ShaggyTheHippy
1988
Game #71 of my challenge
Another Capcom game back to back and this one is the second game that I played from this series. Ghost and Goblin games are known to be one of the hardest franchise to beat and this one stand up to that fact.
The plot is pretty much similar to the previous one : Sir Arthur needs to save the soul of the Princess Prin-Prin from the evil Loki. There's only a story there to be there. The plot is really not important enough to know about it.
The graphics here are way better than the first entry. The visual is so much cleaner. This is mostly due to the Sega having way better graphics than Nintendo at the time. The enemies looked really beautiful and the background as well. They are way more polished and you can identify mostly everything on the level. The only thing that was hard to distinguish is that there are some background that can instant kill you or hurt you. Except that, the visual are really good. The music is pretty much the same as the first game, but they modernized them.
The gameplay is a platformer. You need to go through every level and at the end of each level, there's a boss. Your character can collect a whole bunch of different weapons. There's daggers, flames, swords, lance, axes and shields. They all got their own patterns when throwing them and they all got their different effect. You can also collect a special armor that makes all your weapons have a charged attack that does a huge attack and gives yourself a little bit of invulnerability. This can help you survive some of the more ''bullet hell'' part of the game where's there a lot of enemies and enemy projectiles on the screen.
The controls are as horrible as before. I think that's one of the reason why the game is really difficult. One of the reason why the controls are horrible is the jump momentum. When in the air, you can't change the momentum of the jump. Also, if you are in place, you can only jump straight up. This can be really annoying at time, especially in some really hard platforming moment. Also, something weird is that you can't use the charged attack while in the air. If you use it in the air, it will only trigger the moment you touch the ground, which creates a really big delay before you get back the control of your character.
Like the other game, you need to beat the game twice. I really hate this type of gameplay, because the game is really hard at it is, but you need you beat it again only to see the true final boss. The last boss however was well design and was fun to go up against. This sequel was better in my opinion than the first one.
Another Capcom game back to back and this one is the second game that I played from this series. Ghost and Goblin games are known to be one of the hardest franchise to beat and this one stand up to that fact.
The plot is pretty much similar to the previous one : Sir Arthur needs to save the soul of the Princess Prin-Prin from the evil Loki. There's only a story there to be there. The plot is really not important enough to know about it.
The graphics here are way better than the first entry. The visual is so much cleaner. This is mostly due to the Sega having way better graphics than Nintendo at the time. The enemies looked really beautiful and the background as well. They are way more polished and you can identify mostly everything on the level. The only thing that was hard to distinguish is that there are some background that can instant kill you or hurt you. Except that, the visual are really good. The music is pretty much the same as the first game, but they modernized them.
The gameplay is a platformer. You need to go through every level and at the end of each level, there's a boss. Your character can collect a whole bunch of different weapons. There's daggers, flames, swords, lance, axes and shields. They all got their own patterns when throwing them and they all got their different effect. You can also collect a special armor that makes all your weapons have a charged attack that does a huge attack and gives yourself a little bit of invulnerability. This can help you survive some of the more ''bullet hell'' part of the game where's there a lot of enemies and enemy projectiles on the screen.
The controls are as horrible as before. I think that's one of the reason why the game is really difficult. One of the reason why the controls are horrible is the jump momentum. When in the air, you can't change the momentum of the jump. Also, if you are in place, you can only jump straight up. This can be really annoying at time, especially in some really hard platforming moment. Also, something weird is that you can't use the charged attack while in the air. If you use it in the air, it will only trigger the moment you touch the ground, which creates a really big delay before you get back the control of your character.
Like the other game, you need to beat the game twice. I really hate this type of gameplay, because the game is really hard at it is, but you need you beat it again only to see the true final boss. The last boss however was well design and was fun to go up against. This sequel was better in my opinion than the first one.
1988
Game #70 of my challenge
Next up on the list is a very unique game made by the famous company Capcom. This is the third Capcom game that I've played on my list.
Bionic Commando on the NES is actually a sequel to the first game of the same name: Bionic Commando. The first one was on an arcade machine and in the NES version your goal is to safe the character from the first game: Super Joe. He was captured by the Nazz (they are literally the Nazis) and your goal is to save him and stop the project Albatros.
The graphic are normal for the NES. There are not a lot of varied enemies sprites in this game. You have normal soldier, soldier with grapling hook, bigger soldier (to be honest they look almost all the same). I can give props to the level design of this game. Almost all stages looks different with the background and level sprites. This was a nice variety to see in the game. There were only one type of stage that were all the same : the neutral territories.
