Truthfully, I think it's one of the best game's ever made. All elements including the dialogue, soundtrack, narrative, and gameplay, are beautifully intertwined and cohesively work together to create a singular experience. The pacing is top-notch, and the variety of weapon's, gives a sense of individuality to each playthrough, while the adjustable difficulty that appears before every level allows for everyone to play; properly rewarding those who are willing to challenge themselves. This game feels so effortless in its delivery, it makes me wonder how we don't have 500 video games like this already, each great in their own right. Kid Icarus: Uprising is simply the perfect step-up in nearly every department a video game can have, and it knows exactly how far away it needs to be from the sun in order to be successful.

To top it all off, I think it looks flawless on the 3DS. Every piece of the environment assists in the obfuscating of hidden chests and secrets, Pit's model looks great and always stands out from everything else on the screen, while still being detailed and animated enough to capture the concept art drawn of him. The enemy design's contrast and interact with the environment well, and the green directional arrows that casually point you to where you need to go don't ruin the sense of progression. The ground combat, can seem shallow, but like I mentioned above, the variety of the weapon's, and the will to challenge yourself is the deciding factor here in your experience. It's amazing to me that this game manages to do all of this, and still casually progress the narrative of each character introduced by having God's banter about trivial and mundane things. Not a single joke feels out of place, and it's consistently enjoyable to listen to, even when you're replaying missions.

Hoping to see more Drakengard-likes in the future.

It's the first three Wizardry titles, now with improved sound, graphics, better loot, and a few quality of life decisions that nevertheless leave the original titles terrible ethos intact.

An RPG system so old it uses THAC0 for calculating armor, the first three Wizardry titles are absolutely brutal exercises in the most hardcore and straightforward of 1st edition D&D combat. Existing at a time where simply having a party, meaningful character progression, and a somewhat competently designed dungeon were ends unto themselves, these titles do not respect the players time in the slightest, because there were no other similar games on the market with which a player might need to divide their time with. While this was no longer the case by the time of III's release, and the archaic design choices will not resonate with contemporary gamers, "Story of Llylgamyn" is a must play for anyone interested in the history of the genre, or simply the history of the medium itself.

The term demake gets thrown around kind of a lot nowadays to just mean "remake I don't like" but I always thought of it to mean remaking a game on weaker hardware. In this case, we have Ristar for the Sega Game Gear, which is far weaker than the Sega Genesis.

TBH? It's by far the most impressive deconversion of a game ever made, to the point I much prefer it to the Genesis version. All the levels I disliked such as the water levels are replaced with new more straightforward levels like a cool rainbow level (be sure to play the Japanese version of GG Ristar!) or bomb disposal level. I just enjoy not having to play with the swimming physics again.

The music and graphics are a bit of a downgrade of course, but GG Ristar punches far harder than its weight class would suggest. I could listen to its version of the OST for ages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZIuBpTd9P8

Also, even the English version retains the story from the Japanese original which was changed in the English Genesis release. Very neat! But I think the coolest technical achievement is how they managed to replicate the ending effects on Game Gear! https://youtu.be/SxdHf1xz0w4?t=2254

It's the same Ristar you know and love, only with all the filler bits removed and replaced with mostly more interesting things imo. The new collectibles are really fun to casually walk through and I appreciate how many extra things there are to grab such as enemy shields and spears. Easy rec for fans of the original.

Behold, my 1500th video game! This special occasion warrants nothing less than a super special review. So, what did I think? Well first, some backstory.

This past year or 2, I've been obsessed with playing games that are considered foundational. Sometimes, I don't enjoy them but I'm still glad I played them for the historical value alone which has been the case for games such as Colossal Cave Adventure, Mystery House, or Portopia. Other times, I find some of my unexpected favourite games that are actually very fun such as Wizardry, Fantasy Zone, or... oh yeah, another game by Myst's developers called The Manhole!

When I played The Manhole and its 3D remake last year, I was very captivated! These are 2 games where there is no real objective but to take in the scenery. Just explore and find hilarious imagery while listening to wacky characters. No win condition, no lose condition, no timer, no stress. In a way, this is a really avant garde method of showing that video games are more than their title suggests. That being, they aren't just "games" played for the sake of winning but perhaps important pieces of art.

