ShaggyTheHippy
1988
Game #68 of my challenge
Altered Beast is an entry in my list that I never heard of until I played it. It's a side-scroller Beat them up that have some nice Idea in it, but is a tough game to beat.
First of all, The plot is about the ruler of the underworld in Ancient Greece, Neff, kidnapping Athena. Zeus is pissed and resurrects you, a deceased Roman Centurions. Zeus chooses you as his champion and grants you power to get back Athena in the underworld. At least the story is kind of original and is just there to give you a purpose to beat the story. In-game, the story is not much there. I will at least give them the effort of implementing some ''audible'' dialog said by the main enemy (even though it's barely comprehensible).
The graphic is a nice change since it's not the pixelated games that I played a bunch recently. The sprites are clean, They really put an efforts in the visuals for this game. The enemies looks good, your character is clean and the background are well implemented. It's a nice change of pace. The music however, is really average. There is no remarkable tracks and the SFX are just OK.
The controls are kind of funky, You have a punch button, a kick button and a jump button. However, if you want to have an easier time to attack enemies arriving from the top, you need to press down and then use the kick button. Your character will put himself on his back and will kick straight up. It's really awkward to press down to attack enemies from above. The game feels slow when using the controls, but is understandable because of the visuals of the game.
The gameplay is a simple beat them up, with enemies spawning a little bit everywhere, but the twist is that is an auto-scroller. You need to move to the speed of the stage. Also during the level, you need to beat all 3 blue wolves and collect the orb before reaching Neff. Collecting an orb will buff your character and on the 3rd one, you will transform into a specific beast of this level. If you do not collect the 3rd one before reaching Neff, the level will loop and you will redo the whole level again. In one loop, you can only see 3 blue wolves. So if you miss one, it's too bad for you and you need to redo the loop. At least the levels are kind of short.
When transforming into a beast, you will gain special attacks with that transformation. There are 4 different beast that you can incarnate. This creates a really nice variety to the gameplay. Each level has a boss at the end and you will need to beat it with your transformation. Some of them are easy, but others are really hard to not get hit by anything. Once you beat all 5 levels, the game is over.
One thing that I hate about this game, is that you have no way of healing yourself or getting extra lives. Even when you complete a level, they do not heal you to the next one. So you pretty much need to play perfectly to be able to beat all 5 levels. If you lose all your lives, you need to start all over again, which can be really annoying.
Despite the difficulty of the game, the game had some really nice ideas and had some fun moment sometimes. This game doesn't stay his welcome since there's only 5 levels. You should try it if you search for an old, short and sweet game.
Altered Beast is an entry in my list that I never heard of until I played it. It's a side-scroller Beat them up that have some nice Idea in it, but is a tough game to beat.
First of all, The plot is about the ruler of the underworld in Ancient Greece, Neff, kidnapping Athena. Zeus is pissed and resurrects you, a deceased Roman Centurions. Zeus chooses you as his champion and grants you power to get back Athena in the underworld. At least the story is kind of original and is just there to give you a purpose to beat the story. In-game, the story is not much there. I will at least give them the effort of implementing some ''audible'' dialog said by the main enemy (even though it's barely comprehensible).
The graphic is a nice change since it's not the pixelated games that I played a bunch recently. The sprites are clean, They really put an efforts in the visuals for this game. The enemies looks good, your character is clean and the background are well implemented. It's a nice change of pace. The music however, is really average. There is no remarkable tracks and the SFX are just OK.
The controls are kind of funky, You have a punch button, a kick button and a jump button. However, if you want to have an easier time to attack enemies arriving from the top, you need to press down and then use the kick button. Your character will put himself on his back and will kick straight up. It's really awkward to press down to attack enemies from above. The game feels slow when using the controls, but is understandable because of the visuals of the game.
The gameplay is a simple beat them up, with enemies spawning a little bit everywhere, but the twist is that is an auto-scroller. You need to move to the speed of the stage. Also during the level, you need to beat all 3 blue wolves and collect the orb before reaching Neff. Collecting an orb will buff your character and on the 3rd one, you will transform into a specific beast of this level. If you do not collect the 3rd one before reaching Neff, the level will loop and you will redo the whole level again. In one loop, you can only see 3 blue wolves. So if you miss one, it's too bad for you and you need to redo the loop. At least the levels are kind of short.
When transforming into a beast, you will gain special attacks with that transformation. There are 4 different beast that you can incarnate. This creates a really nice variety to the gameplay. Each level has a boss at the end and you will need to beat it with your transformation. Some of them are easy, but others are really hard to not get hit by anything. Once you beat all 5 levels, the game is over.
One thing that I hate about this game, is that you have no way of healing yourself or getting extra lives. Even when you complete a level, they do not heal you to the next one. So you pretty much need to play perfectly to be able to beat all 5 levels. If you lose all your lives, you need to start all over again, which can be really annoying.
Despite the difficulty of the game, the game had some really nice ideas and had some fun moment sometimes. This game doesn't stay his welcome since there's only 5 levels. You should try it if you search for an old, short and sweet game.
1985
Super Mario Bros. Just reading this title should already tell you that this a great game.
The story of this game is simple, but it doesn't tell you directly unless you read the booklet of this game. The only parts that mentions the story in the game is when saving a toad or beating the game.
The music in this game is so good and recognizable, that even people who never played this game would know that this is mario. The game has 5 different full songs : the above ground, underground, underwater, the koopa castle and the ending song. All other tracks are completing a level and completing a koopa castle stage. They are all good in their own right.
Graphically, the game still looks good for his age. With all the colorful sprites used in this game, it's easy to recongnize everything in the game.
The gameplay is what makes this game really good. A simple platformer, but with really tight controls. Something really facinating is that it's one of the first game where you can influence your jump momentum, even mid-air. This makes the platforming even tighter. All enemies are fair (except tbe hammer bros, which can be really annoying). The 2 power-ups in the game (mushroom and fire flower) are simple, but effective. The player can also collect coins and for each 100 coins, they will gain a life. Before this, it was only with score that player gained lifes other than items in the game. This incite the player to collect them when seeing them.
