Rei366
115 reviews liked by Rei366
A little inferior to the second one, and the designs are weird, but it has the best music of the series.
Captain Tsubasa J
1995
Hilariously easy game. Tecmo's RPG football games were far superior.
Sword of Mana
2003
Not sure why Squaresoft decided that this game needed a full remake, but it differs so much from the original it's borderline unrecognizable. At least the (light) relationship to the Mana games is established for good. Otherwise, it's not that great, with a convoluted story that keeps dragging on for hours.
Disclosure: I was QA on this title
Summon Night is a cute little action game with some light crafting elements, a pokemon-esque attitude, and a tournament arc-based story. It works well for what it is, but most everything is fairly shallow, if satisfying.
Combat is as dead simple as it gets. Weapons have a single combo string and one or two extra moves (usually an upwards attack and a charged attack) and spells are simple line attacks, heals, and buffs. Movement feels sluggish at the start, but forces you to pay attention to your attacks, positioning, and blocks, which injects a little bit more depth into the combat. It is satisfying, but never really feels like more than block to get an opening and then spam your attacks.
Each weapon has a bit of a different playstyle that makes it rewarding to find one you like (and you can equip up to 3 at once for most combat). The game sort of pushes you toward swords, even though drill is obviously the coolest.
I like the sprite work in Summon Night quite a bit. Characters are cartoony and expressive and the pixels are very well done. Small touches like each weapon you craft showing up on your character add a bit more charm as well.
Crafting weapons is very simple, but it is sort of fun to progress through the largely linear weapon progression. I like that the crafting itself is core to the gameplay and also tightly tied to the narrative. The ideal here would be a few more steps towards the Monster Hunter model, where my choice of weapon has a lot of meaning, but like the rest of this game, this does well enough for what is needed.
Everyone loves a tournament arc! There aren't a ton of games that are just "go through this tournament" and it is cool to see it here. There are diversions, of course, but largely you are competing to become the next Craftlord, which basically just means 1v1'ing all the other crafts-kids in town. This is classic anime storytelling that the game leverages well to give the player motivation and to introduce a bunch of rivals/friends for you to interact with. The simple approach here works very well.
I like Summon Night for what it is, though it isn't quite interesting enough to hold my attention on this revisit. I do have a soft spot for it since it was the first game I worked professionally!
Summon Night is a cute little action game with some light crafting elements, a pokemon-esque attitude, and a tournament arc-based story. It works well for what it is, but most everything is fairly shallow, if satisfying.
Combat is as dead simple as it gets. Weapons have a single combo string and one or two extra moves (usually an upwards attack and a charged attack) and spells are simple line attacks, heals, and buffs. Movement feels sluggish at the start, but forces you to pay attention to your attacks, positioning, and blocks, which injects a little bit more depth into the combat. It is satisfying, but never really feels like more than block to get an opening and then spam your attacks.
Each weapon has a bit of a different playstyle that makes it rewarding to find one you like (and you can equip up to 3 at once for most combat). The game sort of pushes you toward swords, even though drill is obviously the coolest.
I like the sprite work in Summon Night quite a bit. Characters are cartoony and expressive and the pixels are very well done. Small touches like each weapon you craft showing up on your character add a bit more charm as well.
Crafting weapons is very simple, but it is sort of fun to progress through the largely linear weapon progression. I like that the crafting itself is core to the gameplay and also tightly tied to the narrative. The ideal here would be a few more steps towards the Monster Hunter model, where my choice of weapon has a lot of meaning, but like the rest of this game, this does well enough for what is needed.
Everyone loves a tournament arc! There aren't a ton of games that are just "go through this tournament" and it is cool to see it here. There are diversions, of course, but largely you are competing to become the next Craftlord, which basically just means 1v1'ing all the other crafts-kids in town. This is classic anime storytelling that the game leverages well to give the player motivation and to introduce a bunch of rivals/friends for you to interact with. The simple approach here works very well.
I like Summon Night for what it is, though it isn't quite interesting enough to hold my attention on this revisit. I do have a soft spot for it since it was the first game I worked professionally!