With how hyped up Myst has been over the years, I decided I would make it my 1500th game on Backloggd (Jesus I've been on this site for years) knowing that it would be something special and, well....

Look. I immensely respect what Myst is going for. I really love how inspired it is, and I am sure the pre-rendered graphics were mindblowing to 1993 audiences. It's neat how several of my beloved games such as Drowned God were blatantly inspired by it, and it's arguably the most important game in the last 30 or so years due to how it was the big boom for PC gaming the world needed.

Yet, I can't feel passionately about it the way I can with The Manhole or Wizardry or even the likes of Colossal Cave Adventure. It is hard for me to be captivated by Myst's legacy when many point and click/adventure games predate it and, in my opinion, have far better QOL, gameplay, and storytelling.

As far as point and click games from before 1993 go, I have a lot of favourites. Uninvited felt like a very kinetic and replayable game with a unique horror feel. Monkey Island 1-2 are still some of the most entertaining and hilarious games I've experienced, boasting incredible artstyles and early popularization of dynamic music. The Manhole, again, was one of the very first entertainment CD-roms and it's still rather fun. Alter Ego having barely any pictures and still being one of the most engaging, deeply written games I've experienced. Hell, when looking at niche Japanese games I'm impressed at how Cosmology of Kyoto, Otogirisou, or Ihatovo Monogatari managed to breathe new life into the game medium as a whole, displaying such artistry that even the likes of Roger Ebert were impressed.

All this is to say that I don't understand at all why Myst is often defended on the basis of "well it's a 30 year old game" especially when other point-and-clicks like Monkey Island before it are still popular today. Hell, Monkey Island is probably much more fun to revisit for the average player. Monkey Island doesn't receive memes like this, at least certainly not with any frequency https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E9tXrGBWYAYBtfc.png

When trying to wrap my head around what made Myst so popular beyond the graphics, I looked at the development history behind the game and found this https://youtu.be/EWX5B6cD4_4

Myst was meant to give players a bang for their buck, resulting in a design based around "brute force" real estate to explore. With no win or lose conditions, the player could feasibly spend weeks if not months on the game. And it doesn't stop there, there is what seems to be a deliberate lack of QOL.

I found myself constantly frustrated by Myst. The save feature restarts the player at the beginning of the area rather than saving their progress, contrary to other even older adventure games. Batteries near the dock drain rather fast and need to be constantly recharged. Activating the large tree elevator is an annoying process. The main character is too much of a moron to carry two pages at a time, so if the player wants to experience every FMV they are forced to go through the same area twice, some of which can be rather confusing to navigate. The sound puzzles where the player must match 5 different sound effects in a row with very large margin of error might as well just say "fuck the deaf and the tone deaf players" good lord. I personally felt the pace broken when 10 minutes into the game I was compelled to read 4 mini-novels in a row. And perhaps most importantly, I had trouble making out a single full sentence in the red and blue books due to the overloaded static noises in the cutscenes.

Are there things I appreciate about Myst? Sure! This is far from a game without merit. The minimalist presentation is rather beautiful, with the pre-rendered images and FMVs still holding their own against photorealistic graphics from far stronger hardware. The atmosphere can be rather immersive a lot of the time, with the sound effects being very convincing for every action in the game. I rec listening to this part of the Ars Technica documentary, since it explains things better than I could https://youtu.be/EWX5B6cD4_4?t=860

It's truly a technical engineering feat. Also, after the player obtains the true ending, they are allowed to just explore the island. It really gives me the impression their earlier work on The Manhole helped shape some decisions in this game, and that's just lovely.

Well, that's Myst. It's a technically impressive game, but far from a fun one in my opinion. It was only while writing this review that, perhaps, it hit me.

Everybody has their own unique perspective and experiences that shapes them into the EPIC GAMER they are today. I saved Myst for a rainy day, subconsciously putting it on a pedestal in my head. Most of the people who told me how much they loved Myst mentioned it being a formative artistic experience for them. Could it be because I had the liberty of playing so many untranslated JP adventure games, more modern adventure games, and so forth before Myst, its impact was lost on me?