Also, for those who doesn't know, if you get a game over, the player can choose which world to start to.
This is why I think most everybody think this is an absolute classic and everyone should at least play that game once.
Game #25 of my challenge
The story of this game is simple, but it doesn't tell you directly unless you read the booklet of this game. The only parts that mentions the story in the game is when saving a toad or beating the game.
The music in this game is so good and recognizable, that even people who never played this game would know that this is mario. The game has 5 different full songs : the above ground, underground, underwater, the koopa castle and the ending song. All other tracks are completing a level and completing a koopa castle stage. They are all good in their own right.
Graphically, the game still looks good for his age. With all the colorful sprites used in this game, it's easy to recongnize everything in the game.
The gameplay is what makes this game really good. A simple platformer, but with really tight controls. Something really facinating is that it's one of the first game where you can influence your jump momentum, even mid-air. This makes the platforming even tighter. All enemies are fair (except tbe hammer bros, which can be really annoying). The 2 power-ups in the game (mushroom and fire flower) are simple, but effective. The player can also collect coins and for each 100 coins, they will gain a life. Before this, it was only with score that player gained lifes other than items in the game. This incite the player to collect them when seeing them.
Also, for those who doesn't know, if you get a game over, the player can choose which world to start to.
This is why I think most everybody think this is an absolute classic and everyone should at least play that game once.
Game #25 of my challenge
1986
This is the start of another beloved franchise that most people likes. This series of games is considered classics among the fans. Even if this game is really not forgiving, it still have his charm.
First of, the soundtrack is so good. I think it is the best OST I have come across so far though my challenge. The songs are bangers after bangers and set the tone pretty well for the game.
The visual of the game is also really captivating. The background, the sprites and enemies are really well made for the time and it's able to catch the sensation of trying to conquer the mansion of Dracula.
The story is not really well displayed into the game except trying to kill Dracula, but it was one of those game that all the story was recited in the manual of the game or in a Nintendo Power.
For the gameplay aspect, it is really good. However it still has his flaws. For starters, the controls are simple : one button to jump and the other for the attacks. The jump is really stiff and once Simon (the main character) starts his jumps, you cannot change the momentum or the distance of the jump. This can be really annoying in a platformer. The whip is satisfying to hit enemies with. You can break background objects of the map to upgrade your ship so that you can hit farther and with more damage.
Breaking the objects can also gives the players sub-weapons and ammunitions. The sub-weapons can be really good is certain situations, however, most of the time, you want to keep the holy water, since this weapon is kind of broken. The cross can also be useful against certain bosses. The ammos can represented by some red hearts. It can be confusing since usually, hearts = Health. In this game, you can only heal yourself with some chicken hidden inside some hidden walls.
The enemies are visually well designed, but getting hit by one of them can really be annoying. The reason for that is that you get a lots of knockback when getting hit. In a game where falling is an instant death, this can be frustrating.
The bosses are classics from the Universal Classic monsters like Mommies, Frankenstein, the reaper, etc.. . They each have their own behavior and that makes the game less redundant. Some of them are really hard to beat.
This game was fun to go through, even though the game is really hard. The music and levels were so good that it kept me pushing to beat it. This game was a good start for the franchise.
Game #41 of my challenge.
First of, the soundtrack is so good. I think it is the best OST I have come across so far though my challenge. The songs are bangers after bangers and set the tone pretty well for the game.
The visual of the game is also really captivating. The background, the sprites and enemies are really well made for the time and it's able to catch the sensation of trying to conquer the mansion of Dracula.
The story is not really well displayed into the game except trying to kill Dracula, but it was one of those game that all the story was recited in the manual of the game or in a Nintendo Power.
For the gameplay aspect, it is really good. However it still has his flaws. For starters, the controls are simple : one button to jump and the other for the attacks. The jump is really stiff and once Simon (the main character) starts his jumps, you cannot change the momentum or the distance of the jump. This can be really annoying in a platformer. The whip is satisfying to hit enemies with. You can break background objects of the map to upgrade your ship so that you can hit farther and with more damage.
Breaking the objects can also gives the players sub-weapons and ammunitions. The sub-weapons can be really good is certain situations, however, most of the time, you want to keep the holy water, since this weapon is kind of broken. The cross can also be useful against certain bosses. The ammos can represented by some red hearts. It can be confusing since usually, hearts = Health. In this game, you can only heal yourself with some chicken hidden inside some hidden walls.
The enemies are visually well designed, but getting hit by one of them can really be annoying. The reason for that is that you get a lots of knockback when getting hit. In a game where falling is an instant death, this can be frustrating.
The bosses are classics from the Universal Classic monsters like Mommies, Frankenstein, the reaper, etc.. . They each have their own behavior and that makes the game less redundant. Some of them are really hard to beat.
This game was fun to go through, even though the game is really hard. The music and levels were so good that it kept me pushing to beat it. This game was a good start for the franchise.
Game #41 of my challenge.
1988
Game #66 of my challenge
This game took me a lot of time to beat, but I finally able to pass through it. This is the third installment of this series and a lot of this game is similar to the others.
The plot of this game is that there's an fiend named Baramos is menacing to destroy the world (this is not the same world as in the first two games). You, a descendant of a hero named Ortega, is called by the king to create a party to stop that enemy. There's a nice change regarding the Hero of this game: You can choose if you want to be a boy or a girl. This is the first game that I've played yet that you can choose what you want to be. Also, almost every character that you will interact with will also consider the gender that you are. The party will need to find 6 orbs and when you collect them all, you will be able to go defeat that final boss. Once you beat it, you need to go back to the castle and get the Reward from the king. However (Spoilers from 1988), the ground starts to shake and there's an actual final boss revealing his identity. For the time, having a fake ending is something nobody did before (or that I know). This added a whole bunch of gameplay to it, which is great for those who loves that type of game.
