I had such a strange relationship with this game....At first the gameplay was fun, like a magic DOOM without the gore....Then it became the same 10 enemies over and over and over. The story was boring....Then good....Then boring again, but overstayed its welcome. As I complete this game though, it wasn't that bad. Once you found some great spells and good gear, you really got into the groove and I can see how my playstyle would be different to others.

I was expecting a graphical showpiece though and this game is ugly....So very ugly. The lava looks like cheese.

Over the course of time, specific genres in video games have become staples of the industry, to where we wouldn’t be able to imagine it without them nowadays. Platformers, adventure games, metroidvanias, first-person shooters, visual novels, and of course, role-playing games, or RPGs are just a few of the genres that continue to be relevant to this very day, through brand new releases that either try to reinforce what the genre is capable of delivering, or even ones that try to elevate the genre to new heights that weren’t thought possible before. However, it wasn’t always like this, for some genres like RPGs weren’t always as big of a staple on the industry as they are now, in America anyways, being outshined by other genres like platformers, shmups, and fighting games at every turn. Some developers would take notice of this, and as a result, they would try to make these types of games more “accessible” to audiences in these territories, all for the better… and for the worst. One such instance of this would be with one odd-ball of a title known as Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

At this point in time, Squaresoft, the primary developers of the Final Fantasy series, had been working towards making RPGs more accessible through audiences in several ways, such as with the release of Final Fantasy IV in the US being noticeably much easier than the original version, because Americans just can’t handle a game with normal difficulty! They are too stupid, obviously! With this mindset in mind after changing up that title like that, they would then go onto making Mystic Quest, the first side game in the series that was specifically made with the U.S. market in mind, which, as we have seen from games like ActRaiser 2, isn’t exactly the best mindset to have when you are making anything. But nevertheless, the game was released, and has gone onto having a divisive reputation ever since. I only played through the game for the first time a few months ago, and from that experience, I can say that, as a whole, the game is… ok. It definitely has some interesting ideas and quirks that do make it stand out from the rest, but it is primarily a repetitive and sluggish experience, one that never elevates much further then what you are presented with.

The story is, appropriately, extremely basic, where a young adventurer by the name of Benjamin has his village destroyed seemingly out of nowhere, and he is informed by a strange old man that, because of this, he must fulfill the “knight’s prophecy”, where he must travel across the four continents, gather the four crystals, and use them to defeat the demon king, so Benjamin then sets out to do just that, which is a very basic premise, one that is way simpler then what FFIV gave us, but it does fall in line with previous FF games, and it is as simple as they are wanting, so I guess I can excuse it. The graphics are good, having plenty of good monster and dungeon designs, but a lot of it does feel uncreative and artificial, much like the rest of this game, the music is pretty good, having plenty of great tracks that I enjoyed listening to like the battle theme, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of previous games’ soundtracks, and the gameplay/control is very familiar to those who have played any other Final Fantasy game before this, except now it is much more simplistic to the point where a toddler could play this game and have an easy time with it.

The game is a traditional turn-based RPG, where you primarily take control of Benjamin, go across a vast overworld through four different continents, talk to the many inhabitants of the world who will either give you helpful hints/advice or help you on your journey in some way, find plenty of items that you can use to either upgrade your defense, mobility, or attack, purchase items from the shop, or heal yourself whenever you need to, and naturally, get into random battles, where you will attack your opponent using either your main weapon or whatever spells or items you have lying around in your pockets, gain experience points, and level up to increase your stats. Any RPG veteran knows this set-up by heart, and they will be able to get used to how this game works pretty quickly… in fact, too quickly, if you ask me, and while a lot of it is passable and appealing to said veterans of the genre, it is also completely shallow in its execution in many areas.

If I were to describe this game in one sentence, I would say it is a Final Fantasy game made for babies. Everything about the game, which we have seen time and time again from previous games in the series, has been extremely simplified and dumbed down for the player, which could aid less experienced players along, yes, but it also becomes mind-numbing and unengaging as a result, therefore making it tedious to trek through. Some stuff in the game remains the same, such as walking through towns and dungeons, talking to people, buying items from the shops, and sleeping at inns, so that is all well and good, but in terms of the raw gameplay, the meat and potatoes of what any player would come to an RPG for, that has all been completely changed around for the worse.

Starting off, we have the overworld of the game, which is no longer a vast open land that you can explore freely to see what kinds of locations and creatures you can find, but instead, it has turned into a world map from a Mario game. You travel from location to location with nothing in-between, which does make things faster and more convenient, yes, but it also completely removes any sense of an adventure or its grand scale from this entire journey, making it feel empty and lifeless. The same can be said about the battles themselves, which are no longer random, but instead, every single enemy you can fight in this game appears on the map, to where a lot of the time, you can simply avoid them if you don’t feel like fighting them. Not only that, but instead of encountering enemies while walking along the overworld, you now have these designated enemy spaces, where you can fight 10 different battles in the row to get a certain reward.

Once again, this is a very beginner-friendly approach to something you would typically find in one of these games, which I am all for, but the problem with this is, to make up for this, they spam the fuck out of these enemies, especially in later parts of the game. If you choose to fight every single creature so that you can get as strong as possible (which I tend to do in most RPGs), then you will be spending hours just fighting these random enemies over and over and over again, each one dealing out the same EXP every time, and it is, once again, an absolute slog to go through. Yeah, you can avoid plenty of these fights, but there will be many instances where you CAN’T avoid these fights at all, and will be forced to take on every single thing in your way, and you can imagine how fun that would be.

And speaking of which, the battles themselves aren’t that much better than what you find outside of them. The Active Time Battle system is gone from this game, and we are back to the traditional turn-based system, and it works pretty much how you would expect it to, with the only real difference in this being how the perspective is shifted from the back rather than the side. That is cool and all, but what makes these battles so boring would be because of, again, how simplistic they are. The enemies barely do anything that’ll cause too much harm for you, and even if they do, you can just easily remedy that in a matter of seconds, given how much money you are given to purchase potions and elixirs for healing and revive spells, and the only thing you need to do in order to win these battles is just to spam the attack button and then wait until you win. Not all battles are like this, but it is rare you will find a fight that needs a little more strategy then that to win, and while this is, again, beginner friendly, it is still extremely mind-numbing and boring, especially with the previously mentioned abundance of foes that you will need to take on, a lot of the time at once.

However, with all that being said, I can’t say in good conscience that this game is bad, because it really isn’t. It lacks any of the complexity and innovation that previous Final Fantasy games had, and it can be a chore to go through, but it does manage to accomplish the one goal that it sets out to accomplish: being an RPG for beginners. I could definitely see someone who isn’t really familiar with RPGs at all being able to sit down, play this game, and have a good time with it, even if it wouldn’t be my first recommendation for someone who isn’t all too familiar with the genre. In addition, while a lot of the gameplay features here have been dumbed or are just not that fun to deal with, I do like some of the mechanics and ideas that this game tries out.