Known as Naruto Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu 2 in Japan
Like the last one, a 2D platformer/beat-em up, but this time way more beat-em up than platformer. It’s a completely different game: sprites are prettier, movement feels a little better, there’s more of a moveset now, levels are quite different. You can now play as Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura, and except for a few select missions, switch between them at any point. There are also more regular attacks, though they all behave similarly for each character: there are dash attacks, launchers, and standing combos. There are still three jutsu per character, but now you can do them by just inputting directions before pressing the attack button, kinda like in the Ultimate Ninja. Up, up, B does level 1 jutsu, down, down and B does level 2, and down, up and B does level 3. There is no chakra bar this time, and they just cost health instead, with the higher level ones costing more. They’re cooler now too. Some are just triggered if you’re close to an enemy, and play an animation, but the animations are good, especially Sasuke’s Chidori. Some are install supers too, set on a timer, like Sasuke’s level 3 and Sakura’s level 1 and 3.
Sakura is actually the most fun character. Her level 1 jutsu speeds her up, including her movement and her attack animations. It allows you to do silly combos or just run through a level real fast. Her level 3 makes it so that any jab you do with her instead goes into her doing a machine gun blow attack with Inner Sakura, and you can just spam it till the timer runs out.
Sasuke is alright, his level 3 has him use the Sharingan to slow down time, it’s kinda similar in practice to Sakura’s speed up but it’s not as fun. Naruto is whatever this time around, he has a screen clear with summoning jutsu and that’s about the most interesting thing.
There are also collectible scrolls now, which can be used as items to summon a character to help you out, such as Shikamaru, Shino, Choji or Kakashi. These basically act as either strong attacks towards the nearest enemy, or screen clears.
The story follows basically all of the Chunin Exams, including the destruction of the leaf. That being said, the written exams and the prelims are skipped, and the rest is very abridged/inaccurate, which is fine. There’s also a filler/non-canon bit where before the finals, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura go on a mission to deliver some sensitive intel as training, and get caught up with Orochimaru, it’s a whole nothing burger but it’s fine.
Overall, this plays quite alright, it’s almost a good beat em up. It’s short so it doesn’t overstay its welcome, has a cute ranking system if you care to replay it. In fact, you also unlock Rock Lee after beating the game, he’s just an extra character you can switch to, he doesn’t replace anyone or anything. He’s pretty fun, has the same speed up jutsu as Sakura by taking off his weights, and his lotus jutsu have good animations. Decent little game, Gamabunta says this line which is funny.
Like the last one, a 2D platformer/beat-em up, but this time way more beat-em up than platformer. It’s a completely different game: sprites are prettier, movement feels a little better, there’s more of a moveset now, levels are quite different. You can now play as Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura, and except for a few select missions, switch between them at any point. There are also more regular attacks, though they all behave similarly for each character: there are dash attacks, launchers, and standing combos. There are still three jutsu per character, but now you can do them by just inputting directions before pressing the attack button, kinda like in the Ultimate Ninja. Up, up, B does level 1 jutsu, down, down and B does level 2, and down, up and B does level 3. There is no chakra bar this time, and they just cost health instead, with the higher level ones costing more. They’re cooler now too. Some are just triggered if you’re close to an enemy, and play an animation, but the animations are good, especially Sasuke’s Chidori. Some are install supers too, set on a timer, like Sasuke’s level 3 and Sakura’s level 1 and 3.
Sakura is actually the most fun character. Her level 1 jutsu speeds her up, including her movement and her attack animations. It allows you to do silly combos or just run through a level real fast. Her level 3 makes it so that any jab you do with her instead goes into her doing a machine gun blow attack with Inner Sakura, and you can just spam it till the timer runs out.
Sasuke is alright, his level 3 has him use the Sharingan to slow down time, it’s kinda similar in practice to Sakura’s speed up but it’s not as fun. Naruto is whatever this time around, he has a screen clear with summoning jutsu and that’s about the most interesting thing.
There are also collectible scrolls now, which can be used as items to summon a character to help you out, such as Shikamaru, Shino, Choji or Kakashi. These basically act as either strong attacks towards the nearest enemy, or screen clears.
The story follows basically all of the Chunin Exams, including the destruction of the leaf. That being said, the written exams and the prelims are skipped, and the rest is very abridged/inaccurate, which is fine. There’s also a filler/non-canon bit where before the finals, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura go on a mission to deliver some sensitive intel as training, and get caught up with Orochimaru, it’s a whole nothing burger but it’s fine.
Overall, this plays quite alright, it’s almost a good beat em up. It’s short so it doesn’t overstay its welcome, has a cute ranking system if you care to replay it. In fact, you also unlock Rock Lee after beating the game, he’s just an extra character you can switch to, he doesn’t replace anyone or anything. He’s pretty fun, has the same speed up jutsu as Sakura by taking off his weights, and his lotus jutsu have good animations. Decent little game, Gamabunta says this line which is funny.