The visual of the game is extremely similar to the two previous ones. There are some new sprites, but that's about it. There's not much to talk about here. The Music is also really good in this game. I wasn't tired of hearing them during my playthrough. The songs were really fitting with the environment that your characters were .
The gameplay is really similar to the other 2 games, so I will simply highlights the changes or things that they added to this game. First of all, you can choose your party that will accompany you during your quest. So you can create a party of 4. You can choose on each created character the gender, name, and class that they will have, which is great. Not only that, but you can switch mid quests since you can recruit and stored them whenever you want. This is really impressive for the time. Also, another thing that is really impressive for the time, is that there's some side quests in the game. Doing some side quests will give you items that are not mandatory to the story, but will help you during your quest. Lastly, they put a lot of funny items in it that makes the game really flavorful.
Saying all that, I really had some fun with the game, but I'm starting to be burned out by old school RPG 100% based on luck. At least in my list, I will not see one until a little while, so it will give me a break from them.
This game took me a lot of time to beat, but I finally able to pass through it. This is the third installment of this series and a lot of this game is similar to the others.
The plot of this game is that there's an fiend named Baramos is menacing to destroy the world (this is not the same world as in the first two games). You, a descendant of a hero named Ortega, is called by the king to create a party to stop that enemy. There's a nice change regarding the Hero of this game: You can choose if you want to be a boy or a girl. This is the first game that I've played yet that you can choose what you want to be. Also, almost every character that you will interact with will also consider the gender that you are. The party will need to find 6 orbs and when you collect them all, you will be able to go defeat that final boss. Once you beat it, you need to go back to the castle and get the Reward from the king. However (Spoilers from 1988), the ground starts to shake and there's an actual final boss revealing his identity. For the time, having a fake ending is something nobody did before (or that I know). This added a whole bunch of gameplay to it, which is great for those who loves that type of game.
The visual of the game is extremely similar to the two previous ones. There are some new sprites, but that's about it. There's not much to talk about here. The Music is also really good in this game. I wasn't tired of hearing them during my playthrough. The songs were really fitting with the environment that your characters were .
The gameplay is really similar to the other 2 games, so I will simply highlights the changes or things that they added to this game. First of all, you can choose your party that will accompany you during your quest. So you can create a party of 4. You can choose on each created character the gender, name, and class that they will have, which is great. Not only that, but you can switch mid quests since you can recruit and stored them whenever you want. This is really impressive for the time. Also, another thing that is really impressive for the time, is that there's some side quests in the game. Doing some side quests will give you items that are not mandatory to the story, but will help you during your quest. Lastly, they put a lot of funny items in it that makes the game really flavorful.
Saying all that, I really had some fun with the game, but I'm starting to be burned out by old school RPG 100% based on luck. At least in my list, I will not see one until a little while, so it will give me a break from them.
1987
Game # 59 of my challenge
Dragon warrior was the first JRPG of my list that I tried. It was barebones, but did a great job at what it wanted to do. The second dragon warrior came along and added a bunch a new stuff to the JRPG formula. Now, it's time to try another franchise and it's was a breath of fresh air.
First of all, the plot is about four heroes called the Warriors of light. They each have an elemental crystal of their world that was tainted by the four elemental fiends. OS their goal is to restore their restore to bring back world peace. The story is way more complicated than any other games that I previously played and keep adding more stuff when getting further in the story. The story is well given to the player if the player is interested to talk to a lot of NPCs in the game.
The music is also really good. I would also say that some of the songs are iconic, especially the battle theme. The OST is really well created for the universe that the adventure took place in. The music feels like you're in a fantasy world. So props to the composer of this game.
Visually, the game looks really good as well. One thing that came straight to mind about how much they improved the JRPG genre is the battle. Instead of only seeing the enemies in front of you, you can also see your characters in the battle. When it's their turn, they also have an animation of their attack, which is nice. The world is pretty to explore and have some different type of terrains and villages to explore (especially at the end of the game). The enemies and bosses looks good as well.
The start of the game is also really fresh compared to the other game of that genre that I played previously. You can choose a party of 4 characters to play from. They each have their unique traits and ability. This adds a really big layer of replayability. However, some characters were way stronger than other, or some that simply didn't work. For example, the thief main stats is not even functional in the game.
Speaking of the characters, during the course of the game, your character will gain levels by defeating enemies. Those levels will grant better stats to your characters. Also, it will also grant access to spellcasters to access some stronger spells in their ''spell books''. Each spellcasters can have 3 spells per level of spell that they can hold. Further in the game, all characters can also transform to a better version of what they were previously. Their stats and even their visual is also changed by that transformation.
The combat is really good. The player can fight to up to 9 enemies on the same screen. You can select the type of attack to each of your character and can also target the specific enemy that you want. This is a huge upgrade compared to Dragon Warrior, but it also comes with a downside. If the target your character wants to hit is not present anymore, they lose their turn. This can be frustrating at times, but you need to take it into account when fighting. Also, there's a total of 128 different enemies in the game (including bosses). That is really an impressive feat for the time.
The exploration is also really neat in this game. You can walk across different type of terrains, you can also unlock a boat early on in the game to move from a continent to another, and can unlock a blimp further in the game, which makes you go wherever you want to go. This makes the exploration less redundant and also faster when you're further in the game.
The villages are nice also. There's some inns to heal your characters, shops to buy a whole bunch of stuff and some NPCs that you can talk to. One thing that is really annoying in the game is that you cannot buy a lot of the same item in one purchase. You need to buy every one of them individually one at the time, which can be really tedious when you need to buy 99 of them. In one town, there's a tombstone with the name of Eldrick, which is a really nice nod to the hero of the first game of Dragon Warrior.
I enjoyed my time playing this game, however, there were some tedious things that you come across way to often and some stuff that simply not work (like a character and some spells). I would still recommend this game, but I heard that the remasters of those games are better. That mean that if you're interested to see what the first Final Fantasy have to offer, try a newer version of it.