For one thing, in a lot of the dungeons and towns you go through, you can interact with various things using your weapons that will help you proceed forward, such as with cutting down trees with your axe, pressing buttons with your sword, or climbing along walls using your claw. It doesn’t offer too much variety, but it does offer some more mobility through these dungeons that hasn’t been seen previously, which is nice. Not to mention, you can jump as well, which also increases the mobility you have in a lot of areas, and as a personal note, I also like how, whenever you are dealing damage to an enemy, their appearance changes depending on how much health they have. It isn’t much, but it is a neat little touch that makes battles somewhat more enjoyable.

Overall, despite its beginner-friendly nature and some interesting ideas that I enjoyed messing around with, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is one of the most bland and basic RPGs that I have ever played in my life, one that doesn’t offer anything revolutionary or interesting for this series or genre as a whole, and instead ends up being a repetitive slog that you can beat in a single day if you spam through a lot of the fights by just attacking over and over again with no thought. I would recommend it for those who are HUGE RPG fanatics, or for those of you who aren’t familiar with them and want to give the genre a shot, because despite all my gripes with it, who knows: it could potentially become a new favorite of yours. Although, if you are asking me, I would recommend a Pokemon game for your first RPG, preferably FireRed or LeafGreen. Those games at least have adorable creatures you can catch and battle with. This game has some creatures that you could say are adorable, but I can’t catch them……..

Game #543

Do you ever think that Kevin Eastman or Peter Laird regret creating the Ninja Turtles? Probably not, because they made a lot of money from it and made a product that is adored by millions to this day, but ignoring all that, do you think they regret creating the series, or even what it eventually became? Do you think that one day, the two of them just look back at shit like the Micheal Bay movies, TMNT III, or that one live-action show that got made, and they just think to themselves “My god… look at how they massacred my boys…”... I would probably feel that way if I was in a similar situation, but then I would look back on all the positive things to come out of the franchise as well, and then I would realize it would’ve all been worthwhile……………. none of that has anything to do with this review, I just needed an intro: it’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project!

After going through the first NES game, the arcade game, and then skipping over to the infinitely superior TMNT IV, we have now finally arrived at the final TMNT game that was released for the NES before jumping straight to the next generation of systems (aside from the port of Tournament Fighters, but… you know…). Much like all of the other TMNT games for the system, I haven’t played this one before now, but I had seen it a little bit before, and it looked about as standard as these games could get: just being another typical beat-’em-up that lets you play as your favorite turtle and kick plenty of ass. So, it was no surprise then that, when I got around to actually playing it, that was pretty much exactly what I got, but that doesn’t make it bad by any means. It is still a pretty good game, definitely the best TMNT NES game and one of the best beat-’em-ups on the system, but it does have one or two things holding it back from me absolutely loving it.

The story is a little more extreme for a TMNT game, where while the turtles are vacationing in Florida (already off to a fantastic start), Shredder takes over Manhattan, raising it up into the sky like it’s Angel Island, and kidnaps April O’Neal in the process, so it is up to the turtles to end their vacation early and go save the day once again, which is pretty crazy for a TMNT plot, but it is still a very basic “Shredder’s a dick, go beat him up” story, so it isn’t that great. The graphics are pretty good, being the best looking TMNT game available on the NES, and there are plenty of varied environments, enemies, and bosses to see, but it is nothing too spectacular, the music is good, giving off the same vibe as plenty of other soundtracks from this series, but nothing really stuck out as too memorable for me, and the control/gameplay is pretty good for what we got here, keeping the gameplay generally similar to what we have seen before, while refining it enough to where it is the best that the series has seen… at least, at this point in time.

The game is an old-school beat-’em-up, where you take control of one of the four Ninja Turtles, or if you are me, you pick Leonardo and nobody else, because you are a basic bitch, go through a set of eight different levels that range from the scummy, insane depths of Florida to the far reaches of space, defeat many different enemies that come your way using whatever moves that you have at your disposal, pick up pizzas to heal yourself whenever you get the chance to do so (which is only like three to four times in the entire game), and take on plenty of familiar faces in boss fights, ranging from regulars you would find from the comics and animated series, to others that come from the TMNT movies. It is your standard TMNT affair in almost every way, but that doesn’t make it bad in any way, as you can still have plenty of fun with it, and if you got a friend who can join you on your journey, that would definitely be the best way to play through it. Just, you know, make sure to turn off friendly fire (seriously, why is that even an option?).

There’s really not much else I can say about this game that I haven’t already talked about in plenty of other TMNT reviews at this point. You walk around, you beat people up, you grab pizza when you can, you fall into a sewer hole like a dumbass and feel bad about yourself, you all know how this goes by now. There is nothing new here to change up the gameplay whatsoever from what we have seen before, because it’s a TMNT game, and they didn’t need to try to do anything new or exciting, because it will sell anyway. But what I will say is that, as a whole, the game still plays pretty well. The moves are still fun enough to pull off, the specials are pretty helpful to use, and while the bosses are pretty tough, it is satisfying to beat them down and take them out. The only real part about the gameplay that I wasn’t a fan of was how slow your movement speed is, which I guess makes sense, seeing as you are playing as a turtle, but he is also a NINJA, and last time I checked, they go so fast that you would be dead before you knew they were there.

If I had to name off any major problems I had with the game, aside from the slow movement and the lack of changes, it would be based on how fucking LONG this game is. The game itself doesn’t have that much content, only having about eight stages, which is pretty standard for an NES game, but I swear, these stages drag on for an eternity, as you are constantly beating up bad guys and taking on minorly challenging platforming. Not to mention, some of the stages have multiple bosses, which only makes them take even longer to get through, and because of all of this, it took me over two hours to beat the game, which isn’t that bad, but for a game like this, you would expect something a lot quicker and snappier to help the pacing. Maybe it would’ve gone faster if I had played with another person, but either way, I still think the stages should’ve been shrunken down a little bit, especially for a game that has no password feature and limited continues.

Overall, despite a lack of change, your slow movement, and how the game drags on at points, this game is still a pretty good beat-’em-up for the NES, being the best of the original TMNT trilogy, and being a pretty good time all on its own, and I am sure big fans of this franchise would be able to properly enjoy themselves with this game all the same. I would recommend it for those who are big TMNT fans, as well as those who are big fans of beat-’em-ups in general, because while there are definitely better options out there now, this still does the job well enough, and you should be able to enjoy it all the same. Now, if you will excuse me, I am gonna go find out how exactly a turtle can live a full life while living on a pizza-only diet. See you all next time!