The gameplay is a mix of Run and gun mixed with a platformer (with some top-down shooter from time to time). When starting the game, you are on a map with multiple waypoints. You can travel from zone to zone with your helicopter and drop in one of the zones when you arrive. You can cross some army truck while traveling in helicopter and when you do, you play a really short top-down shooter stage. The only utility of those stages (except wasting time) is to collect some continues when you destroy the ''stronger enemies'' in the stage. When dropping in one of the zones, you can select the items that you want to bring in your mission. You can collect some items throughout the game and make you stronger or adapt to the next mission that you will select. You can collect new guns, armor, communication devices and other random items.
The control are the thing that I dislike the most. First of all, I must give praise to the devs about being creative. The way that you do the platforming part of the game is really unconventional. Instead of having a regular jump, you move through the mission by using a grappling hook. The idea is nice, the execution wasn't optimize. The grappling hook shoots diagonally, straight up or straight forward. Moving with the grappling hook is extremely awkward to control and can be really frustrating when you need to do some really tight platforming moments in the game. Except that, shooting is always straight in front of you, but the direction of the bullet will depend on the type of gun that you will use.
The game is really frustrating at times, but at least, the game is relatively short. At the end of the game, you need to kill Hitler. To be honest, I wasn't ready at all for the way you see Hitler die. It's kind of gruesome for an NES game. The hook thing is a good idea, but it needs to be improved way more for it to be fun. As the third Capcom game that I played, this is my least favorite of the bunch.
Next up on the list is a very unique game made by the famous company Capcom. This is the third Capcom game that I've played on my list.
Bionic Commando on the NES is actually a sequel to the first game of the same name: Bionic Commando. The first one was on an arcade machine and in the NES version your goal is to safe the character from the first game: Super Joe. He was captured by the Nazz (they are literally the Nazis) and your goal is to save him and stop the project Albatros.
The graphic are normal for the NES. There are not a lot of varied enemies sprites in this game. You have normal soldier, soldier with grapling hook, bigger soldier (to be honest they look almost all the same). I can give props to the level design of this game. Almost all stages looks different with the background and level sprites. This was a nice variety to see in the game. There were only one type of stage that were all the same : the neutral territories.
The gameplay is a mix of Run and gun mixed with a platformer (with some top-down shooter from time to time). When starting the game, you are on a map with multiple waypoints. You can travel from zone to zone with your helicopter and drop in one of the zones when you arrive. You can cross some army truck while traveling in helicopter and when you do, you play a really short top-down shooter stage. The only utility of those stages (except wasting time) is to collect some continues when you destroy the ''stronger enemies'' in the stage. When dropping in one of the zones, you can select the items that you want to bring in your mission. You can collect some items throughout the game and make you stronger or adapt to the next mission that you will select. You can collect new guns, armor, communication devices and other random items.
The control are the thing that I dislike the most. First of all, I must give praise to the devs about being creative. The way that you do the platforming part of the game is really unconventional. Instead of having a regular jump, you move through the mission by using a grappling hook. The idea is nice, the execution wasn't optimize. The grappling hook shoots diagonally, straight up or straight forward. Moving with the grappling hook is extremely awkward to control and can be really frustrating when you need to do some really tight platforming moments in the game. Except that, shooting is always straight in front of you, but the direction of the bullet will depend on the type of gun that you will use.
The game is really frustrating at times, but at least, the game is relatively short. At the end of the game, you need to kill Hitler. To be honest, I wasn't ready at all for the way you see Hitler die. It's kind of gruesome for an NES game. The hook thing is a good idea, but it needs to be improved way more for it to be fun. As the third Capcom game that I played, this is my least favorite of the bunch.
1988
Game #69 of my challenge
This is the first game in my list made by the well-known company Sunsoft and they have a whole bunch of commercial success in the west, and this was the first one of them.
First of all, the plot is kind of weird and the reason is that when it was first released in Japan, it was an anime type of plot. They though that it wouldn't work for the western side of the world, so they slapped a rushed-up story to replace the original one. The American story of this game is a little boy (Jason) that have a frog (Fred) as a pet. That frog ran away and jumped on an radioactive crate that was in Jason's backyard. We don't know why that kid has some radioactive stuff in the backyard, but let's assume it's normal. Fred becomes massive, dropped into a hole (in that same backyard) and disappeared. That boy followed him in that hole and found a vehicle named Sophia. That vehicle is designed to destroy mutants living inside the earth. So Jason puts a suit on and jumped in that vehicle to destroy the mutants, kill the Plutonian boss and to find his frog. All of this is shown as a slideshow in the game. I know the story doesn't makes much sense, but here we are.