Dragon warrior was the first JRPG of my list that I tried. It was barebones, but did a great job at what it wanted to do. The second dragon warrior came along and added a bunch a new stuff to the JRPG formula. Now, it's time to try another franchise and it's was a breath of fresh air.
First of all, the plot is about four heroes called the Warriors of light. They each have an elemental crystal of their world that was tainted by the four elemental fiends. OS their goal is to restore their restore to bring back world peace. The story is way more complicated than any other games that I previously played and keep adding more stuff when getting further in the story. The story is well given to the player if the player is interested to talk to a lot of NPCs in the game.
The music is also really good. I would also say that some of the songs are iconic, especially the battle theme. The OST is really well created for the universe that the adventure took place in. The music feels like you're in a fantasy world. So props to the composer of this game.
Visually, the game looks really good as well. One thing that came straight to mind about how much they improved the JRPG genre is the battle. Instead of only seeing the enemies in front of you, you can also see your characters in the battle. When it's their turn, they also have an animation of their attack, which is nice. The world is pretty to explore and have some different type of terrains and villages to explore (especially at the end of the game). The enemies and bosses looks good as well.
The start of the game is also really fresh compared to the other game of that genre that I played previously. You can choose a party of 4 characters to play from. They each have their unique traits and ability. This adds a really big layer of replayability. However, some characters were way stronger than other, or some that simply didn't work. For example, the thief main stats is not even functional in the game.
Speaking of the characters, during the course of the game, your character will gain levels by defeating enemies. Those levels will grant better stats to your characters. Also, it will also grant access to spellcasters to access some stronger spells in their ''spell books''. Each spellcasters can have 3 spells per level of spell that they can hold. Further in the game, all characters can also transform to a better version of what they were previously. Their stats and even their visual is also changed by that transformation.
The combat is really good. The player can fight to up to 9 enemies on the same screen. You can select the type of attack to each of your character and can also target the specific enemy that you want. This is a huge upgrade compared to Dragon Warrior, but it also comes with a downside. If the target your character wants to hit is not present anymore, they lose their turn. This can be frustrating at times, but you need to take it into account when fighting. Also, there's a total of 128 different enemies in the game (including bosses). That is really an impressive feat for the time.
The exploration is also really neat in this game. You can walk across different type of terrains, you can also unlock a boat early on in the game to move from a continent to another, and can unlock a blimp further in the game, which makes you go wherever you want to go. This makes the exploration less redundant and also faster when you're further in the game.
The villages are nice also. There's some inns to heal your characters, shops to buy a whole bunch of stuff and some NPCs that you can talk to. One thing that is really annoying in the game is that you cannot buy a lot of the same item in one purchase. You need to buy every one of them individually one at the time, which can be really tedious when you need to buy 99 of them. In one town, there's a tombstone with the name of Eldrick, which is a really nice nod to the hero of the first game of Dragon Warrior.
I enjoyed my time playing this game, however, there were some tedious things that you come across way to often and some stuff that simply not work (like a character and some spells). I would still recommend this game, but I heard that the remasters of those games are better. That mean that if you're interested to see what the first Final Fantasy have to offer, try a newer version of it.
1985
Now I'm starting to see a bump into the evolution of gaming with this entry in my list.
First of all, while being minor, there's a story. Even if simple, there's one to see and understand. The music in this game have also stepped up compared with the other games that I've beaten so far. 4 full songs is crazy when you think about it (plus a couples of short music transitions).
Gameplay wise, it's a platformers with mutiple stages. You go from point A and reach point B. You can collect different weapons to use and they all have their own behaviors. The stage screen can go up, down, left and right, which may sound stupid, but it's the first game that I come across that can do that. Also, each stages have a different background design and environnement, in which the world in makes it more alive.
This game, however is really hard. You get two hits before dying (which is more generous than other games with their one-shot death). You can collect some hidden armor pieces to "heal" yourself. The enemies can be really bulls*** with their behavior and placement (especially the flying demon). The jump momentum is a little bit janky and hard to be precise with. Some weapons are really better than others and you want to keep them. Sometimes however, the enemies can drop a random weapon that can block your path and forces you to collect it. This can be infuriating, especially when the game forces you to beat certain bosses with certain types of weapons. If you reach the last level without the right weapon, you will need to restart some stages.
When finally beating the last boss of the game, it will tell you that it was an illusion and that you need to start over. When completing the first loop, it's so unsatisfying that you need to beat a second time to have the true ending.
The game, while frustrating, is fun to do a full loop, but the second one is too much. I used save states to complete this game (and I'm not ashamed of it). Worth to beat at least once.
Game #23 of my challenge
First of all, while being minor, there's a story. Even if simple, there's one to see and understand. The music in this game have also stepped up compared with the other games that I've beaten so far. 4 full songs is crazy when you think about it (plus a couples of short music transitions).
Gameplay wise, it's a platformers with mutiple stages. You go from point A and reach point B. You can collect different weapons to use and they all have their own behaviors. The stage screen can go up, down, left and right, which may sound stupid, but it's the first game that I come across that can do that. Also, each stages have a different background design and environnement, in which the world in makes it more alive.
This game, however is really hard. You get two hits before dying (which is more generous than other games with their one-shot death). You can collect some hidden armor pieces to "heal" yourself. The enemies can be really bulls*** with their behavior and placement (especially the flying demon). The jump momentum is a little bit janky and hard to be precise with. Some weapons are really better than others and you want to keep them. Sometimes however, the enemies can drop a random weapon that can block your path and forces you to collect it. This can be infuriating, especially when the game forces you to beat certain bosses with certain types of weapons. If you reach the last level without the right weapon, you will need to restart some stages.
When finally beating the last boss of the game, it will tell you that it was an illusion and that you need to start over. When completing the first loop, it's so unsatisfying that you need to beat a second time to have the true ending.
The game, while frustrating, is fun to do a full loop, but the second one is too much. I used save states to complete this game (and I'm not ashamed of it). Worth to beat at least once.