Game #535

Has this ever happened to you before?

You wake up one day, get ready to take on said day, brush your plants, water your teeth, look at yourself in the mirror, wonder where the hell you are going in life, and then after all that, sit down at your work desk to finally get some work done. You pull out this new, fancy device known as a “laptop” out of a case you have next to you, you open it up, but then you see… those... a bunch of buttons on the device that have letters, numbers, words, and other weird symbols on them. You figure they have some sort of meaning, but you just don’t know what that could possibly be. You press many of them, but to no avail. Some of them do something, but others don’t, and it is all just too confusing! WHAT DO YOU DO?! Well, not to worry, my friend, because for these situations, we only have the finest tools available to assist you in your endeavors… and by that, we mean we have a copy of Mario Teaches Typing.

So yeah, for a good while in the 90’s, there was a time when Nintendo had licensed out Mario to several developers for the sole purpose of making educational games using the character and its world. Not exactly sure why they decided to take this route, or even why they decided to take this route for so long, but out of this decision, we got plenty of different educational games out of it, such as Mario is Missing!, Mario’s Time Machine, the Mario’s Early Years! series, and Mario’s Game Gallery, to an extent. Out of all of these games, there was also Mario Teaches Typing, a game that is primarily meant to teach young players how to type, with the assistance of Mario and pals. I myself haven’t played the game before, because I have much better things to do with my time, but I will admit, I do type like a fucking goblin, so who knows? Maybe Mario Teaches Typing is just what I need to help me get better at typing. So, after playing it, I can certainly say… this is definitely a typing assistant featuring Mario, alright.

The graphics are admittedly pretty good for 1992, and is undeniably the best that the series had looked at that time, but looking back at it in 2024… dear god, it is nightmare fuel, the music is pretty good as well, consisting of a bunch of remixes of classic Mario tunes, along with some new ones, and it all sounds appropriately cheery and fun for this kind of game, the controls are… well, what do you expect, and the gameplay is mostly also what you would expect from a game like this, but it does manage to try to add some spice into it… or at least, as much spice as you can get from a game like this.

The game is an educational game, where you can select from several noteworthy Mario characters who will help you out as an assistant, go through several different levels, each covering a specific aspect of typing, help your assistant defeat plenty of enemies and get through plenty of obstacles by using your sick typing skills, improve your craft with tons and tons of practice so that you can be the best typer there is, and then turn off the game to go eat a sandwich, because you are an adult playing a Mario Typing game, and you need help. If you have played any kind of typing game before this, or even tried out any kind of typing tool that you could find online, then a lot of this should feel very familiar to you, and you should be able to get used to it pretty quickly, with the only real difference between this and those other typing tools being that, again, it is all themed around Mario.

I have had plenty of typing exercises in the past when I was in school, so I was able to pick up on what kind of lessons this game would try to give me right away, such as typing out a bunch of words in a sequence using only one specific row of the keyboard, pressing one key at a time to defeat specific enemies or hit blocks using one specific row of the keyboard, typing out entire sentences about the bloody battles of the Civil War to get your assistant through Bowser’s castle (you know, the typical shit you would read in a Mario game), and finally, just typing out a bunch of letters in a sequence to get more used to it. All of this, of course, is accompanied with plenty of Mario elements and that Mario… “charm”, where you can watch your assistant break blocks, stomp on Koopas, swim through water to dodge Bloopers, very slowly get through a hall of Thwomps, and almost drown in a vat of quicksand along the way. It is all somewhat funny to watch in action, and it must’ve been pretty cool for 1992, but again, nowadays, it looks incredibly disturbing, and I don’t really wanna look at it for more than 10 seconds before it manages to find a way to eat me.

With all that being said though, that is really all that this game offers. Just a bunch of minigames that are all themed around different aspects of typing, and if that doesn’t really get you excited for the wonderful world of typing, then there really is nothing for you here. All of this can be found in any kind of typing-teaching tool that you can find online, and the only real thing that makes this one stand out from the crowd is that, again, it is all themed around Mario and pals. But, I will give it credit, because at the end of the day, it isn’t a bad game or tool at all. It manages to do the job it sets out to do, and it does provide a helpful way of teaching you how to type, just in case you had trouble with being able to properly do so beforehand. Not to mention, for those who are wanting to help their kids learn how to type efficiently, this is a pretty good means of having them learn, because not only is it, again, pretty useful, but it also has Mario there, which will draw them in and make them want to check it out. It’s not much, but hey, it is at least something.

Overall, despite how useful the tool can be for younger players, as well as the… “unique charm” that it has, the original Mario Teaches Typing doesn’t really offer more than what it tells you in the title, and as such, doesn’t really come off as better or worse then other kind of typing tool out there. I would recommend it for those who like Mario, so that they can at least experience this once, or even for those who want to teach their kids how to type effectively, but aside from those reasons, there isn’t any real reason to give this game a shot, and it just comes off as pretty forgettable at the end of the day. Hell, I’m surprised they even managed to make a sequel out of this concept at all. What are they gonna change about that one to make it more special? Adding a terrifying, 3D Mario head that constantly talks to you? Yeah right, like that would ever happen.

Game #487

Shoutout to C_F for recommending this game to me a while back. Go give them a follow and a like, they rock.

You know, looking back on it, the Ninja Gaiden series in its 2D era had quite a weird set of releases from its inception all the way to 1995. Of course, there is the original trilogy of games on the NES that most of us know and love, but then there is the original arcade title that the NES Ninja Gaiden was based on, then there was a port of that for the Atari Lynx, and then there was a completely unrelated game made for the Sega Game Gear, and THEN there was Ninja Gaiden Shadow, a rework of Shadow of the Ninja for the Game Boy, AND THEN there was another unrelated game made for the Sega Master System, AND THEN there was the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for the SNES. Needless to say, it is quite complicated, especially for an outsider, but I have managed to separate and play through each one of these games (not counting that Atari Lynx game, because I love myself too much to play that), except for one particular title. I figured it was about time I got that out of the way, so I finally decided to play through Ninja Gaiden for the Sega Master System.

Going into this, I had no expectations whatsoever. I figured it was just gonna be yet another Ninja Gaiden game with not too many other bells and whistles, with this one only standing out because it was on the Master System. After all, that is what I got from the Game Gear title and Ninja Gaiden Shadow, so it was safe to assume it was gonna be the same for this game. For the most part, I was right in my assumptions, but there were some interesting elements and design choices present here that did make this a bit of an interesting playthrough, and overall I would say that it was a pretty good entry in the series. It definitely doesn’t compare to the main NES trilogy, but as its own thing, it manages to replicate the series’ gameplay pretty well, and it managed to be pretty enjoyable for the time I spent on it.