The graphics are actually good. The enemies looks different from each other (even though there are some variants of the same enemy), the background is really nice and immersive. All the different parts of the game is really different from one another, so for a Metroidvania type of game, it's really important. The music is really good. There's a different song for each world and there weren't one that I though was bad, or I wanted to mute. My favorite song was Stage 2 (castle), but the song from Stage 1 (forest) is the most well known of the game. The boss music is really intense and makes you motivated to defeat that boss. The SFX are really average. There no much to say about the sound effects.
The controls as a vehicle are simple at first, but when you progress though the game, they get more complicated, but also more annoying. The reason being is about the wall and celling power-up and the swimming power-up. The vehicle can stick to wall and celling, and when it's time to do some tight jumps, it can be really annoying. The reason is that if you are too close to the edge, you will go down the surface under you when you didn't wanted to. This occurs mostly at the end of the game, but it was still irritating. The swimming power up is only bad because when you want to use your special weapon, you need to hold down and press B. When swimming downward, you will waste a lot of those special ammunitions only because you want to shoot those enemies. The control on foot weren't that bad. It took me some time to learn that if you throw a grenade with A and you hold that button, you can strafe. It's not really instinctive but I figured it out around the middle of the game.
The gameplay is a mix of a Metroidvania, a Platformer and half of the gameplay is a run and shoot. This makes an interesting mix, and you can see that they were inspired with the first Metroid game. The map can be really confusing, but they did something that the Metroid game was missing : a map. Of course, the map is not in-game, but in the instruction manual. It's a good enough map for you to not get lost in it. It shows you a general idea where are the doors and the location of each stages. That was ultra helpful. Throughout the game, your vehicle gets upgrades when Jason defeats bosses. Those upgrades helps you to get access to other parts of the game. Your vehicle can shoot bullets in front of it and on top. Sofia also have access to 3 types of special projectiles : A three missile thing, a lightning bolt and some homing missiles. The three missiles are shot in front of you in a fork shape and can be useful. The lightning bold is the worst weapon, because it shoot under you. It wouldn't be that bad if it would always hit at the same spot. However, the arc of the lightning bolt and the place where it hits is random, so this is mostly useless. The last weapon is the homing missiles. They can be really good, but sometimes, they don't want to hit the target and decides to do some back-and-forth around your vehicle. Those specials weapons were mostly useful in my playthrough against one type of enemy : the worms. Those worms are the most annoying and frustrating enemies by far because your normal cannon cannot hit them because they are too low on the ground. Let me tell you that there are a lot of them in the game.
For the Jason gameplay, I would say that his regular weapon is really bad. The reason being is that his gun can be upgraded by collecting some weapon power-ups. The more you got them, the stronger the weapon is. When you get hit, you also lose one bar of that weapon power-up. Let me tell you that this gun is the most inaccurate weapon in the game. It shoots some projectiles that does an S trajectory. each bullets has a different starting point so it's really hard to aim. I say that it's hard to aim, but I should actually say that it's impossible. There's nobody (excepts maybe speed runners) that can aim precisely with that weapon. So when you see an enemy, you mash the button and prey that it will hit. This is mostly visible against a boss in this game. Because of that, the bosses are really hard in this game. Fun fact, you fight against your frog twice in this game.
The game had some really good ideas, like the weapon upgrade of jason, the mix of on foot and vehicle gameplay. However, there were a lot of frustrating things in the game like the inaccuracy of bullets and annoying creature that makes me giving it a lower score that I would love to.
This is the first game in my list made by the well-known company Sunsoft and they have a whole bunch of commercial success in the west, and this was the first one of them.
First of all, the plot is kind of weird and the reason is that when it was first released in Japan, it was an anime type of plot. They though that it wouldn't work for the western side of the world, so they slapped a rushed-up story to replace the original one. The American story of this game is a little boy (Jason) that have a frog (Fred) as a pet. That frog ran away and jumped on an radioactive crate that was in Jason's backyard. We don't know why that kid has some radioactive stuff in the backyard, but let's assume it's normal. Fred becomes massive, dropped into a hole (in that same backyard) and disappeared. That boy followed him in that hole and found a vehicle named Sophia. That vehicle is designed to destroy mutants living inside the earth. So Jason puts a suit on and jumped in that vehicle to destroy the mutants, kill the Plutonian boss and to find his frog. All of this is shown as a slideshow in the game. I know the story doesn't makes much sense, but here we are.
The graphics are actually good. The enemies looks different from each other (even though there are some variants of the same enemy), the background is really nice and immersive. All the different parts of the game is really different from one another, so for a Metroidvania type of game, it's really important. The music is really good. There's a different song for each world and there weren't one that I though was bad, or I wanted to mute. My favorite song was Stage 2 (castle), but the song from Stage 1 (forest) is the most well known of the game. The boss music is really intense and makes you motivated to defeat that boss. The SFX are really average. There no much to say about the sound effects.