Honestly one of the rare console-to-handheld ports of this era where the handheld version holds its own or maybe even outstrips the primary version. Why aren't there more LotR-centric loot games?? It's pretty bare-bones and short, but those are expected for a GBA game and they honestly did more with the RPG trappings than I would have expected them to be able to in such a limited factor. And the art looks great and is highly legible, even when upscaled to 1080p in an emulator!
Of the five different versions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone video games, this is my favourite. Despite the grinding, odd sprite choices (I’m not sure why everyone is bright pink) and repetitive battles, it’s the most faithful to the source material, and I just find the idea of a turn based Harry Potter RPG so engaging.
On the down side, it’s basically baby’s first RPG. Losing a battle let's you keep any XP, and the lack of difficulty makes it a bit of a slog.
On the down side, it’s basically baby’s first RPG. Losing a battle let's you keep any XP, and the lack of difficulty makes it a bit of a slog.
Plutôt bon RPG portable pour l'époque. J'ai quelques regrets, notamment le fait qu'il reprend mot pour mot le texte du livre (alors qu'il adapte le film), et qu'il est un poil court (il vous faut 5-6h pour le terminer).
The game is correct. It's my favorite Harry Potter game and the best book of the franchise. Although, the game is really really short. It takes 5 hours to beat it and it is really easy.
If that is not a problem to you, the RPG system is pretty good. And if you're a fan of Ron, you'll be disappointed cause you won't play him a lot.
Correct is the good word to describe it.
If that is not a problem to you, the RPG system is pretty good. And if you're a fan of Ron, you'll be disappointed cause you won't play him a lot.
Correct is the good word to describe it.
Mario Pinball Land
2004
The graphics in this game are pretty amazing, yes, you may argue it looks "ugly" but the 3D effect for the GBA is very convincing and works wonders for a Pinball game, making it so you can actually hit the ball forwards and up, and this game even incorporates hitting the ball in the air to hit things which is a great idea and great use of this tech! Secondly, the IDEA of the way the progression works is a solid one, it takes the "open world filled with non linear missions" type structure straight from Mario 64, dropping you into worlds and challenging you to go and grab stars to unlock doors a literal translation of Mario 64 to pinball, fantastic idea!
Everything begins to fall apart in the execution however. Every single board, and I mean every, single, board. Is just a square, with some blocks, and some enemies. Thats it. And rather than actually take advantage of the GBA's power we are still limited to 1 board at a time, with screen transitions like this is a GB Pinball game. Every single level just feels identical, and every identical level isn't even fun to begin with! They are simply tedious. There is no interesting puzzles or gimmicks, it is always as simple as, youre in a rectangle space, heres some shit, go smack the ball into the shit, get the star, move on. But do not be mistaken into thinking this tedium is easy, because these tiny spread-out objects move, and you must hit all the specific objects, as if you hit the OTHER specific objects on the board you will trigger the wrong thing and have to start over, and usually to start over you must purposely go BACK a board and make your way BACK up again by hitting MORE tedious objects in the correct way. Even the bosses in this game are tedious as all hell, especially the final boss which is an absolute nightmare due to the previously mentioned specification order of hitting blocks and the way you must climb your way back up the board again to retry. The amount of precision needed to do even the most basic action in this game just makes it feel borderline unplayable at times.
Everything begins to fall apart in the execution however. Every single board, and I mean every, single, board. Is just a square, with some blocks, and some enemies. Thats it. And rather than actually take advantage of the GBA's power we are still limited to 1 board at a time, with screen transitions like this is a GB Pinball game. Every single level just feels identical, and every identical level isn't even fun to begin with! They are simply tedious. There is no interesting puzzles or gimmicks, it is always as simple as, youre in a rectangle space, heres some shit, go smack the ball into the shit, get the star, move on. But do not be mistaken into thinking this tedium is easy, because these tiny spread-out objects move, and you must hit all the specific objects, as if you hit the OTHER specific objects on the board you will trigger the wrong thing and have to start over, and usually to start over you must purposely go BACK a board and make your way BACK up again by hitting MORE tedious objects in the correct way. Even the bosses in this game are tedious as all hell, especially the final boss which is an absolute nightmare due to the previously mentioned specification order of hitting blocks and the way you must climb your way back up the board again to retry. The amount of precision needed to do even the most basic action in this game just makes it feel borderline unplayable at times.
