Cleared on May 10th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 67/160)

The best way I can describe this game is an indie game before they were cool. Fitting as this game was developed by a famous indie studio you might know as Game Freak which as of 2024 has about 212 people involved.

In all seriousness, this game has a lot of positive attributes of a game made with passion such as combining retro ideas (Megaman X and Rocket Knight Adventures), colorful pixelated graphics that are really well detailed with a good variety of scenery, level-based mechanics that challenge your adaptability, and even voice acting? In a Sega Genesis game?! Well, kinda... these voices are all pixelated as hell which isn't too uncommon since Outrun, Space Harrier II, and Altered Beast have proven it do-able even during the Genesis' infancy days, but Pulseman takes it a step further by incorporating a surprising amount of voice lines.

The graphics and artstyle is remarkable. Pulseman himself is such a well designed superhero with the colors matching quite nicely with each other, and his sprite is well detailed with a determined run animation and flashy lightning attacks. And the scenery ranges from cities to snowy fields, and there's plenty of cyberspace locations with have a unique look across different levels complimented with a futuristic soundtrack that works with the Genesis soundfont. That said, these cyberspace areas may be too colorful and not friendly for anyone with epilepsy, but even if that isn't an issue, there is one problem... it may have played a part in this game's biggest flaw, the slowdown. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen quite often and does slow down the gameplay which otherwise feels quite energetic and fast paced.

Pulseman is a 2D action platformer similar to the Megaman X games except you only have a few abilities to work with and don't gain any new abilities. You have a jump, an attack, and a shock burst that gives a window of invincibility. However, if you move or dash, you charge up electricity which causes your next attack to fire a ranged projectile while your next shock burst becomes Voltteccer which propels you upward diagonally either left or right which can bounce up walls to extend the time which allows you to reach great heights in narrow corridors. You're also invincible during this time. There's also a flip kick which you can pull off by pressing the attack button and the up arrow which would come in handy in some cases, but it ends up being situational that I keep forgetting to use it when it would be optimal. You have a very good run speed, and it builds up instead of staying on one speed, so you can take it slow for more precise platforming.

One of the game's weaknesses are the boss battles as I thought they were kinda lame to the point where the best boss in the game is a ball... a ball. The rest of the bosses have only two or three attacks and while some of them can be hard at first, they are able to be figured out. You can also criticize the level design of Level 6 and 7 in particular as well as the water mechanic that straight up prevents you from using your electric skills, but I really don't mind. I think it makes for a good challenge although I can see why the Level 6 during the falling section of the water level would be scary. Even I was surprised I got that section through on my first try. The auto-scroller is also difficult, but given how you have a power-up that lets you use empowered electric skills until you get to the end of a section at one point, not to mention the lives that you can easily pick up in the following sections, you'll have plenty of chances to get it down.

I was warned how hard it was, but compared to other Sega Genesis games that I played, this game was far more manageable than I was expecting. I still had to use save states since I have other games to go through, but this is definitely a game that I'll be coming back to in the near future for a "no save state" run.

Cleared on May 10th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 66/160)

The Sega Genesis is a system that boldly claimed itself in 1991 to have "blast processing". Sadly, this game was made in 1989.

At a glance, you might think its just another horizontal shoot em up, and if this were your first, you might suspect anything out of the ordinary, but if you've played a good chunk of them on the system, something doesn't feel right. The frame rate feels off and this isn't something that I usually take offense to since after awhile, I can adapt to games with suboptimal frame rate, and I've definitively played worse in that regard.

That said, a more pressing matter is when you combine frame rate with the amount of shit that goes on on-screen. There are so many enemies, so many shots, and there's just an unusual amount going on at a time. That does not feel fun. The obstacles can also feel narrow with Stage 1 having trees that are unclear that you need to dodge because of how seamless it blends with scenery. It wasn't until I caught on to the shot collision when I realized you have to go above the tree. Stage 4 has these meteors that feel like a speed check as if you don't have enough speed icons, you will not be able to get by without foresight. Also, Stage 5 is indoors which is to say that tight corridors are plentiful.

Here's a list of even more inconveniences.
-The third boss having a very specific tiny spot that is blocked by its neck
-Losing all of your power-ups when you lose a life. Your missiles, your drones, and your weapons along with its upgrades.
-Stage 5 specifically forcing you to the very beginning of the level if you lose a life which really feels like padding to conceal just how short the game actually is.

Mechanically, it's about what you'd expect a shoot em up to play. There are weapons you can collect, power ups, speed boosts, and all that stuff. You do have a shield meter, so smaller attacks won't just OHKO you which I think is reasonable although some bigger attacks can chunk a good amount of health or even still take you down in one hit. There are also these E icons that do refill your shield meter as well.