The story is one you would expect from not just Ninja Gaiden, but any kind of ninja game from this era, where the Dragon Clan is slaughtered in a surprise attack, and the sacred Bushido of the clan is stolen as a result, so it is up to Ryu Hayabusa to jump into action once again to get it back, with the plot being told through plenty of cutscenes seen throughout the game, making the story not as strong as the other entries, but it is still good. The graphics are pretty good, looking like a slightly more enhanced version of the visuals from the NES games, with plenty of color and detail seen all throughout, the music is good, having plenty of good tunes to be heard, but a lot of them do sound very similar, so it isn’t the best music I have heard from one of these games, the control feels pretty much exactly like it does for the NES games, which works really well for a game like this, and the gameplay is very similar to the other titles in the series, except with a little extra added to not make it too repetitive.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Ryu Hayabusa, go through a set of seven different stages and a boss, slash your way through many different enemies of varying sizes using either your main sword or even a special attack, gather plenty of additional weapons, health and time items to help you out along your way, and take on plenty of bosses that range from pathetically easy to…. slightly not as easy. Those familiar with the Ninja Gaiden series will be able to jump right into this title, as in many ways, it is just as fun, fast, and difficult as the original, making it pretty fun to play. Although, for those of you thinking this is just another Ninja Gaiden game with nothing new to bring to the table…. yeah, you’re right, but only for the most part.

When playing through this game, you will notice that there are a few things that Ryu can do in this game that he couldn’t do in any of the other games, including jumping off of walls and hanging onto platforms from the underside, which are not only neat little inclusions that do make the platforming more fresh, but they also reflect the design of the game as a whole. Rather than focusing too much on fast-paced reactionary action mixed with platforming, this game more so focuses on the platforming more than anything, with there being plenty of different types of platforming challenges that will test you and your skills, in ways that the NES trilogy hadn’t done before. Sure, the original games had plenty of platforming elements too, but they didn’t have anything quite like what we have here, which does make the game feel more unique when compared to its predecessors, and it was fun to experience this new alteration of the gameplay for the first time.

Although, aside from that, there isn’t much else that can separate this game from all of the other titles so far. It is in many ways just another Ninja Gaiden game, one that manages to hold up the same quality of the NES titles for the most part, but one that doesn’t offer much new for those looking for anything new from the series. Also, since this is a Ninja Gaiden game, it also comes with the many downsides that these games come with, including the hard-as-hell difficulty, which definitely plays a factor in this title, as well as several sections of pure bullshit. Of course, none of these completely ruin the game, but they can be pretty frustrating, especially in some certain situations where it feels like you can’t help but get hit. Also, just as one last little note, those fire enemies from Stage 6 can go lock themselves in a freezer and suffer for all I care, they completely suck.

Overall, despite not enough change to the general formula, along with the difficulty and some enemies being a pain in the ass, Ninja Gaiden on the Sega Master System seems to be the hidden Ninja Gaiden IV that we never got, as it continues giving us the same fast and tough gameplay we love from this series, while doing just enough to where it can stand out from the other games in the series. I would recommend it for those who loved the other Ninja Gaiden games, as well as those who love old-school 2D platformers, because this game will give you plenty to have fun with for how long you will spend on it. Although, with that being said, this is the very last game in the series that uses this traditional format, which we will never see again……. unless Koei Tecmo decides to make a retro-styled revival for this series, but let’s be honest, that will never happen.

Game #479

As we should all know, the original Final Fantasy was pretty successful, selling around 1.3 million copies by 1994, and the game itself still holds up pretty well all the way to today. It may be incredibly basic for an RPG, but it was one that established plenty of elements found in not just the Final Fantasy franchise, but also for many other RPGs to follow, and it can still be fun to play…. that is, if you are playing one of its remakes. So, with this success fresh on the company’s minds, Square decided that they needed to make a follow-up, and they did make this follow up less then a year later. Unfortunately though, we would never end up getting this game over here in the west initially, and we wouldn’t see any kind of follow-up to Final Fantasy over here until Final Fantasy IV for the SNES, which was released as Final Fantasy II to try to avoid any confusion……. which ended up causing confusion for many ever since. Great job guys. But anyway, just a mere 15 years later, the west would then finally get an official release for the original Final Fantasy II.

If you are familiar with the mainline Final Fantasy games, you may be aware of the fact that this game is considered to be the black sheep of the franchise, or at least, one of the earlier ones. Granted, a lot of the game, on the surface level, is very similar to the first game, so a lot of it is faithful to the original, but as you play the game, you will notice several changes made to the game that almost no other Final Fantasy game would use after this. Sure, some of these changes didn’t really impact how most of the game is played, but then there are some that change up the experience completely, making for what is a somewhat sloppy followup. Personally, I did end up liking Final Fantasy II back when I initially played through it, but yeah, I can definitely say that I would prefer the original game over this. Yes, there is still a lot to love about this sequel, but the changes made are just enough to make it hard for me to ever come back to it after all this time.

The story is bigger and more in depth then the previous game, this time focusing on four specific characters rather then four blank slates like in the previous game, and having a much darker tone, with multiple tragedies occurring throughout the game, such as towns being destroyed and people dying all the time, which is pretty impressive to see for an NES game, and some aspects of it are appealing, but there are some certain elements that do drag it down and make it more… stupid, the graphics are about on the same level as the original game, but there is still that same amount of detail and love put into it, with some aspects being changed around, so it is an improvement all around, the music is definitely not as memorable as the original game, but there are still quite a few songs in here that I genuinely loved, like the main overworld theme and the main battle theme, the control is the exact same as the first game, so no need to talk about it anymore, and the gameplay is very similar to that of the original game, but with quite a few changes and additions, for better or worse.

The game is still your traditional turn-based RPG, where you take control of Firian, Maria, Guy, and a bunch of other random fourth party members until ultimately ending with Leon, travel across an overworld to visit many different towns, caves, and dungeons, talk to plenty of NPCs to either learn useful information to aid you in your quest, or to buy numerous items like weapons, armor, spells, and regular healing stuffs, and of course, get into random battles, where you will take turns in trading attacks with plenty of different monsters, using either regular melee attacks or spells, and level up at points when you have defeated enough enemies. For the most part, it stays true to the main gameplay of the original Final Fantasy, and to its credit, it does introduce plenty of elements that are either unique to this entry, or would become staples of the series from here on out.