Game #23 of my challenge
1985
This game is really fun for how simple it is. The controls are really instictive since one of the button can be hold for flying normally and the other needs to be press multiple times to ajust your flight.
This game is also fun in two players where you try to beat all the levels in coop. Even if it's coop, you still wants to get more points than your friends (especially in the bonus rounds)
The last mode is really enjoyable and challenging since you want to reach the furthest as possible since lasting longer will give you points, but getting all the baloons will give you the most points.
A classic for NES and you should play it at least once
Game #14 of my challenge
This game is also fun in two players where you try to beat all the levels in coop. Even if it's coop, you still wants to get more points than your friends (especially in the bonus rounds)
The last mode is really enjoyable and challenging since you want to reach the furthest as possible since lasting longer will give you points, but getting all the baloons will give you the most points.
A classic for NES and you should play it at least once
Game #14 of my challenge
1985
The concept of this game is really enjoyable. However, the controls is in the way of this game. The jump momentum is really inconsistent that it can be infuriating. The treadmill are hard to identify between the one that goes to the left and the one to the right (the orientation is only shown by the stripes). The two players mode helps, but can be annoying if one players goes too high
Game # 15 of my challenge
Game # 15 of my challenge
Game #63 of my challenge
This should be my last game that I'm catching on before resuming where I was on the timeline. This game was release on April 14th 1986. So I will judge based on games that I played that released before this one (this should be after The legend of Zelda on my timeline).
Before seeing this on the Nintendo Switch NES catalog, I have never heard of this game before. When I booted it, the main character was vaguely familiar. It's another character that I saw as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. After playing this game, let me tell you that it was a good experience, but I will never do again.
First of all, the plot of the game is wild. You (a samurai named Takamaru) are in the 1600s Japan era and on a stormy day, a golden thing fell from the sky and took possession of an old statue. That statue gives orbs to the daimyos of this land and because of that, they got corrupted to be evil. Your goal is to eliminate the corrupted daimyos and get rid of that golden thing (which appears to be an alien). To be honest, only by playing the game, I would have never know what was happening in the game. I didn't read the plot of this game after beating it. I was really surprise to see a huge alien as a final boss.
The visuals are good. I have the same vibe as the legend of Zelda. Everything is distinct. You know from the background where the game is happening. Most of the common enemies are similar, but with different color pallets. There are other types of ''special enemies'' which looks good or ok (there were some things that I could never tell what they were).
The music was good. It gives an old japanese theme vibe. They were able to kind of replicate that kind of music, which is kind of impressive to be honest. If it had a more modern touch to it, I would probably listen to it on my own.
The controls are kind of ok at best. The A button will swing the character sword and B will use his special technique. What is weird about the A button is that if nothing is close to you, it will throw a projectile (it can be a knife, a boomerang kind of thing or some fireballs). But you have a limited amount of projectiles that you can throw. So if you you only want to swing your sword, you will also throw your projectile. At least, the enemies will drop a lot of ammo for those projectiles. The special technique can be a lightning bolt that kills all enemies or an invisible jutsu that makes you invincible for a brief moment. You have a really limited amount of those special techniques.
The gameplay was really different from I was though at first. I though it would have been a legend of zelda type of game with some adventure elements mixed with some sword play. However, after going further into the game, it's more of a bullet hell type of game. There's so many projectiles going around the screen that it's really hard to not get hit by anything. Even if you have 3 hits before losing a life, this makes the game so hard. At least you can block shuriken with your sword.
There's 5 levels in the game, and each of those stages consists of 2 levels. The first level is in the outside world where your goal is to reach the castle and the other level is inside the castle. Both of those levels are real mazes. You can get lost easily in those levels.
This game is extremely hard and I won't recommend this if you don't like challenging games. However, if you like bullet hell games, then this is a game for you.
This should be my last game that I'm catching on before resuming where I was on the timeline. This game was release on April 14th 1986. So I will judge based on games that I played that released before this one (this should be after The legend of Zelda on my timeline).
Before seeing this on the Nintendo Switch NES catalog, I have never heard of this game before. When I booted it, the main character was vaguely familiar. It's another character that I saw as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. After playing this game, let me tell you that it was a good experience, but I will never do again.
First of all, the plot of the game is wild. You (a samurai named Takamaru) are in the 1600s Japan era and on a stormy day, a golden thing fell from the sky and took possession of an old statue. That statue gives orbs to the daimyos of this land and because of that, they got corrupted to be evil. Your goal is to eliminate the corrupted daimyos and get rid of that golden thing (which appears to be an alien). To be honest, only by playing the game, I would have never know what was happening in the game. I didn't read the plot of this game after beating it. I was really surprise to see a huge alien as a final boss.
The visuals are good. I have the same vibe as the legend of Zelda. Everything is distinct. You know from the background where the game is happening. Most of the common enemies are similar, but with different color pallets. There are other types of ''special enemies'' which looks good or ok (there were some things that I could never tell what they were).
The music was good. It gives an old japanese theme vibe. They were able to kind of replicate that kind of music, which is kind of impressive to be honest. If it had a more modern touch to it, I would probably listen to it on my own.
The controls are kind of ok at best. The A button will swing the character sword and B will use his special technique. What is weird about the A button is that if nothing is close to you, it will throw a projectile (it can be a knife, a boomerang kind of thing or some fireballs). But you have a limited amount of projectiles that you can throw. So if you you only want to swing your sword, you will also throw your projectile. At least, the enemies will drop a lot of ammo for those projectiles. The special technique can be a lightning bolt that kills all enemies or an invisible jutsu that makes you invincible for a brief moment. You have a really limited amount of those special techniques.
The gameplay was really different from I was though at first. I though it would have been a legend of zelda type of game with some adventure elements mixed with some sword play. However, after going further into the game, it's more of a bullet hell type of game. There's so many projectiles going around the screen that it's really hard to not get hit by anything. Even if you have 3 hits before losing a life, this makes the game so hard. At least you can block shuriken with your sword.