1500 games is a lot of fucking games. There is an alternate universe out there where I was fascinated by Myst and fell in love with it, rather than found it frustrating in my mid 20s. In fact, this is what one of the developers theorized; only maybe half of players even left the first island. Yet, so many young players who discovered the game left with quite an impression, that they played something which resonated with them FOR the unfamiliar mystique, rather than despite it https://youtu.be/EWX5B6cD4_4?t=1070

When I started typing this review, I wasn't sure if I was happy I played Myst. Yet now, I feel confident I am happy it was my 1500th game. It was not a waste of time, but a good reminder of how games are more than what I play. They are artistic statements, impressive feats of software development, and parts of our culture. The cynic in me can say Myst is a subpar adventure game that only had any success due to the photorealistic graphics. Yet, I'm more inclined to ask one thing:

Is there any game which better embodies the culture of early PC gaming and the appeal of pre-rendered graphics?

God, I fucking love video games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e49OXXBX3Ko

Half-Century Challenge Series: https://www.backloggd.com/u/C_F/list/half-century-challenge/

HCC #5 = Wander (1974)

Hey folks, it's been a while. Me and Mega are still doing this challenge at a steady pace, so be sure to check out Mega's newest review too! https://www.backloggd.com/u/MegaTheRealOne/review/1619202/

Let's talk about release dates. Before the internet was used by the masses, before people truly gave a shit about video games as an artform, there was a trend that always bugged me; release dates. One need only look at the sheer number of games with release dates on IGDB of "December 31st" to figure out there's a widespread problem with retro games: https://i.imgur.com/5QhAvK9.png

That's right, December 31st is the default date used when a game's release year is narrowed down. Wander (which has dual status as both a video game and an engine, much like MUGEN) suffers from this as well.

Why does that matter? Well, for one thing, sometimes we aren't even sure if release dates in this context for very old games refers to the time period where it was shared around a college campus or if it refers to a wide release. For another reason, well, I just about had a heart attack when I encountered the magic word "xyzzy" in Castle's text: https://i.imgur.com/v3ROA4y.png

Why is this significant? Well, Wander came out in 1974. This is 4 years before Colossal Cave Adventure came out. One of the games in Wander, Castle, uses the magic word "xyzzy" which would mean that the original story of xyzzy being invented for the vastly more iconic Colossal Cave Adventure was a lie. The word xyzzy is one of the most famous keywords for programmers, even appearing as an easter egg in things like Monkey Island. To say this would be a history changer is putting it rather lightly.

But there's a problem with saying Wander had the word first. https://ahopeful.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/wander-1974-a-lost-mainframe-game-is-found/

According to this blog, Wander's compiled source files here were for a 1980s release, and Castle was built in Wander.

I have seen conflicting speculation on whether Castle predates Colossal Cave Adventure. According to this blog, Castle was the first game built in Wander during 1974 and the author of this blog even declares it to be the first adventure game ever created
http://crpgadventures.blogspot.com/2016/03/castle-designed-using-wander-1974.html

Yet, I cannot find anything concrete. In fact, I found another blog which concluded the sub-game Castle came after Colossal Cave Adventure:
https://bluerenga.blog/2015/12/21/castle-using-wander-system-1974/
https://bluerenga.blog/2015/04/23/wander-1974-release-and-questions-answered/

Yet, even if I had smoking gun evidence Colossal Cave Adventure (generally cited as the most important adventure game ever made) had actually ripped off Castle all this time, would it matter? Mega Man Legends never gets credit for having Z-targetting before Ocarina of Time; hell I feel like I live in a world where progenitors of their medium in general are neglected to keep up the narrative that Nintendo invents everything in the industry. Monster hunting games like Dragon Quest and Shin Megami Tensei are called Pokemon ripoffs with videos getting millions of views for this obvious lie that can be debunked with 5 seconds of Google searching. The narrative that Ocarina of Time was the first game with shit like a day/night cycle or generational storytelling is continuously pushed despite the existence of Dragon Quest 5 or Breath of Fire. Super Mario 64 is obviously the first 3D platformer if not game in existence. Jumping Flash, Alpha Waves, earlier 3D platformers... what are those?