Honestly, Curse is just really forgettable. It'll leave your mind faster than you cleared the game, and you'll wonder if you did anything interesting in the past hour after the fact.

Cleared on May 9th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 65/160)

Mechanically, this might be my favorite shoot em up out of what I've played so far, but holy shit is it hard. And not always in a good way even with the tools that this game gives me.

What Eliminate Down proposes for its gameplay style is that you already have all of your weapons by default that you can switch to at anytime instead of having to collect a power-up and then stick to it until you can find another. You have a forward shot, missiles that cover both up and down direction at the same time, and a backward shot. This is actually really cool, and I didn't need to stress over figuring out what this weapon does or picking the wrong weapon at the wrong time. The only minor problem is that they have two buttons for weapon swap and you mean to tell me I have to cycle through the missiles before I can cycle to the backshot? Well, at least you can tap the weapon swap button twice, and you can get it. Another cool thing they did is the same idea that Whip Rush brought with being able to control speed, but you do that via pause menu. This gives you more time to plan your next move. If there's a series of tight corridors coming up, just switch to slower speeds. When you got a bunch of enemies to barrage, just switch to faster speeds. The caveat is that there are no bombs or ultimate attacks, but you do acquire shields to withstand a few hits and power-ups that empower your weapons, and it doesn't take long to get to Level 3 and good news is that you only lose one level when you lose a life and it keeps all the power points you've collected, so if you collected 4 P at Level 3, then lose a life, then just collect one P and you're back at Level 3.

All that aside, this game can still seriously bullshit you in the worst ways and that gets especially apparent during the game's second half. There are points in the game where I got ambushed by traps or unexpected shots that gave me almost no time to react not to mention just straight up difficult shots to avoid in general as well as unfair enemy placement like at the start of Stage 7. The bosses are also difficult, but you can figure them out.

The presentation for the game is really good. I think the soundtrack is great, and the grotesque alien aesthetic is well done. The fourth mini-boss was fucking weird with its penis attack... so that's why it never got localized in the first place. Also, this game actually has a dedicated final boss theme, and that always excites me since there are usually no guarantees that a Sega Genesis game will even have one.

Eliminate Down in a way represents some of the best and worst of the schmup genre. It's weapon swapping and speed shifting helps to give this game some variety as well as overcome situations in front of you, but those situations in question have reached points of being really unfair. Thankfully, the fun factor kept me from being bored or driving me mad. Is it a game that I'll come back to for another round? Maybe. If nothing else, there's a fun little minigame in the options.

Cleared on May 7th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 64/160)

You know, having gone through a good chunk of the Sega Genesis library, I've reviewed shoot em ups that go horizontal, 3D, ones that have you go on foot, and even one that goes diagonal, but barring that one level in Twinkle Tale, this is the first vertical shoot em up that I've reviewed, despite the system having so many that I haven't even catalogued them all. Raiden Trad is... ok, I guess. It's nothing special and it gets really really hard.

The first two levels start out easy enough. You still die in one hit, but if you're familiar with the gameplay style, you should be able to manage and if you do well enough, you can get some really beefed up weaponry. You can equip both a missile and a gun at the same time for massive damage output, but the bad news is that there are only two of each type and one is more favorable than the other. For the missiles, you have one that fires a barrage of missiles in a straight line for massive damage which isn't too bad if you end up getting it for boss battles, but the homing missile will fire rapidly and shoot down nearby enemies and the more you collect, the more missiles you fire. As for the gun, you have either a spread shot or a laser. The laser can be good for damage, but when it comes to dealing with enemies, it requires you to move around which may put you in a bad position if you're not careful which is why spread shot is more preferably as at max rank, it can cover almost the entire area which gives you more leeway to focus more on positioning. Much like with the shoot em ups, if you lose a life, you lose all of your powers, but the game does have a bit of a mercy aspect with a fairy that will drop off a few items that you can pick up to barely get back in power. One time when I was down to one life, it just gave me a max power of both the missile and gun which I suppose is supposed to be a last ditch effort. That's a cool touch if that's the case.

Of course, the game demands great precision with your dodges which becomes especially apparent during the 2nd half of the game and even beforehand, Boss 3 and 4 are arguably harder than even the final boss (well, the one before the credits, anyway). Boss 3 in particular is batshit insane with how it just barrages you as soon as you down its weapons in addition to the enemies assisting it. At least to the game's credit, you can utilize bombs to nuke all foes on screen. Oh, and if you aren't using save states, you don't just lose a life and then pick up where you left off, you gotta start back at a checkpoint which I suspect will be a huge annoyance when you think you're so close.