The first change made was the inclusion of the Word Memory system, where whenever you talk to certain NPCs, sometimes you will see highlighted words in their dialogue, which you can then record down and save for later. From here, you can then use these key words with other NPCs, and depending on what word you use with a specific person, it will result in them aiding you in your quest. This is actually a pretty cool idea, and one that would definitely be useful if fleshed out more, but here in this game, it is really not anything too exciting. Really, at the end of the day, it is just a means to get you from Point A to Point B with extra steps involved, which could be neat for some players, but for me, it just seems unnecessary when in most other RPGs, you just have all the information stored in your character’s brain, and you can tell it to others without needing to scroll through a list. Aside from that though, we also get Chocobos in this game, which are basically the Yoshis of the Final Fantasy series, and while they don’t really do that much here, I still love to see them and ride around on them when I can, and then there is also Cid, who would become a recurring character throughout the series from this point on, with multiple different variations of him being included in many other games.

However, there is one main change to this game that was implemented that will either make or break your experience with Final Fantasy II: the leveling up system. Like I mentioned before, the battles in this game work basically the exact same way as the original game, but the way you gain levels is completely changed over from the original game. Instead of regularly gaining experience and leveling up while increasing your stats every time like in most RPGs, here in Final Fantasy II, you gain levels primarily based on what you do in battles. For example, if you have someone who uses a sword a lot in battles, they will have their Sword Level increased if used enough times, if you have someone that primarily uses a Bow, then their Bow Level will increase, and so on and so forth. In addition to that, you can only gain boosts to your health, defense, and other stats if the player takes a lot of damage or flees from fights, and you can pretty much see where the issue lies with this.

For me, personally, I like this idea when it comes to leveling up your character, but unfortunately, this is implemented into the game very poorly. It is very easy to either be completely screwed by this system to where you will be constantly underleveled whenever you venture forth with the main quest, or you can be completely overpowered and make every single boss fight and encounter in this game a complete joke. Not to mention, some of the ways that you have to manage getting these levels are completely absurd and take way more time than necessary. For example, like I mentioned earlier, in order to increase your health stat, you have to take a lot of damage, so the only real way to have that happen on a regular basis is by having your party members beat the everloving fuck out of each other just enough to where they won’t die, but they will get more health. When it came to my first playthrough of this game, I didn’t use this strategy because I am a normal human being with common sense, which meant that I thought “low health = bad things for me”, so because of this, I was constantly underpowered and getting fucked over by a lot of strong enemies, making the entire experience much more stressful then it needs to be.

And it sucks too, because honestly, there is a lot to love about Final Fantasy II. The story, while certainly more dark and depressing then the previous game, is one that I really liked, and was rare to see for games on the NES, the inclusion of Chocobos and Cid was pretty great to see, and the main gameplay is fun and engaging enough like the previous game. However, this one mechanic completely drags the entire game’s quality down, making it so that you can’t ever have a normal playthrough of this game. You can either take advantage of the system to overpower everything, or get bum rushed by everything else, which is not the kind of system you want for your RPG. This, coupled with the lackluster Word Memory system and even with other things I didn’t mention like the trap rooms in dungeons, make this a pretty rough follow-up to what was a basic, but still good first entry.

Overall, despite still keeping the core gameplay intact and implementing new features and additions that are pretty good and would continue to be seen in the series, the poor leveling up system drags the entire thing down to where I wouldn’t necessarily call it bad, but instead, overly frustrating to play, and thus, makes it inferior to its previous installment. I would recommend it for those who are fans of the Final Fantasy franchise, as well as those who are fans of RPGs in general, but just be aware of what you are getting into whenever you hit that start button. And just like with the original game, don’t go out of your way to play the original version. Play through any one of the remakes or the Pixel Remaster, because they will make the experience much better for you as a whole. But hey, I guess we have to be thankful that this type of game exists, because since it does, Square Enix knows now how to properly use this system, and hasn’t reused it for Final Fantasy all that much. It’s nice to see them learn from their mistakes. I just wish they could do that more often nowadays.

Game #407

While it may have been a remake of the original Castlevania and not a completely original game, Super Castlevania IV was, without a doubt, one of the best Castlevania games ever made. Not only did it add plenty of content to make it the definitive version of the original game at that point, but it also made controlling Simon much more enjoyable and satisfying, with full midair control while jumping and being able to whip in eight different directions. There were no real complaints that I had about the game overall, and it is definitely the best way to bring the series to the 16-bit era. With all that being said, however… in my original review of that game, I did mention that it was not quite my favorite Castlevania game, or even my favorite classicvania game. That game would be released just a couple years later, but only in Japan, while us in the west would get the inferior Castlevania: Dracula X. Eventually, we would get the original version of that game released as part of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, where it would get fully translated in English as Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.

In many different ways, Rondo of Blood could be seen as nothing too extraordinary when it comes to a classicvania game, and in other ways, it could even be seen as a step back when compared to what Super Castlevania IV brought to the table. However, what it does add greatly outweighs what was lost in this title, making for what I would consider without a doubt to be the best of the classic Castlevania games. Even back in the day, when I was just playing it for the first time on my Wii out of curiosity, I knew that I preferred this over all the others, despite all the additions that they would bring to the series. There is so much to love about this game, as it manages to still retain the good ol’ Castlevania gameplay intact while still being pretty fun, while also adding plenty of elements that benefit it just enough to make it edge out over the others.

The story is, for the most part, exactly what you would expect for a Castlevania game, but it does add several other elements to make it seem somewhat more original, such as there being several maidens that were kidnapped to be used to bring back Dracula, which does add a little more flavor to the story other then it just being “dracula bad, go kill”, the graphics are incredible, with this definitely being the best looking Castlevania game at this point, and the designs of the enemies, bosses, and Richter himself still looking great all the way to this day, the music is as great as you would expect for a Castlevania game, with plenty of rocking tunes, as well as remixes of classic tracks that hold up extremely well, the control is exactly what you would expect from a Castlevania game, and it works pretty well, even if it isn’t as versatile as what Super Castlevania IV gave us, and the gameplay is also what you would expect from a classic Castlevania game, while also adding in several new additions to make it stand out from others.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you primarily take control of Richter Belmont, take on a set of at least eight stages across plenty of different gothic environment, fend off plenty of different monsters, both classic and new, which will give you quite the challenge if you aren’t properly prepared to take them on, gather plenty of hearts, money, sub-weapons, and health items throughout the game to assist you in your quest to vanquish the unholy creatures before you, and take on plenty of different bosses that range from familiar faces, to all new foes that will test your strength and reflexes. For the most part, it plays pretty much like your standard Castlevania game, and it doesn’t really warrant any reason to play it over other titles, at least, on the surface level. But, what it does add to the series greatly benefits it in the long run, and makes it fun to come back to even now.