I went into this game wanting to write a positive piece about a wacky old adventure game. However, as my copy of the game kept bugging out and refusing to let me progress... (you have to grab the rope to go down and grab the keys, but then the rope fades away unless possibly some strict order of events from this video is followed? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEvGJnyfbVo )
I honestly don't know what to say. I am left alone with my thoughts of how video games are treated almost exclusively as toys rather than an artistic medium. Nobody would call Halloween 2 a ripoff of Friday the 13th the way Dragon Quest Monsters is called a ripoff of Pokemon. Nobody would cover an Elvis song, sell the cover, and then DMCA every pirated copy of OG Elvis music on the internet while also refusing to sell the original. Yet this is what what happens with say Squaresoft games when Square Enix sells quarter-assed remakes of games like Portopia or Front Mission while removing roms of the originals from the internet and refusing to resell those anyways, all while their fanboys happily cheer on this behaviour since we all must welcome the HD future. There is constant investigative work on the early history of anime to the point it is a big deal when 100 year old commercials are discovered but nobody except for me and about 3 other people have done a deep dive into the history of what is basically the first adventure game. Nobody would call Iron Man the first superhero movie ever made just because the MCU is the highest grossing film franchise, but this is what happens with Mario 64 allegedly being the first 3D platformer.

The truth is Wander is not really worth talking about as a game. In particular, its most noteworthy subgame Castle is a sloppily made mess where the text parser sucks to the point attempting to read the game's guide sometimes reads unrelated things. Hell, even 2 expert adventure gamers have failed to map out a walkthrough for it. It's so shoddily put together that I straightup just ignored the game over screen and kept moving after my so-called death, to say nothing of how vulgar the game can be: https://imgur.com/a/pYEfhm0

However, if video games are to be treated as a serious artistic medium, this treatment has GOT to change. Roms should not be removed from the internet without any legal avenue to buy them with the justification that the shiny new remakes exist to minmax megacorp profits via safe business moves. We cannot brush aside games that were the first to pull off a particular concept like generational storytelling or monster taming or z-targetting simply because those games didn't have hundred million dollar marketing campaigns like tentpole Nintendo games. We cannot give this little of a shit about documenting the early history of video games when I see news stories blow up like this for the perhaps even nerdier medium of anime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElY52feA7_k

Wander isn't an interesting game or engine, but it is truly representative of all my frustrations as somebody who appreciates games in an academic sense. It deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as things like Colossal Cave Adventure in my book, and I am truly baffled at the fact it was lost media for so many decades before anybody cared to find it. However, I suppose that it being found at all is progress enough I should be happy with.

I promise this will be my only negativity-laden review for the entire rest of the half-century challenge, guys.

Next time: Gun Fight (1975)

Kinda cool game. The graphics arent great but the characters have some decent animations and there's things like reflections in water because why the hell not? Feels very Dragon Quest inspired maybe to the point of nearly being a clone. It feels more open like the first DQ, but there's more stuff to do than that game. You can hire mercenaries to fight in your place and there's also "idols" that can fight in your place (Pokemon/statue things that you find in chests). Kinda weird but the mercenaries and idols make a separate party each, you choose which party fights at the start of battle. Seems like you can always switch to one of them from your main party, but once you do it's basically auto-battle mode for the mercenary or idol party and you can't exit it. The mercenaries were fairly cheap so I got two of them and they make pretty quick work of regular enemies and bosses. I think my only complaint is that this might potentially make this game way too easy.

Make sure you search absolutely everything, there's lots of hidden items and money to collect.

The fan translation feels pretty good. I know people get autistic about translations not being true to the original, but sometimes being true also leaves things a bit lifeless, so whoever did this one, good job on that. IMO

(I can make fun of autists because I am in my own way about other things right?)

Seems like a game I might want to complete.