There's 5 levels in the game, and each of those stages consists of 2 levels. The first level is in the outside world where your goal is to reach the castle and the other level is inside the castle. Both of those levels are real mazes. You can get lost easily in those levels.
This game is extremely hard and I won't recommend this if you don't like challenging games. However, if you like bullet hell games, then this is a game for you.
1988
Game # 67 of my challenge
This is my first racing game on my list and let me tell you, it's a really hard one. This is also the 4th game of Rare, one iconic game company of the 90s
First of all, there are not much plot to this game. It's a racing game and your goal is to be first. However, you are not driving any cars. You are remotely controller an RC cart. That's the only premise of this game.
The visual of this game looks really good. The game is viewed in a isometric view during the race. The bright colors makes the game looks really good. It's also really simple, but it works. You can see and identify what's on the race track. The UI is also great because they integrated the map in the bottom of the screen, which helps a lot to know when there's some turns. The Music is also really great. The starting screen is really a banger.
The controls are also really simple : Control with the D-pad, B to accelerate and A to horn (you won't really use it). However, controlling the RC is really hard. Since you are in an Isometric view, it's not always obvious on where to go when you don't know. Also, turning is really hard. This car turn so abruptly it's insane. The hit detection of the cart is also really big, so it's difficult to avoid everything.
The gameplay is pretty simple, but clever. You have some basics car stats and during your races, you can collect stuff to improve your car (like turning, acceleration and max speed). This improvements will stay for several races. This makes the game really enjoyable, since you want to get first, but also collect all the stats to help you in other races. There are also other stuff that you can collect : Frames, missiles, bombs and ammo. You read me well, you can shoot missile in this game to other cars using your horn button, but it's hard to aim them. There are also a lot of obstacles to avoid on the track that will slow you down or simply make you crash.
There's one thing that really infuriated me is that if you get last in a track, you are game over. There's no retry and you start at the beginning. This is really stupid since all the races are really short and sweet. Sometimes, a single mistake will give you a game over and you need to start all over. Also, the rubber banding in this game is crazy. They can crash and catch you right after in the next 5 seconds, but you can't do that, especially when you crash, you will sometimes start backwards. So you need to turn around your car and that makes it difficult to catch them.
Even though this game is really charming, I cannot give higher than a 3 stars to the 4th game created by Rare studios. I know they will have better game in the future.
This is my first racing game on my list and let me tell you, it's a really hard one. This is also the 4th game of Rare, one iconic game company of the 90s
First of all, there are not much plot to this game. It's a racing game and your goal is to be first. However, you are not driving any cars. You are remotely controller an RC cart. That's the only premise of this game.
The visual of this game looks really good. The game is viewed in a isometric view during the race. The bright colors makes the game looks really good. It's also really simple, but it works. You can see and identify what's on the race track. The UI is also great because they integrated the map in the bottom of the screen, which helps a lot to know when there's some turns. The Music is also really great. The starting screen is really a banger.
The controls are also really simple : Control with the D-pad, B to accelerate and A to horn (you won't really use it). However, controlling the RC is really hard. Since you are in an Isometric view, it's not always obvious on where to go when you don't know. Also, turning is really hard. This car turn so abruptly it's insane. The hit detection of the cart is also really big, so it's difficult to avoid everything.
The gameplay is pretty simple, but clever. You have some basics car stats and during your races, you can collect stuff to improve your car (like turning, acceleration and max speed). This improvements will stay for several races. This makes the game really enjoyable, since you want to get first, but also collect all the stats to help you in other races. There are also other stuff that you can collect : Frames, missiles, bombs and ammo. You read me well, you can shoot missile in this game to other cars using your horn button, but it's hard to aim them. There are also a lot of obstacles to avoid on the track that will slow you down or simply make you crash.
There's one thing that really infuriated me is that if you get last in a track, you are game over. There's no retry and you start at the beginning. This is really stupid since all the races are really short and sweet. Sometimes, a single mistake will give you a game over and you need to start all over. Also, the rubber banding in this game is crazy. They can crash and catch you right after in the next 5 seconds, but you can't do that, especially when you crash, you will sometimes start backwards. So you need to turn around your car and that makes it difficult to catch them.
Even though this game is really charming, I cannot give higher than a 3 stars to the 4th game created by Rare studios. I know they will have better game in the future.
1985
Kick the ball into the goal to score a point and then the crowd goes wild. That is about as interesting as an nes soccre game can be. The game is not that fun and the game is really slow paced (which is excusable since it came out on the NES). Kicking the ball outside is more fun than this game for me.
Game #22 of the challenge
Game #22 of the challenge
1986
Dragon Warrior, the first of the beloved Dragon's Quest franchise. I know this game influence greatly the game genres of JRPGs. This is my first time playing any of those games and it's also the forst real RPG on the list. So I have no nostalgia for those games.
First of all, the graphics are really charming for his time. A lot of bright enemies sprites that are now icons for the series ( especially the slimes). Everything is recongnizable in the environnement and the UI is well done.
The story is kind of classic. The chosen one that needs to save a kidnapped princess. It does his job and that's about it. The dialogs of the characters are generic or really cryptic. You need to talk to everybody to be sure that you won't miss anything. Without those dialogs, you couldn't found certain mandatory things for sure.
Gameplay wise, it's pretty simple, but a good simple. Since it's some of the first of his genre, a lots of things are barebone or just unpolished. When starting the game, you start at level 1 with some stats. What I found BS about those stats is that depending on your name that you chose, the stats will change. This is kind of stupid, because when you are a kid, you use your name to be the hero's name, but your name could suck more than another kid name.
Also, your "party" is composed of only one character. You also always fight against one enemy at the time. This makes the things really simple. When trying to interact with something on the map, you need to open the menu. So that means that each time you want to talk, items, stats, open a door or even using the stairs, you need to open the menu and use the right option (which makes the thing a little tedious).
The level system is really grindy. You will pass a lot of time turning in circle around a village and beat enemies, go heal and then go back. You will want to grind around a town, because if you die, you will go back to the first town and you will lose half of your gold.