Like with Castlevania III, this game has plenty of different alternating pathways that the player can take, but unlike with Castlevania III, you aren’t just flatout given the option to choose between them, but rather, you have to find them in the stages for yourself. That may seem like a hindrance to some, but for me, I always love shit like this, where you are encouraged to explore these seemingly linear levels to see whatever kinds of secrets you can find, and it is all the more rewarding whenever you do eventually find them. And also like Castlevania III, this game brings back the option of being able to play as multiple characters. As you go through the stages, you can end up finding and saving the maidens that got captured at the beginning of the game, and while most of them are just there for you to save, one of them, Maria, ends up becoming a character that you can swap between at any point. For those of you who haven’t played this game, let me tell you, when you unlock Maria, you will not wanna switch back from playing as her, because she is AWESOME. Not only is her main attack pretty cool and very useful, but the sub-weapons she gets are extremely helpful in certain circumstances, especially against bosses. The only downside to her is that she takes double damage, but with all that stuff that I mentioned earlier, plus having the ability to double jump and perform a special attack on top of that, how can you not want to stick with her for the entire game?

In addition to those new features, we also get fully animated and voice acted cutscenes for the first time in a Castlevania game, and they are pretty well done……… or at least, I would say that, if I wasn’t playing the Japanese version, and I could understand what they were saying. I would play through the English version, but that’s only part of The Dracula X Chronicles, which I don’t have, and I wanna save those for whenever I do get around to that game, so for now, I will just say that the cutscenes do look and sound really good, even if I can’t understand anyone. And finally, this may be a tiny little thing, but I gotta mention it anyway: you no longer permanently lose sub-weapons upon picking up a new one. For every Castlevania game before this, whenever you picked up a new sub-weapon, the one that you were currently holding gets completely replaced, which does kind of suck in some instances, where you end up picking up a sub-weapon that you REALLY didn’t want. Any classic Castlevania player knows this struggle, we have all gone through it. Thankfully, this time around, whenever you do grab a new sub-weapon, the one you were holding gets tossed aside, and you can choose which one you want before proceeding forward. It may not seem like much, but trust me, that is a fix that I am incredibly thankful for.

With all that being said though, as much as I have sung this game’s praises, and while I myself don’t have any problems with it, I can see why people may not prefer this over the previous title. This game returns to the classic control style of the original games, meaning that you can only whip whatever is directly in front of you, and you have an arching jump. While I myself don’t personally mind this, as I am very used to this style of gameplay, those who didn’t like this style and loved the changes that Super Castlevania IV introduced will probably be disappointed when going to this game. But again, that would probably only apply to some certain players, as this didn’t bother me at all. And not to mention, you get a backflip and slide, which Super Castlevania IV didn’t have, so your argument is invalid either way. For me, this game was still great to play through even to this day, and with the added replay value of the many different pathways and the multiple endings that you can get depending on who you beat the game with, it gives the player many different reasons to want to try this game out and go through it again and again.

Overall, this is, in my personal opinion, the best classic Castlevania game ever made, as it not only is another round of that incredibly fun and satisfying gameplay that we all know and love, but the many additions that this game would introduce adds to the amount of charm and fun that can be experienced from it, which I’m sure any longtime fan of the franchise could appreciate. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of Castlevania, or even for those who want to get into the series, because even if it may not be as accessible as Super Castlevania IV, it has plenty going for it that makes it worth checking out. Just, you know, make sure you are playing the CORRECT version of the game, and not Dracula X. It isn’t bad by any means, but nonetheless, it should be ashamed of itself for even existing in the first place.

Game #412

Throughout my years of playing games from the NES library, I have conquered many different titles that many consider to be the hardest on the system. I have beaten the original Castlevania trilogy, the original Ninja Gaiden trilogy, the original six Mega Man games, the NES port of Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Zelda II, Gradius, the NES Contra games, and the original Battletoads. All of these games were hard as fuck in their own way, but I am glad that I managed to conquer them, as not only did I manage to find a good number of great games from this bunch, but it also led me to discovering plenty of different franchises that would soon become my favorites for years to come. But, with all that said, there are still plenty of titles from the system that I haven’t beaten that many still consider to be some of the hardest on the system, with several of these titles being some that I have known about for quite a long time. So, I decided to start working to get through these games, starting with one I have wanted to check out for a while, the Silver Surfer game for the NES.

Like many others, I first discovered the game through the episode made by the AVGN, and from what I saw back in the day, it didn’t seem like anything too interesting. It just seemed like your typical licensed Marvel game that just seemed to be extremely difficult, so it didn’t really catch my eye. Not to mention, the Silver Surfer himself has always been one of the Marvel heroes that I have cared the least about, so that gave me less reason to check this game out. But, I decided to check the game out for myself, and HOLY FUCK, they weren’t kidding about that difficulty. I did manage to beat it though, and I will say that… I kinda liked it? It’s a bad game to be sure, don’t get me wrong, but for what we got here, and if you excuse the ball-busting difficulty, it is actually somewhat of an alright game… but it is ultimately brought down by what you have to get through to beat it.

The story is extremely simple, where Galactus sends the Silver Surfer to gather the parts of a mysterious device from several different villains from the Marvel universe, which is pretty basic, but it is enough to get you going, the graphics are pretty good, with all the characters looking like they should, and the rest of the sprites looking decent enough, the music is FUCKING AWESOME, which was something I wasn’t expecting at all, but as soon as I turned on the game, I was hit with some of the best music I have ever heard from this entire system, even if a lot of it is repeated throughout plenty of stages, the control is extremely basic for the kind of game this is, no need to go any further, and the gameplay is incredibly standard, but it will surprise you in several ways, not just in terms of the difficulty.

The game is a standard space shooter, where you take control of the Silver Surfer himself, go through six main levels full of many different stages themselves, either being viewed from a top-down or side perspective, take out MANY different enemies that will attempt to take you down using all the silver might that you can muster, gather plenty of different powerups to not only increase the power of your shots, but to also add several additional turrets to shoot with alongside you, and defeat plenty of different bosses, which range from being big, threatening, and challenging, to… a silly little ghost who is easy as hell. Felt bad about killing him again, but he was in my way. Anyway, for the most part, there isn’t anything too unique about the gameplay that we have here, which may make it seem pretty generic compared to others. However, one thing that does manage to separate this game from others is that it is HARD AS HELL.

I had heard many that claimed that this was one of the hardest games on the NES, and after playing it myself, I can safely confirm that they were correct, as this is one of the hardest games I have ever played from this system. It has just about what you would expect from a space shooter that would make it difficult, such as a million different enemies, movement patterns that are extremely erratic that will trip you up at plenty different points, tight environments that you have to move through while dealing with many different enemies, and very cruel punishments for whenever you die, losing all of your powerups and making it even more difficult. What also doesn’t help is that, for being an intergalactic superhero, the Silver Surfer not only dies from one hit, but also dies from EVERYTHING. He dies from bullets, he dies from enemies, he dies from running into walls or floors, and he even dies from touching things that you wouldn’t even suspect is something you can interact with. Rest assured, anything and everything in this game is out to kill you, and if you can manage to get through all of it without rage quitting, then you have some solid willpower.