The controls as a vehicle are simple at first, but when you progress though the game, they get more complicated, but also more annoying. The reason being is about the wall and celling power-up and the swimming power-up. The vehicle can stick to wall and celling, and when it's time to do some tight jumps, it can be really annoying. The reason is that if you are too close to the edge, you will go down the surface under you when you didn't wanted to. This occurs mostly at the end of the game, but it was still irritating. The swimming power up is only bad because when you want to use your special weapon, you need to hold down and press B. When swimming downward, you will waste a lot of those special ammunitions only because you want to shoot those enemies. The control on foot weren't that bad. It took me some time to learn that if you throw a grenade with A and you hold that button, you can strafe. It's not really instinctive but I figured it out around the middle of the game.
The gameplay is a mix of a Metroidvania, a Platformer and half of the gameplay is a run and shoot. This makes an interesting mix, and you can see that they were inspired with the first Metroid game. The map can be really confusing, but they did something that the Metroid game was missing : a map. Of course, the map is not in-game, but in the instruction manual. It's a good enough map for you to not get lost in it. It shows you a general idea where are the doors and the location of each stages. That was ultra helpful. Throughout the game, your vehicle gets upgrades when Jason defeats bosses. Those upgrades helps you to get access to other parts of the game. Your vehicle can shoot bullets in front of it and on top. Sofia also have access to 3 types of special projectiles : A three missile thing, a lightning bolt and some homing missiles. The three missiles are shot in front of you in a fork shape and can be useful. The lightning bold is the worst weapon, because it shoot under you. It wouldn't be that bad if it would always hit at the same spot. However, the arc of the lightning bolt and the place where it hits is random, so this is mostly useless. The last weapon is the homing missiles. They can be really good, but sometimes, they don't want to hit the target and decides to do some back-and-forth around your vehicle. Those specials weapons were mostly useful in my playthrough against one type of enemy : the worms. Those worms are the most annoying and frustrating enemies by far because your normal cannon cannot hit them because they are too low on the ground. Let me tell you that there are a lot of them in the game.
For the Jason gameplay, I would say that his regular weapon is really bad. The reason being is that his gun can be upgraded by collecting some weapon power-ups. The more you got them, the stronger the weapon is. When you get hit, you also lose one bar of that weapon power-up. Let me tell you that this gun is the most inaccurate weapon in the game. It shoots some projectiles that does an S trajectory. each bullets has a different starting point so it's really hard to aim. I say that it's hard to aim, but I should actually say that it's impossible. There's nobody (excepts maybe speed runners) that can aim precisely with that weapon. So when you see an enemy, you mash the button and prey that it will hit. This is mostly visible against a boss in this game. Because of that, the bosses are really hard in this game. Fun fact, you fight against your frog twice in this game.
The game had some really good ideas, like the weapon upgrade of jason, the mix of on foot and vehicle gameplay. However, there were a lot of frustrating things in the game like the inaccuracy of bullets and annoying creature that makes me giving it a lower score that I would love to.
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.
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.
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.
1988
Game #65 of my challenge
Sports games was really popular at the time. It was meant to reach out to different type of kids and try to reach the interest of some to play video games. A lot of sports had their own games, but it was time for Hockey to have his place to shine.
Once again, there ain't no plot to this game since it's a sports game on the NES. Simply be the hockey champion and beat every country.
The Intro music and game music is catchy. Nothing extraordinaire here but does the job.
The visuals are neat. The ice is good looking and nothing is really missing for an arena type of view. The characters looks decent. They created 3 types of shapes for the players on the ice and the only thing that they did is to swap colors to represent each country in this game.
The controls are where the shit show starts : You control a hockey player. You can shoot or pass the puck. This is the basics of how a hockey game should work. You can tackle the player with the puck to steal it from them. What is the most annoying thing about this game is that when you control your hockey player, you also control the goalie. This is the worst design decision ever. The reason for that is if you are at a disadvantage, you can't really control the player, because if you do that, the net will be so vulnerable. So the only thing that you can do is to goalie for the whole disadvantage situation until you are lucky enough for the goalie to keep the puck.
The gameplay is really not good as well. You have 3 type of players on the ice : The skinny, the medium and the fat one. They each have their speed and strength associated to one another. However, there isn't much difference between the stats of all of them (especially the speed). This makes the game really frustrating since the skinny one are kind of useless. Scoring in this game is also really hard. The computer is so good to block your shots. It was so painful to play this game that once I scored one point more than the other team, I kept the puck behind my goal and wasted time until the game is over. I know this is shameless, but I did what I got to do to win a game and get over with it.