Speaking of towns, the map is really huge for a first JRPG. You will need a map on your computer to find yourself in this map. It's kind of impressive when you thing about it.
I'm gonna be honest, I used a guide to help me save time with this game, but I still enjoyed my time with it. Since the combat system is really simple, you can watch something else while grinding XP or gold and it won't be that bad. I think it's a good game for his time and I would recommand people to at least to try it, only to get a feel of what it was back in 1986.
Game #30 of my challenge
First of all, the graphics are really charming for his time. A lot of bright enemies sprites that are now icons for the series ( especially the slimes). Everything is recongnizable in the environnement and the UI is well done.
The story is kind of classic. The chosen one that needs to save a kidnapped princess. It does his job and that's about it. The dialogs of the characters are generic or really cryptic. You need to talk to everybody to be sure that you won't miss anything. Without those dialogs, you couldn't found certain mandatory things for sure.
Gameplay wise, it's pretty simple, but a good simple. Since it's some of the first of his genre, a lots of things are barebone or just unpolished. When starting the game, you start at level 1 with some stats. What I found BS about those stats is that depending on your name that you chose, the stats will change. This is kind of stupid, because when you are a kid, you use your name to be the hero's name, but your name could suck more than another kid name.
Also, your "party" is composed of only one character. You also always fight against one enemy at the time. This makes the things really simple. When trying to interact with something on the map, you need to open the menu. So that means that each time you want to talk, items, stats, open a door or even using the stairs, you need to open the menu and use the right option (which makes the thing a little tedious).
The level system is really grindy. You will pass a lot of time turning in circle around a village and beat enemies, go heal and then go back. You will want to grind around a town, because if you die, you will go back to the first town and you will lose half of your gold.
Speaking of towns, the map is really huge for a first JRPG. You will need a map on your computer to find yourself in this map. It's kind of impressive when you thing about it.
I'm gonna be honest, I used a guide to help me save time with this game, but I still enjoyed my time with it. Since the combat system is really simple, you can watch something else while grinding XP or gold and it won't be that bad. I think it's a good game for his time and I would recommand people to at least to try it, only to get a feel of what it was back in 1986.
Game #30 of my challenge
1987
The video game industry was rising in those year and each company tried to rise to the top. One way to do it was to create a really good game with a distinct main characters. Here comes the creation of mascots. Capcom had some hits like Ghost and Goblins, but wasn't good enough for them. Here's come the new rising star of Capcom : Mega Man (or Rockman).
The story goes as follow : Robots were created to help humans for certain tasks and because of that, lives in harmony with humans. All that was thanks to Dr. Light. However, 6 masters robots started to attack the humans for no reason. Dr. Light found out that it was his rival Dr. Wily who caused all of this. Dr. Light then took one of his personal robot Rock, and transform him into a weapon to stop the 6 master robots and Dr. Wily evil plans. The story is pretty good for the time and serves pretty well the plot of the game.
One thing that distinguish Mega Man from other games was the music. Those songs were really bangers and have a great variety when going in each levels. There are some songs that I could listen while doing other tasks since it's really good.
The visual of the game is also really good. The cartoon style of visual fits really well and makes this game come out of the lot. The main character is charming, the enemies are all different from each other and some of them are iconic. Also, the bosses looks pretty nice as well. Each stages also have a nice background that makes them them uniquely different from one another.
The controls are also pretty good. One button to jump and the other to shoot. In this run and shoot game style, they feel good. The jump is not too stiff, which in certain game it can be annoying. You can also press select to change your weapon as well. That's a really nice touch.
The gameplay is something that wasn't explore at the time. When starting the game, the player can choose which stage to start in. For the time, that's kind of revolutionary. No other games let you choose the order of the level. This was a genius move by Capcom because it creates so much replayability for the player when they own the game. Also, once you beat one of the bosses, you gain the power of that boss. This was a neat idea since some enemies or bosses were strong or weak against certain type of weapons. This makes the exploration of those weapon so much better.
Once all 6 bosses were beaten, you now have a linear path when it comes to the upcoming levels until you beat Dr. Wily. During those stages, you will fight new boss, but also something new at the time : Boss Rush. Beaten once again all those bosses was a new touch for a game at the time. I personally don't like this type of gameplay, but it was still an innovation for the time.
One of my biggest gripe about this game is that it's a hard game. There's some section that you can die in one hit, which can be really a pain. There's some part where you are on flying platform that shoot bullets on each side. Those platforming parts were an absolute pain in the ass if I'm being honest, since those platform were random when it comes to their movement. There's also an infamous boss that is really infuriating : the yellow devil. That boss is so hard and need way to much practice to actually learn his pattern. One thing I haven't mention is that all your special bullets have some ammo, which is fine. But if you die, they do not replenish until you get a game over, which is frustrating at times.
While this game have so many innovative thing for the time and a banger of a soundtrack, I cannot give it more than that because of the difficulty and frustrating moment. This will pave the path of some many games to come and they will just getting better (I hope).
Game # 58 of my challenge
The story goes as follow : Robots were created to help humans for certain tasks and because of that, lives in harmony with humans. All that was thanks to Dr. Light. However, 6 masters robots started to attack the humans for no reason. Dr. Light found out that it was his rival Dr. Wily who caused all of this. Dr. Light then took one of his personal robot Rock, and transform him into a weapon to stop the 6 master robots and Dr. Wily evil plans. The story is pretty good for the time and serves pretty well the plot of the game.
One thing that distinguish Mega Man from other games was the music. Those songs were really bangers and have a great variety when going in each levels. There are some songs that I could listen while doing other tasks since it's really good.
The visual of the game is also really good. The cartoon style of visual fits really well and makes this game come out of the lot. The main character is charming, the enemies are all different from each other and some of them are iconic. Also, the bosses looks pretty nice as well. Each stages also have a nice background that makes them them uniquely different from one another.