With all that in mind though… I still kinda had fun with the game. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t really that good of a game, and the difficulty would be enough to make any normal player quit immediately, but for what it is worth here, it was still satisfying enough to get through. The powerups are fun to use, the shooting feels satisfying, the bosses are somewhat fun to fight, and whenever you do get through these hard as hell challenges, it does feel like you truly conquered something. I definitely probably wouldn’t play this again if I had the choice between several other options, nor would I ever play this ever again after this initial playthrough, but I can say that I did have a good enough time with it.

Overall, you know that face that the Silver Surfer makes whenever you die in the game? That was me for most of my time with this game. However, when I did manage to beat the many challenges that the game presented me, I then went to how the Silver Surfer looks whenever you do beat a full level, and I did end up having a good enough time with it at the end of the day. Yes, the game isn’t that good, and it definitely isn’t gonna be for those who want an easy time, but for those willing to handle the challenge, it will give you a good enough time, and an immense feeling of satisfaction at the end of it all. Not to mention, the final boss of the game is literally a big purple gorilla with a gun. How can you completely hate a game that has that in it?

Game #428

Back when it originally released, the original Mortal Kombat was a smash hit, and was extremely successful for not just a new game, but for a new direct competitor for Street Fighter II. The game sold millions, with home versions selling over 6 million copies, and it not only managed to gain a massive fanbase worldwide, but was also a direct contributor to the creation of the ESRB rating system. Not many other games can claim to have changed the industry forever like that, and it was clear from this success that Mortal Kombat was gonna be not just a new mainstay for Midway, but also for the fighting genre as a whole. So, despite them originally planning on making a Star Wars game next, Ed Boon and John Tobias were then put to work on making a sequel almost immediately, and this next game was aiming to be bigger and better than the original in every way, making things even more bloody and fun. Thus, just one year after the first game, the world was then given a second helping of gore and violence with Mortal Kombat II.

Out of all the classic Mortal Kombat games, this is definitely the one I had heard about the most, not only being considered the best of the original trilogy, but also one of the best fighting games of all time. Just like with the original Mortal Kombat, I hadn’t really played too much of MKII before, only playing it in short bursts at barcades, but not really getting anywhere past that. So, I decided to finally tackle it properly, and yeah, I would say that the game definitely deserves the reputation it has. It is better than the original game in every way, being one of the best classic arcade fighters I have ever played, and while it does have its issues, none of that stopped me from having a bloody good time with it.

The story, on the surface, is pretty simple, with Shao Kahn, the true emperor of Outworld, sparing and deaging Shang Tsung while making a brand new fighting tournament to try to take over Earthrealm, and so Liu Kang, along with many other fighters, step up to the plate to try to take down Shao Kahn, with there also being plenty of other separate plot details accompanying it with each characters’ separate story, making the story a simple, yet enjoyable follow-up to the original game, the graphics are very similar to the original game, but it does look better then the first game, having much more detail given to the environments, characters, and fatalities that you can perform, the music is pretty good once again, having plenty of tracks that fit the environments very well, and it gets you pumped up to kick some more ass, the control is still somewhat stiff, but it does feel better to play when compared to the previous game, with more moves that you can pull off this time, and the gameplay takes what was introduced in the previous game, and is expanded upon more and more to make an undeniably superior sequel.

The game is a classic arcade fighting game, where you take control of one of five of the previous games combatants (along with Reptile and Shang Tsung, because why not), as well as five new challengers that would become mainstays in the Mortal Kombat series, take on another opponent in plenty of different stages with the feel of death permeating through them, throw out various punches, hits, and combos to your opponent to beat them down before they even knew what was coming, perform a brutal Fatality to prove that you are the superior fighter and a force to be reckoned with, and climb up the ladder of opponents until you are able to reach Shao Kahn himself. In many ways, a lot of what was introduced in the first game remains unchanged, but again, much like many great sequels, this game takes all of what was great about the original Mortal Kombat, refines many of its best elements, and adds plenty more to it.

If I were to describe this game in one simple sentence, I would just say it was Mortal Kombat but MORE. There are more characters, more stages, more moves you can pull off, more fatalities, more bosses to get your ass kicked by, and more secret characters that you can face off against if you know what you are doing. It may feature the same means of progression as the first game, but with many different characters to use and many different moves to pull off, there is a lot more to see and do in Mortal Kombat II. Not to mention, the game itself plays just as well as the original, if not better. The movement can still be a little stiff, and it definitely as smooth or fast as other fighters, but it does feel a lot more satisfying and quick to control, with plenty of violence to accompany the combat to add to that same feel of satisfaction, along with the sound effects adding a lot to it. I’m sure many of us who have played this game are quite familiar with the many screams and grunts that the characters will let out when they get hit, and even for those who haven’t played any Mortal Kombat game, you may be quite familiar with the phrase “GET OVER HERE!”, which is still one of the most famous video game lines to this day.

Of course, the fatalities are brought back in this game, and they are without a doubt a MASSIVE improvement over the original game. The original fatalities were still pretty good, but the ones we get in Mortal Kombat II are much better and bloodier, with some of my personal favorites being one where Kung Lao uses his hat to slice an opponent in half, showing broken ribs and all, and one where Liu Kang straight up turns into a MOTHERFUCKING DRAGON, and he then chomps off the top half of the opponent's body. How can you not love something like that? Not to mention, in this game, you could now perform multiple fatalities per character rather then just being limited to just one. For example, with Mileena, you can either use your sai to constantly stab through your opponent in one violent burst of fury, or you can take off your mask and suck up your opponent into your big-teethed mouth, only to then spit out their bones all onto the ground next to you. The choice is yours! And finally, there are more stage fatalities that you can perform as well, such as knocking your opponent into the pit of acid surrounding you in a level, knocking them into the spikes hanging on the ceiling in a level, or just knocking them off to where they slam on the ground far below you. They may be simple, but they are still satisfying to pull off.

But if you think that the Fatalities are all this game has to offer in terms of finishers, then you would be wrong! Two new different types of finishers were introduced in this game, which aren’t as violent as fatalities, but they are still just as fun to see and pull off. The first of these new finishers are the Babalities, where you turn your opponent into…. a baby. Yeah. Not exactly sure how this kind of finisher came into existence, but again, it is still one that is hilarious to pull off, and extremely satisfying, turning your opponent into a big ol’ crying baby, literally. In addition to this, there are now also Friendships, where instead of killing your opponent or turning them into a baby, you perform an act of friendship that is also funny and charming to see in action, such as with Shang Tsung creating a rainbow out of thin air to show how friendly and pro-equality he is, Baraka offering his opponent a gift rather then his blades of fury, and Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Reptile each advertising their own doll versions of themselves that you can now buy at your local Wal-Mart or Outworld store. They may be stupid, but they are incredibly enjoyable to see, and are some of my favorite finishers in any fighting game that I have ever seen.