Run ‘n Gun-a-thon — Part 3

Hard Corps is a tribrid of classic run ‘n gun action, Castlevania III branching paths and unique characters, and the boss rush focus of Cuphead. It’s easily the most distinct and replayable Contra. I would call it the best entry…if there was more platforming to vary up the level design like the first game. Each successive entry emphasized platforming less and less, and it’s practically nonexistent here. I suppose not every run ‘n gun needs platforming, but if you’re going to streamline the action into a boss rush, why still have sections where the player can mindlessly hold fire while moving right to reach the next single-screen arena? The levels are very dull outside of the bosses, which, to be fair, it excels at. Neat attack patterns and pitch-perfect pacing outside of a drawn-out autoscroller fight in level 4 and a slight overreliance on the “projectiles raining down from the sky” attack.

I’m glad I checked out the classic Contra games. They could be better, but none of them were bad. This marathon isn’t over yet though. I have two more beloved run ‘n guns on my list, both of them from the same developer and console generation. Stay tuned for my reviews of those!

After falling in love with the recently released Star Ocean Second Story R, I knew that I needed to continue seeing what this series had to offer. Figured I'd backtrack before I move forward- and thus here I am with Star Ocean First Departure R. I am happy to report that it, like its successor, is a fantastic time.

A lot of my praise for this game is pretty similar to the praise I gave to Second Story- the blending of sci-fi and fantasy, the mechanical depth, fun combat, wonderful characters and recruiting processes, worldbuilding, so on and so forth. However, this game still feels very distinct with its own flavors and spins on all of those aspects, and I found that to be really exciting. This game is such a blast from start to finish, and just emanates charm right from the golden snes/ps1 era of JRPGs beautifully.

The way this story is setup is so wonderfully told and compelling, and the early twist that truly kicks the game off had me engaged right from the start. From that point onward I was on board for everything the game threw at me. Time travel? Awesome. Four main protagonists? Wonderful. Keep it coming because I am having a ton of fun. Traveling around the world felt so diverse with its races, towns, and general atmospheres of the major areas, and every chance I had to meet someone I gladly took the opportunity. It manages to feel expansive and tight knit at the same time, and I think that is a commendable feat. I noticed a lot of little moments that really made the world shine. For example, I found a kid building a snowman and I joined in with Millie to help build more and more until we had a long line of snowmen. I figured it was just a little visual gag, but it didn’t reset when I left the town- and even showed up in a monumental cutscene later on. Everything about that encounter was completely optional, but it added so much texture and authenticity to the world that I was honestly pretty shocked by it. Little bits and pieces like that dotted around every corner are captivating, and that attention to detail and worldbuilding is always in effect.

In the combat encounters I had a ton of fun slashing away at the monsters, too. It is very simple, flashy, and depending on your outlook maybe a little dull and repetitive or (in my outlook) very satisfying and visceral. The true fun is seeing how you can build your characters beforehand and watching your progress pay off, and it is just as addicting as my previous encounter with the series. Crafting new weapons that would bump my stats up by 400+, blacksmithing new armor that could absorb elements, appraising amazing items, and nerfing my stats in exchange for higher xp rewards never got old. I probably spent just as much time looking at the skill screen as I did the combat itself, and watching my numbers grow always made me hyped. There is an endless amount of variety, customization, and stuff to unlock and play with that I feel like everyone could approach this game in unique ways and see great results. Heck, I have plenty of skills that I didn’t try out at all, and that's before all the attack techniques, spells, and character combinations I have yet to see too. Good stuff all around.

I think the true highlight for me here was, like Second Story, the characters. Not all of them are heavy hitters for me, for example T’nique felt very one note and boring to me, but everyone else I picked up was just a joy. Roddick is a great protagonist, and Ronyx and Ilia both gave such a unique perspective to everything and just were a ton of fun to be around. Watching the history of Cyuss and Phia was one of my favorite side stories in the game easily, and that serious tone is contrasted so heavily by how funny, naive, and energetic Pericci was and I caught myself always chuckling at her screen presence. Millie was my very favorite, though, since she was very emotionally fleshed out while still being so goofy and personable- something I always love- had great dynamics with everyone, and was also the party healer (my favorite JRPG class). Every time I saw the icon for the private actions I jumped at the chance to see what little flavor texts I could find just to spend more time with the cast. Some were really funny like Ronyx begging Millie not to tell how he learned Symbology, the girls only meeting in the inn, or all the times Cyuss got wasted at a bar- and like I mentioned before added such a great layer of texture to the world and cast that I always enjoyed. And the best part is I still have a huge stack of characters I haven’t met yet! I already want to replay just to see who else is out there, but I will save that for the future since I know I'll be back someday.