The controls are also pretty good. One button to jump and the other to shoot. In this run and shoot game style, they feel good. The jump is not too stiff, which in certain game it can be annoying. You can also press select to change your weapon as well. That's a really nice touch.
The gameplay is something that wasn't explore at the time. When starting the game, the player can choose which stage to start in. For the time, that's kind of revolutionary. No other games let you choose the order of the level. This was a genius move by Capcom because it creates so much replayability for the player when they own the game. Also, once you beat one of the bosses, you gain the power of that boss. This was a neat idea since some enemies or bosses were strong or weak against certain type of weapons. This makes the exploration of those weapon so much better.
Once all 6 bosses were beaten, you now have a linear path when it comes to the upcoming levels until you beat Dr. Wily. During those stages, you will fight new boss, but also something new at the time : Boss Rush. Beaten once again all those bosses was a new touch for a game at the time. I personally don't like this type of gameplay, but it was still an innovation for the time.
One of my biggest gripe about this game is that it's a hard game. There's some section that you can die in one hit, which can be really a pain. There's some part where you are on flying platform that shoot bullets on each side. Those platforming parts were an absolute pain in the ass if I'm being honest, since those platform were random when it comes to their movement. There's also an infamous boss that is really infuriating : the yellow devil. That boss is so hard and need way to much practice to actually learn his pattern. One thing I haven't mention is that all your special bullets have some ammo, which is fine. But if you die, they do not replenish until you get a game over, which is frustrating at times.
While this game have so many innovative thing for the time and a banger of a soundtrack, I cannot give it more than that because of the difficulty and frustrating moment. This will pave the path of some many games to come and they will just getting better (I hope).
Game # 58 of my challenge
1985
Maybe I'm not in the majority here, but this game wasn't for me at all.
First of all, this is another space shooter game. This game however have his own little twist : the bells system. When killing an enemy or shooting at a cloud, a bell will appear. If you collect them, you earn points. You can shoot those bells so that they change colors. Depending on the color, it can give you a new power up when collected. These power-ups are really crucial if you want to go far in the game. When shooting the bells, thay can go off screen, making it harder to know where they are. If you shoot one shot too many, the bell will change color and it will become a normal points bell. The big issue here is that while trying to juggle your bells to get power ups, you need to deal with a whole bunch of enemies, which make it even more difficult.
Managing those bells with enemies is extremely difficult. You can also say F*** those bells and just shoot the enemies, but thay can be in the way, blocking projectiles that were meant for enemies.
Even though the bell idea is unique, it was a frustrating experience for me. If you want a challenge and count at the same time, this game is for you.
Game #20 of my challenge
First of all, this is another space shooter game. This game however have his own little twist : the bells system. When killing an enemy or shooting at a cloud, a bell will appear. If you collect them, you earn points. You can shoot those bells so that they change colors. Depending on the color, it can give you a new power up when collected. These power-ups are really crucial if you want to go far in the game. When shooting the bells, thay can go off screen, making it harder to know where they are. If you shoot one shot too many, the bell will change color and it will become a normal points bell. The big issue here is that while trying to juggle your bells to get power ups, you need to deal with a whole bunch of enemies, which make it even more difficult.
Managing those bells with enemies is extremely difficult. You can also say F*** those bells and just shoot the enemies, but thay can be in the way, blocking projectiles that were meant for enemies.
Even though the bell idea is unique, it was a frustrating experience for me. If you want a challenge and count at the same time, this game is for you.
Game #20 of my challenge
1990
Game # 60 of my challenge
The first game was a fun experience despite the difficulty. The devs took the first one and put a little bit more sauce in it and that's what makes this game better than the first one.
The plot takes place a year after the first Contra game. Our heroes are sent to another mission. This time, the aliens took control of an allied military base. You need this time to fight a mutated version of the last boss in the first one. Let's be honest, who really care about the plot of this game when your only goal is to shoot everything that you see.
The OST is also a huge banger once again. The rhythm is really catchy and wants to make your head bop. It's really action intense music like if you were watching an action movie back in the 80s. I would say that they have one of the best soundtrack in the business so far.
The visual is pretty much the same as the previous one. They added some new background and enemies. However, the visual quality is really similar to the previous one.
When it comes to gameplay, it plays the same as the first one as well. However, they added a new type of stage : Top-down view. They added this type of stage to replace the one that you had a back view from the first one. The switch of type of stage were a really good idea and brings some novelty to the game.
The konami code were cheaper this time. Instead of giving you 30 lives, they only gives you 10. The game is really difficult once again so you need those lives. I think this game is arguably harder to beat than the first one, only because of the levels designs and the spawn location of the enemies. I do however think that the bosses are easier in Super C.
I preferred this entry than the previous one, but I still think that the first game is good. I would recommend this game to those that want a short experience with a higher difficulty.
The first game was a fun experience despite the difficulty. The devs took the first one and put a little bit more sauce in it and that's what makes this game better than the first one.
The plot takes place a year after the first Contra game. Our heroes are sent to another mission. This time, the aliens took control of an allied military base. You need this time to fight a mutated version of the last boss in the first one. Let's be honest, who really care about the plot of this game when your only goal is to shoot everything that you see.
The OST is also a huge banger once again. The rhythm is really catchy and wants to make your head bop. It's really action intense music like if you were watching an action movie back in the 80s. I would say that they have one of the best soundtrack in the business so far.
The visual is pretty much the same as the previous one. They added some new background and enemies. However, the visual quality is really similar to the previous one.
When it comes to gameplay, it plays the same as the first one as well. However, they added a new type of stage : Top-down view. They added this type of stage to replace the one that you had a back view from the first one. The switch of type of stage were a really good idea and brings some novelty to the game.
The konami code were cheaper this time. Instead of giving you 30 lives, they only gives you 10. The game is really difficult once again so you need those lives. I think this game is arguably harder to beat than the first one, only because of the levels designs and the spawn location of the enemies. I do however think that the bosses are easier in Super C.
I preferred this entry than the previous one, but I still think that the first game is good. I would recommend this game to those that want a short experience with a higher difficulty.