Now, with all of that out of the way, I can’t pretend that Mortal Kombat II is a perfect sequel, even though it is very close to being so. Once again, just like with the original game, this game has a severe case of fighting game syndrome, where many of the opponents you will face will be incredibly overpowered compared to you, and will make sure to kick your ass all around the arena and leave you as a bloody corpse at any chance they get. Of course, it is still doable, but you are gonna need to bring your A-game if you wanna even stand a chance against these opponents. In addition, while I do love a lot of the fatalities that are present in this game, a lot of them do feel repetitive when you compare them all. A lot of them either involve you either slicing or punching someone’s head off, and slicing or chomping their body in half. I may be a simple man who claps when limbs go flying and blood goes pitter patter, but I also would like a touch more variety in these fatalities, or at least, a little more then what we already got in this game. Then again, those things I previously mentioned are merely just minor complaints, as this is still a pretty solid follow-up all around.

Overall, despite a somewhat repetitive nature with some fatalities and fighting game syndrome still very much being a thing, Mortal Kombat II is a fantastic follow-up to its bloody predecessor, and one of the best classic arcade fighting games that I have ever played. It is clear why many regard this to be the best of the original MK games, and it will definitely be one I come back to if I am in the mood to beat someone’s face in for a half-hour. I would definitely recommend it for those who are big Mortal Kombat fans, as well as those who are fans of fighting games in general, because while it may not be as content-packed or creative as future installments, it still provides a great, bloody spectacle that will provide fun for plenty of time, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day. Man, now that I have gotten through this game, I can’t wait until we get to Mortal Kombat 3! I’m sure that game will be even better than this one, and have plenty of new stuff to introduce to the series as well…………. Right?

Game #431

One day, at the headquarters of Virgin Games, some random game developers managed to get the license of the Double Dragon series to develop a brand new game in the franchise. When deciding what to do with it, one of them thought to themselves “Hm, you know what, I’m feeling quite Gradius today”, and after some time spent developing the game, they then released it exclusively for the Game Gear, and just simply called it Double Dragon, because that wasn’t going to be confusing at all. If you didn’t know about this particular entry in the series, and you just assumed that it was just a port of the original game, I wouldn’t blame you, since it uses the exact same cover art as the original. But, just like with the Game Boy Battletoads game, this is a completely separate entry in the series, one that I didn’t really want to play, but I figured I may as well give it a shot, just to say that I played it so I could move on with my life.

After playing it for about 20 minutes while getting a Game Over, I decided that I had pretty much seen everything that the game would offer, and I can confirm that it certainly is a Game Gear Double Dragon game. It is fine for what it is, and it isn’t really aiming to reinvent the wheel at all, which isn’t a bad thing, but there are plenty other titles in the series, let alone other beat-‘em-ups, that I would much rather play instead of this, but it certainly isn’t the worst in the genre that I have seen.

The story is extremely basic, seeing Billy Lee fighting yet another evil gang known as the Dragon Clan in order to save his brother Jimmy from being taken over by an evil entity, which is about as simple as you would expect for a Double Dragon game, but nothing that really makes me care anymore about what is going on in the game, the graphics are, admittedly, pretty good for a Game Gear game, having plenty of decent looking levels and backgrounds, along with the sprites for the characters looking good as well, but then it falls apart when the characters move around at a staggering pace, the music is definitely Game Gear music, with plenty of tracks that do fit what is going on, and they can be enjoyable to listen to, but nothing I am gonna remember after playing it, the control is somewhat passable, with moving around feeling good enough, but actually connecting hits with the enemies feeling like a gamble, unsure of whether or not you are actually going to hit them due to how the game works, and the gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a Double Dragon game, but with one or two changes here or there that don’t really amount to anything.

The game is your typical beat-’em-up, where you take control of only Billy Lee, go through a set of six big levels each containing several sub-sections, beat up anyone that you come across because that is just naturally how one goes about their lives, gather plenty of different items and weapons to help you out in combat or even increase your health at points in the game, and take on a good amount of bosses that either range from typical, easy brutes, to easily exploitable alien entities… or at least, it looks that way from what I saw of it on YouTube. It is all your typical Double Dragon affair, so you are looking for that same beat-’em-up action, except on a handheld and worse then what you got before, this is the game for you. But again, to its credit, it does do something different from other entries in the series, even if it is very little.

Based on what I have researched, rather than being developed in a similar manner to other Double Dragon games, this game was developed to more closely resemble that of Streets of Rage, and when you play it, you can see why. It does feel a lot like a Streets of Rage game, with very similar types of sprites, character portraits throughout, and even some of the items you find are directly lifted from that series, such as the stars. I would say this is a good way for fans of that series to experience Streets of Rage on a handheld, but at the same time, there were already ports of Streets of Rage 1 and 2 for the system at that point, calling more into question why anyone would wanna play this. To that, I have to answer… not much, except for the inclusion of GUNS. Yes, this is the first game in the series that allows you to wield firearms, and while they work exactly as you would expect, it is somewhat funny and cathartic to see Billy pick up a gun and shoot these fuckers, like he has had enough of dealing with all of these rival gangs for over half a decade.

But of course, a new type of weapon can’t really be classified as a huge new feature, and as such, Double Dragon for the Game Gear is yet another generic beat-’em-up in a city dump full of them. It most likely would’ve satisfied those long car trips you would take while being on vacation, but other than that, there is no real reason to go ahead and give it a shot when there are plenty of better alternatives that were released before and since. That being said though, I don’t wanna say the game itself was completely terrible, as it was fine enough. It doesn’t compare to other titles quality-wise, but it can still be a decent amount of fun when trying it out, and for being the only Double Dragon game made on the Game Gear, it did a pretty good job of bringing the series to that handheld. Doesn’t mean I am gonna keep playing it though.

Overall, despite the good presentation (for the most part) and keeping the gameplay familiar while not botching things up, Double Dragon for the Game Gear is pretty much exactly what you would expect, nothing too noteworthy and it definitely doesn’t come close to the quality of other titles in the series. I guess I could recommend it to those who are huge fans of the series, as well as those who love beat-’em-ups in general, but for everyone else, there are many, MANY better options out there over this. Now, if you excuse me, I am going to go play some Streets of Rage, which is a series that has had a much better track record then this one has, and that is just sad to think about.

Game #437