I don’t think this game is perfect by any means- as much as I wish I could say otherwise given how much fun I had, but there are some pretty apparent faults here and there. The beginning of the game and the setup it provides is so strong, and the ending kind of feels like it was thrown together at the last second and didn’t feel particularly satisfying to me. Not bad, but I was hoping for a little more. There are also some weird difficulty spikes sprinkled in that I felt were kind of absurd, especially at the end with the final boss who’s first phase I really don’t know how to beat without spending hours grinding or just cheesing him like I did. I also think there’s a little too much backtracking here that even I, a Metroid and Castlevania enthusiast, found to be a bit obnoxious. Those were the major flaws, but I also think that the soundtrack is just “good”. I liked it but it's not something that has really stuck with me like Second Story’s. The audio mixing felt all over the place, with the battle theme especially feeling like it was turned way down- made worse by everyone yelling their current actions nonstop. There’s a few more little things but I think I’ve made my point and they’re trivial enough for me not to really care when the game as a whole is so great.

Star Ocean First Departure R is a very short (only 22ish hours), mechanically dense, incredibly charming, addictive, and generally just fantastic little game. Second Story got me curious about what this series as a whole could offer, and now First Departure has cemented me as a newfound Star Ocean (series) fan. I had such a great time and I hope more people like me who are just getting into the series come and play and enjoy it like I did. Great time.

Someone really watched a Sean Connery prestige film and was like "Do you know what the boomers watching this truly need? An arcadey Nintendo shmup that takes advantage of the latest toy gimmick gun!"

And, make no mistake, it's a very fun and unique game, but I can't help but feel its audience may have been... kneecapped a bit by the movie being adapted into something where you fight a giant cartoon squid in a sexy mode 7 level https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1116608022110797824/Hunt_for_Red_October_The_USA_-_Snes9x_1.60_2023-06-09_01-46-33.mp4

The graphics are pretty alright on SNES. It does the usual technique of making the water backgrounds very wavy and disorienting, much like say Super Bomberman 3. The enemy sprites aren't the most memorable but I suppose it fits. The sprite scaling in the lightgun segments is pretty nice as well, reminded me that this is one of the only 10 or so games to take advantage of the Super Scope and even now I wonder what potential the device could have fulfilled if more people were interested in it.

Red October isn't your typical shmup, AT ALL. There's a massive health bar, which already makes it more fun than at least 90% of arcade shmups by default. While most "space shmups" and the like are very fast-paced, Red October is slow and meticulous, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. It emulates the feel of a slow deep dive into the ocean and being assaulted by unknowns. Thankfully, the player has a huge arsenal to work with. There is a weapon for each face button, and they hit just about every pattern imaginable. The player can either strafe with their shots or make hard turns, and if the player is moving up or down the bullets carry momentum which is super helpful for the penultimate boss.

Also I have to give mentions to the special weapons. The EMP disables all enemy projectiles for a while, which I suppose is realistic but utterly breaks most of the boss fights lol. I prefer the camo personally; Red October features stealth gimmicks that are actually pretty integral to surviving the experience, as some enemies are nigh-undodgable otherwise. Stealth elements in non-stealth games tend to be very tacked on, so I was pleasantly surprised by this to say the least.

And I have to give special mention to the soundtrack. It's all classical shit you've heard a million times, but it still never gets old hearing Ode to Joy in 16-bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8t45dOIFx0

Main flaws with the game? It's not the most fitting adaptation, it's very easy to 1cc to the point it should take ~2 hours max, and the cutscenes are uninteresting. But frankly, this sort of unique experience is the kind of shit I live for. Again, it's a meticulous underwater shmup with 5 different weapons, stealth mechanics that are fleshed out, and chiptune classical music for the OST. There's nothing quite like it and I would rec at least one playthrough for any hardcore shmup fans.