While this game was really popular at the time, I had no fun at all playing this game. Maybe this game was more appreciated for his 2 player gameplay, but I didn't tried it and probably won't. This game is not be open from me ever again.
Sports games was really popular at the time. It was meant to reach out to different type of kids and try to reach the interest of some to play video games. A lot of sports had their own games, but it was time for Hockey to have his place to shine.
Once again, there ain't no plot to this game since it's a sports game on the NES. Simply be the hockey champion and beat every country.
The Intro music and game music is catchy. Nothing extraordinaire here but does the job.
The visuals are neat. The ice is good looking and nothing is really missing for an arena type of view. The characters looks decent. They created 3 types of shapes for the players on the ice and the only thing that they did is to swap colors to represent each country in this game.
The controls are where the shit show starts : You control a hockey player. You can shoot or pass the puck. This is the basics of how a hockey game should work. You can tackle the player with the puck to steal it from them. What is the most annoying thing about this game is that when you control your hockey player, you also control the goalie. This is the worst design decision ever. The reason for that is if you are at a disadvantage, you can't really control the player, because if you do that, the net will be so vulnerable. So the only thing that you can do is to goalie for the whole disadvantage situation until you are lucky enough for the goalie to keep the puck.
The gameplay is really not good as well. You have 3 type of players on the ice : The skinny, the medium and the fat one. They each have their speed and strength associated to one another. However, there isn't much difference between the stats of all of them (especially the speed). This makes the game really frustrating since the skinny one are kind of useless. Scoring in this game is also really hard. The computer is so good to block your shots. It was so painful to play this game that once I scored one point more than the other team, I kept the puck behind my goal and wasted time until the game is over. I know this is shameless, but I did what I got to do to win a game and get over with it.
While this game was really popular at the time, I had no fun at all playing this game. Maybe this game was more appreciated for his 2 player gameplay, but I didn't tried it and probably won't. This game is not be open from me ever again.
1987
Game #64 of my challenge
Now that I'm back on where I was at, we now move on to a good sports game. But This time, we are playing football.
I won't spend much time on the plot of this game since..... it's a sports game. Be the best team and win the super bowl. That's about it.
The music however, should not be allowed to be this good for a NES game. The title screen song is such a good song. During the gameplay, there's some tiny song bits that plays depending on what's happening during the game. This add some enjoyment during the gameplay.
The visual is good for what it needs to be during gameplay. Tiny players running around on the field is enough to understand what's going on. One thing that I though what nice was the transition screen. They were detailed pictures with a little bit of movement in them. They look really good for an early NES game.
The controls are good (except for the pass section). They were able to add so many options on one button depending on the situation. This helps for a controller that only have A or B on it. The kickoff is a simpler golf gauge that you need to hit at the right time. Running with the ball is good and you can mash the A button to get out of a tackle. For a pass, the controls are not instinctive. To select who you want to throw the ball, you need to tap A to switch and once you selected your player, Tap on B to pass. The selection player thing is not the best in my opinion.
For the gameplay, depending if you are on Offence or Defense, you will have 4 different plays that you can select from. However, there are only 4 plays for the whole game. It's understandable for the era since it would have been hard to program so many players on the field for the type of play you selected. On offence, selecting a run play was really easy to get the first play usually (or even a touchdown). On defense, I don't if it was programmed like that or simply luck, but when I was selecting a run defense tactics, the opposite team will take a run play and same thing goes for a pass defense tactic. This make the game was easier to win.
I still really enjoyed my time playing this game. Right now, it's my second favorite sports game on the console and it impressed me on how they managed to create a football game on the NES.
Now that I'm back on where I was at, we now move on to a good sports game. But This time, we are playing football.
I won't spend much time on the plot of this game since..... it's a sports game. Be the best team and win the super bowl. That's about it.
The music however, should not be allowed to be this good for a NES game. The title screen song is such a good song. During the gameplay, there's some tiny song bits that plays depending on what's happening during the game. This add some enjoyment during the gameplay.
The visual is good for what it needs to be during gameplay. Tiny players running around on the field is enough to understand what's going on. One thing that I though what nice was the transition screen. They were detailed pictures with a little bit of movement in them. They look really good for an early NES game.
The controls are good (except for the pass section). They were able to add so many options on one button depending on the situation. This helps for a controller that only have A or B on it. The kickoff is a simpler golf gauge that you need to hit at the right time. Running with the ball is good and you can mash the A button to get out of a tackle. For a pass, the controls are not instinctive. To select who you want to throw the ball, you need to tap A to switch and once you selected your player, Tap on B to pass. The selection player thing is not the best in my opinion.
