveset, which is designed for mob encounters. It feels a little too whacky for this guy's fighting style, summoning like 20 drones at once, gaining jetshoes, explosive cigs...it's a new and unique moveset but it doesn't feel like himself, if you know what I mean. The Agent style will be used a lot, as many fights like to try and put as many grunts that the game can handle in with the boss (or bosses) whenever the story allows it. One other issue I have with the combat are the enemy heat attacks, which are all addressed in the same exact way (RB+A even if you are lightyears away) and prevents them from standing out. Probably just a personal thing though, it's still a fun style to use, as is the Yakuza style. Landing an uppercut and then juggling some poor mook into oblivion is always satisfying.

Sotenbori's the main hub this time and they condensed a lot of little missions into this map, so there's always something at every turn! There's also your usual cast of side activities (Karoake, Arcade+Master System, Golf, Pocket Circuit) to do, and even a second area called The Castle for an additional host of them, so even in the shorter story, there's still plenty to do.

The story aims to explain what happened after Kiryu died in Yakuza 6 up until he somehow reappears in Yakuza 7, even though Kiryu doesn't show up at all in this story because he's still dead. It's its own strange little plot that has some pacing issues, going really fast at the start but then slowing down at the middle. It even has some padding that insists you to rank up the Akame Network while waiting for the main plot to get back to you. At the very least, the conclusion is a very powerful one so it's worth the small pacing bumps to get to the end.

The original protagonist of the Yakuza series has had a rough life, and just when you think he is finally free with the introduction of Ichiban as the next face of the franchise, SEGA gets cold feet about changing protags and puts the OG right back front and center. While it was an unnecessary game and I would have rather they dedicated to moving on, I still had a nice time with this title.

Well I did it, I has Battletoads.

It's a game that presents itself as a beat 'em up when it's really only that like 15% of the time, the bulk of the game is it trying to come up with new ways to kill you. Turbo Tunnel is an infamous example but that's only scratching the surface of how much this game hates you and your entire existence. Vulkmire's Inferno, Terra Tubers, Rat Race, and ESPECIALLY Clinger Winger hate you for being alive.

From what I've seen of its changes, I encourage curious people to stick to the Japanese version, for their own sanity.

Honestly, this port is pretty bad. Flicky freaks out and moves way too far whenever he touches a wall (making platforming a pain), the sprites don't do the port any favors, and you can very easily get put into a situation where you're cornered thanks to having less vertical space to move around in. I decided to play it in Like a Yakuza: The Guy Who's Name was Stripped from the Record for the Retro Gamer achievement and for giggles, expecting to not even consider this separate or write anything, but it left me with a thought which made me have to come here:

Despite it all, this choppy port did give me more appreciation for the original Flicky, which I had played as a kid and dismissed as a pretty weak game, which I reflected in my original review of the arcade game. Back then I hadn't had much understanding of retro gaming in the Sonic Mega Collection I had gotten for, well, Sonic, and little appreciation for games before my time that weren't in the mainstream like your Marios and Mega Mans. Now that I'm older and more experienced in even older games, Flicky (the arcade game) is not only not that bad, but there's fun in strategizing around getting the best possible score in a level and maneuvering in the heat of the moment. Yeah, all of that is worse here, but they're still core components of Flicky that I've grown to appreciate over time.

There's no reason to play this port these days beyond historical context, but despite not liking this one it did give me more respect and consideration for the original, which I definitely appreciate.

You are Rambo, but rather than shoot everything, you walk past as much as you can, since nothing can turn around to hit you back and sometimes aiming can be tricky when you only have 5 directions. There's the neat exploding arrows for when you don't feel like aiming but have less of a range to them. Sometimes enemies can spawn in shooting, so you always need to be ready to dodge, which can be tricky when you slowly move in 8 directions. Grenades can be incredibly dangerous especially at the end of level gates, so be careful!

Just remember what Rambo once said: Keep Moving Forward!
At least I'm pretty sure that's what Rambo says idk I've never watched a Rambo film.

It's surprising no one talked about Maze Hunter, but I got it in the game about the person that removed their name and gave it a shot. It's not really 3D per se (that's still about 3-7 years out) but isometric, walking around to find keys to exit the maze. As you warp, you will be sent to a lower or higher part of the maze and have different sprites to adjust. There are enemies you can beat by either jumping on them or the safer method, whacking them with your stick. There are 20 mazes in all, with 5 themes that are like the others but with a different color tileset. Sometimes there's a red dot you can jump and hit with your stick to unleash a power-up that usually won't do a whole lot but it's a thing that exists.

I think no one's really talked about it before because honestly, there's really not a lot to say about this one. Like yep, it's a video game that exists. I didn't think it was awful or anything great, just a middle of the road game. Which is actually decent compared to some of the system's other offerings, but in the grand scheme of things, yeah Maze Hunter 3-D is a game that exists.

Another Rare NES game that turns brutally hard by the end, Snake Rattle n Roll is an interesting idea about a Snake needing to platform and most of all eat (except the levels that just ditch the mechanic) to advance. Unfortunately eating mostly amounts to standing across a generator and waiting for the pellets to drop, then advancing once you get everything you need.

The real brutal parts are the movement, as it's an isometric game that was controlled by an NES D-Pad. Were this made in the 3D era it'd likely control a lot better but this isn't what we got. This is especially hellish in the ice levels, where your low traction gets even lower and the terrain will push you off it if you don't fight for dear life. Also the final boss? If you don't play perfectly, you're simply not getting past Final Foot.

Isometric is just hard to make work and this feels like it works less often than desired.