For the gameplay, depending if you are on Offence or Defense, you will have 4 different plays that you can select from. However, there are only 4 plays for the whole game. It's understandable for the era since it would have been hard to program so many players on the field for the type of play you selected. On offence, selecting a run play was really easy to get the first play usually (or even a touchdown). On defense, I don't if it was programmed like that or simply luck, but when I was selecting a run defense tactics, the opposite team will take a run play and same thing goes for a pass defense tactic. This make the game was easier to win.
I still really enjoyed my time playing this game. Right now, it's my second favorite sports game on the console and it impressed me on how they managed to create a football game on the NES.
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.
1984
Game #62 if my challenge
Just like the last review, this is something that was release before some review that I did. This game was first release October 5th 1984, so that put it after Balloon Fight. I will not take into account game that I reviewed that was release after this game.
The first time I saw this Devil, it was as a trophy in a Super smash bros game. I never knew where he came from, but my only impression of him was that he was annoying as hell. Well, that didn't change my opinion after seeing his origins.
First off, there's not much plot to it like the old games. You are a dragon-like creature that wants to attack the devil's world. We don't know what the devil did to him, but the little dragon seems motivated.
Music wise, it's really simplistic and repetitive. To be honest, I wasn't really paying attention to the music that much during my playthrough since I needed to concentrate so hard to not die.
The controls are simple : Move with D-Pad. That's what I though at first since when pressing every button, it didn't do anything. However, if you hold a cross or a bible in hand, you can shoot fireball. It took me a lot of time to figure it out since it's not instinctive, because those objects is what make you complete the objectives. Shooting fireballs will get rid of the enemies for a brief moment and they will respawn at the center of the stage.
The gameplay is a maze-like game that your character needs to run into and collect stuff. However, what makes this game special compared to other is that the devil will always move the camera in a random vertical or horizontal direction so that can get stuck and die between the screen and a wall. There are also some enemies that will walk around and try to catch you. There are three type of stages and once you clear all 3, it will loop back again. There's no end to this game since it approaches more of an arcade angle where you goal is to beat the highest score.
The first type of stage is to collect all the dots in the stage (kind of like Pac-man). However, you can only collects those pellets if you hold a cross in-hand. If you don't have the cross, walking on the dots will do absolutely nothing. That's why I was saying at first that I didn't know that holding the cross will grant you the power to shoot fireballs. Randomly during the stage, some ice cream will appear and you can eat them to gain extra points. Once all pellets are collected, the stage is cleared.
The second stage goal is to collect 4 bibles and bring them to the center of the stage to stop the devil (I think). Those bibles will always stay at all 4 corners of the screen, even when the camera is moving. This can be really frustrating since it can overlap the walls of the stage, which makes it really hard to grab them. It can be random if you are able to get them or not since the camera will always move in a different direction. It's the same thing for when you get a bible. It can take a lot of time before you are able to bring it back to the center of the stage. It's a really frustrating type of level. Once cleared, the devil runs away.
The last type of stage is a bonus one. You are on a timer and you goal is to collect every item in them to get more points. This time, you are the one who influence the camera. On the floor, there are some arrows that, when stepped on it, will change the direction of the camera. Pretty simple and once you collect everything or the timer runs out, you loop back to the first type of stage.
This game can be really frustrating since it's so random, but I still like the idea behind it. I would only recommend someone to try it for curiosity purpose only.
Just like the last review, this is something that was release before some review that I did. This game was first release October 5th 1984, so that put it after Balloon Fight. I will not take into account game that I reviewed that was release after this game.
The first time I saw this Devil, it was as a trophy in a Super smash bros game. I never knew where he came from, but my only impression of him was that he was annoying as hell. Well, that didn't change my opinion after seeing his origins.
First off, there's not much plot to it like the old games. You are a dragon-like creature that wants to attack the devil's world. We don't know what the devil did to him, but the little dragon seems motivated.
Music wise, it's really simplistic and repetitive. To be honest, I wasn't really paying attention to the music that much during my playthrough since I needed to concentrate so hard to not die.
The controls are simple : Move with D-Pad. That's what I though at first since when pressing every button, it didn't do anything. However, if you hold a cross or a bible in hand, you can shoot fireball. It took me a lot of time to figure it out since it's not instinctive, because those objects is what make you complete the objectives. Shooting fireballs will get rid of the enemies for a brief moment and they will respawn at the center of the stage.
The gameplay is a maze-like game that your character needs to run into and collect stuff. However, what makes this game special compared to other is that the devil will always move the camera in a random vertical or horizontal direction so that can get stuck and die between the screen and a wall. There are also some enemies that will walk around and try to catch you. There are three type of stages and once you clear all 3, it will loop back again. There's no end to this game since it approaches more of an arcade angle where you goal is to beat the highest score.
The first type of stage is to collect all the dots in the stage (kind of like Pac-man). However, you can only collects those pellets if you hold a cross in-hand. If you don't have the cross, walking on the dots will do absolutely nothing. That's why I was saying at first that I didn't know that holding the cross will grant you the power to shoot fireballs. Randomly during the stage, some ice cream will appear and you can eat them to gain extra points. Once all pellets are collected, the stage is cleared.
The second stage goal is to collect 4 bibles and bring them to the center of the stage to stop the devil (I think). Those bibles will always stay at all 4 corners of the screen, even when the camera is moving. This can be really frustrating since it can overlap the walls of the stage, which makes it really hard to grab them. It can be random if you are able to get them or not since the camera will always move in a different direction. It's the same thing for when you get a bible. It can take a lot of time before you are able to bring it back to the center of the stage. It's a really frustrating type of level. Once cleared, the devil runs away.
The last type of stage is a bonus one. You are on a timer and you goal is to collect every item in them to get more points. This time, you are the one who influence the camera. On the floor, there are some arrows that, when stepped on it, will change the direction of the camera. Pretty simple and once you collect everything or the timer runs out, you loop back to the first type of stage.
This game can be really frustrating since it's so random, but I still like the idea behind it. I would only recommend someone to try it for curiosity purpose only.
1984
Game #61 of my challenge
Before I start this review, this game was added to the list of game that I have recently, and this was release in may 1984. The game I was playing before this one released in december 1987. So this is a game that I need to catch up for my challenge. For reference purposes, this was release after Pinball in my game list, so I will judge it on that. (FYI, my next couple of review will be some catch up as well).
Flicky is an Arcade game that really have it's own identity. A game made by Sega, Flicky is a platform game that the main goal is to save some Chirps from some cats named Tigers (they are actually cats, not tigers) and some Green Iguanas called Iggys.
The visual is really good compared to all other games that I played before this. The only game that is visually better than this game that was released before was Dragon's lair. The main character Flicky, the flightless blue bird, is really standing out in terms of protagonist. The sprite of Flicky is well detailed. The background is also charming and the enemies looks good.
The music is simplistic and also charming. It fits the theme of the game and although the music loops a lot, it never bothered me to listen to that song.
The controls are good, but not the best. Since you can't fly as a bird, you can only jump. The momentum of the jump feels good, but it's annoying when you touch a wall, because you bounce out of it like if you were a bouncing ball. This makes the platforming precision kind of hard. Also, the controls are only the D-pad and one button that does everything. It would have been fine if you would only jump with it, however, that button does another thing as well. In the levels, you can grab random objects that the character can grab by simply running into it. You can throw them at enemies, but with the same button as when you jump. So that means you need to jump to throw the object, which can be a pain at times.
Gameplay wise, you need to collects some chicks spread throughout the level and bring them to the exit door. When you grab one of the chicks, it will follow you behind. You can collect multiple of them and they will all follow you in a line (which is really cute). Bringing multiple of them at the same time to the door will gain you more points. You will lose a life if a cat or iguana touches you. The enemies can also break the line behind you if they touch to the chicks. Depending on the type of chick (sunglasses or not) they will run away with different behavior. You can grab them again without issues or penalty (except for the time bonus at the end of the level).
The bonus level is simply Flicky with a net that tries to catch the chicks launch by some cats with a seesaw. It's chaming and kind of easy when you understand the path of the chicks.
With all 48 levels, I was starting to be tired of playing since the game is kind of redundant. The last level have Sega being part of the level design, which is great. Something that I noticed is that this bird seem familiar. After further investigation, I learn that this bird is the one that Sonic the hedgehog can save from Dr. Eggman. This bird is part of the tiny animals that are captured.
The experience was short, but redundant at the end. I still enjoyed my time and though it wasn't a bad game at all. Would recommend to try.
Before I start this review, this game was added to the list of game that I have recently, and this was release in may 1984. The game I was playing before this one released in december 1987. So this is a game that I need to catch up for my challenge. For reference purposes, this was release after Pinball in my game list, so I will judge it on that. (FYI, my next couple of review will be some catch up as well).
Flicky is an Arcade game that really have it's own identity. A game made by Sega, Flicky is a platform game that the main goal is to save some Chirps from some cats named Tigers (they are actually cats, not tigers) and some Green Iguanas called Iggys.
The visual is really good compared to all other games that I played before this. The only game that is visually better than this game that was released before was Dragon's lair. The main character Flicky, the flightless blue bird, is really standing out in terms of protagonist. The sprite of Flicky is well detailed. The background is also charming and the enemies looks good.
The music is simplistic and also charming. It fits the theme of the game and although the music loops a lot, it never bothered me to listen to that song.
The controls are good, but not the best. Since you can't fly as a bird, you can only jump. The momentum of the jump feels good, but it's annoying when you touch a wall, because you bounce out of it like if you were a bouncing ball. This makes the platforming precision kind of hard. Also, the controls are only the D-pad and one button that does everything. It would have been fine if you would only jump with it, however, that button does another thing as well. In the levels, you can grab random objects that the character can grab by simply running into it. You can throw them at enemies, but with the same button as when you jump. So that means you need to jump to throw the object, which can be a pain at times.
Gameplay wise, you need to collects some chicks spread throughout the level and bring them to the exit door. When you grab one of the chicks, it will follow you behind. You can collect multiple of them and they will all follow you in a line (which is really cute). Bringing multiple of them at the same time to the door will gain you more points. You will lose a life if a cat or iguana touches you. The enemies can also break the line behind you if they touch to the chicks. Depending on the type of chick (sunglasses or not) they will run away with different behavior. You can grab them again without issues or penalty (except for the time bonus at the end of the level).
The bonus level is simply Flicky with a net that tries to catch the chicks launch by some cats with a seesaw. It's chaming and kind of easy when you understand the path of the chicks.
With all 48 levels, I was starting to be tired of playing since the game is kind of redundant. The last level have Sega being part of the level design, which is great. Something that I noticed is that this bird seem familiar. After further investigation, I learn that this bird is the one that Sonic the hedgehog can save from Dr. Eggman. This bird is part of the tiny animals that are captured.
The experience was short, but redundant at the end. I still enjoyed my time and though it wasn't a bad game at all. Would recommend to try.
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.
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.
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
One of the best game game to play at in High School, and now, we can play it at home with a controller instead. This is another good sports that is worth playing.
There's not much plot to this game. You want to be the best dodgeball team in the world. However, this is the second entry of the series Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun since it's the same character as the first one.
The music in this game does it's job. Not many memorable songs, but they were good enough for the game. They created songs that were fitting for the country that our team was up against. Of course, there's a lot of stereotypes when creating the song.
The visual of this game is good. Since the game doesn't need to create a whole lot of levels, they only needed to create backgrounds that were fitting for the team that we were up against. We are always the Away team, so that means that you travel the world to play dodgeball.
The controls are good in general. You can throw the ball, catch it and also throw it. You can also pass the ball to your teammates on your side of the course or your crew around the opposite part of the field. The most effective technique that I found in this game to eliminate the other team is to run until you reach the middle line and throw it. It will throw the ball much harder and will make the opponents fly away. One thing that I really hated from the controls is that the character that you control will always switch to the one closest to the ball. When the opponents does some passes to their teammates around your court, your character will switch all the time. This can be really annoying when you try to time the catch of the ball.
All characters have some health bars, so that when you hit your opponents, they are not out it they get hit by the ball once. You need to deplete their health bars until all 3 players form the other teams are out.
The game is still really good, short and doesn't overstay their welcome. However, you will do the same thing over and over to eliminate the enemies. So that makes the game really repetitive. I would still recommend this game since it's really short to beat.
Game #57 of my challenge.
There's not much plot to this game. You want to be the best dodgeball team in the world. However, this is the second entry of the series Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun since it's the same character as the first one.
The music in this game does it's job. Not many memorable songs, but they were good enough for the game. They created songs that were fitting for the country that our team was up against. Of course, there's a lot of stereotypes when creating the song.
The visual of this game is good. Since the game doesn't need to create a whole lot of levels, they only needed to create backgrounds that were fitting for the team that we were up against. We are always the Away team, so that means that you travel the world to play dodgeball.
The controls are good in general. You can throw the ball, catch it and also throw it. You can also pass the ball to your teammates on your side of the course or your crew around the opposite part of the field. The most effective technique that I found in this game to eliminate the other team is to run until you reach the middle line and throw it. It will throw the ball much harder and will make the opponents fly away. One thing that I really hated from the controls is that the character that you control will always switch to the one closest to the ball. When the opponents does some passes to their teammates around your court, your character will switch all the time. This can be really annoying when you try to time the catch of the ball.
All characters have some health bars, so that when you hit your opponents, they are not out it they get hit by the ball once. You need to deplete their health bars until all 3 players form the other teams are out.
The game is still really good, short and doesn't overstay their welcome. However, you will do the same thing over and over to eliminate the enemies. So that makes the game really repetitive. I would still recommend this game since it's really short to beat.
Game #57 of my challenge.