But one thing that stood out to me is that this is probably the first case that I've ran into on the Sega Genesis where it has a post game level that you can go through once the credits finish rolling, and it's fucking brutal even on easy difficulty. Enemies come in fast, enemies shoot fast, high in numbers, harder to take down, and there are points where its down right impossible to get through without your bombs and if you lose a life, you're shit out of luck because weapon upgrades are more scarce then ever before. Not only did I have to save scum to stand a chance, I came up with a new strategy called pause scumming where as soon as the foe shoots, you pause, then you analyze where you can dodge and just go there. It is a useful tactic if you're playing on original hardware. In fact, you're going to need it especially even if you can get to the superboss by some miracle. It's projectiles are already one of the more difficult to avoid, but it takes so much damage and the more damage it takes, the more aggressive its attacks get shooting more space trash at you and just shooting from its mouth and whatever turrets it has left.

The game also gets negative points for having only two level tracks that rotate between 8 levels, the special level doesn't get its own track, and neither the final boss nor the superboss gets its own boss theme either. It's just the normal boss theme.

Overall, it's just a run of the mill vertical shooter. I imagine there are better ones out there in the Genesis line-up.

Cleared on May 5th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 63/160)

Streets of Rage is an arcade style beat em up that is not a port of an arcade game to the Genesis, but instead made with that system in mind. It takes liberties to capture the feeling of going to an arcade machine and just fighting bad guys except once you pay a hefty fee (apparently $49.99 + $179.99 was a lot of money back then), it is yours to try as many times as you want without paying a quarter to continue. It might have sounded dumb since nowadays you can get the game on Steam for a dollar (maybe even less on sale), but back then, the idea of having an arcade game all to yourself without paying to continue or taking up so much space in your house was awesome. That being said, you're going to need all the chances you can get because one of this game's liberties they took from arcade beat em ups is being really difficult... and not always in a good way.

The game has three buttons which are jump, attack, and special. Yeah, I hope you like pressing the same button to attack over and over, but actually, they made even that more fun as not only can you perform a good variety of moves like grapples, throws, back kicks, air kicks and suplexs, you can also pick up weapons to give you an advantage. Knives will increase the damage you deal although it will get thrown after a bit. Glass bottles also increase damage, but the range isn't as good nor is the damage, but it lasts as long as you don't get hit. The pipe and bat are really fun to use since they got not only damage, but range. The problem is that they don't have a dedicated combo as you can only swing once before given a window of vulnerability. There's also the smoke bomb which is uncommon, but when used can immobilize enemies for a brief moment.

There are few enemy variants. You have the basic enemies which might not seem special at a glance until you realize they are the only enemies in the game that hold weapons and besides the glass bottle which are found in crates, are the only way to actually get weapons. There are grapplers that will throw you if you get too close to them and sometimes will slide kick you. You have whip girls with long range, these martial art dudes with flips and kicks that can be difficult to avoid, and jugglers that throw projectiles at you. Due to this game's perception, avoiding these guys is actually a bitch. The good news is that if you can hold your ground long enough, you can acquire health pick ups to heal and if you get enough points, you can get additional lives which may actually be a boon if you can survive the bosses to use your special on and then again when you lose a life.

The bosses are... not very fun. Not only do they hit for a lot of damage, they feel very fast too. I've fiddled around the rewind feature on Sega Genesis Classics collection on Steam to verify that the simple act of making the wrong move can put you in a position where you literally cannot avoid an attack. Heck, there are times where no matter what move you make, you will get hit for a lot of damage. And god forbid if you choose Adam among the cast because his movement speed is so shit and avoiding attacks takes a fuckton of foresight. Axel and Blaze aren't actually much better, but you can at least position yourself faster with these two. Another weird quirk to these bosses is that they can easily be cheesed just by just barely surviving, then as soon as they come out, use your special attack to have the police back-up nuke them for massive damage, then once you lose a life, you can use your special attack again and really chunk their health. From there, brute force your way against the bosses and you win. Also, there are two levels in the game where you can actually have an additional special meter, so you can use it up to 3 times.

The bad news is that I think even the developers know about this, and have it so that the special is outright disabled in the final level and forces you through a boss rush where you have to fight all of them properly. The worst ones are the wolverine wanna be and those ninja twins. At least with the ninja twins, as long as you keep your back turned, you can trick them into thinking they can easily grab you and follow up with a back kick by pressing the Jump + Attack button at the same time. The final boss, though, is a testament to how this game does not want you to win. He's already fast as fuck for a fatass in a tuxedo, but he has two minions aiding him that will keep respawning throughout the fight and he has a gun which isn't as bad as it sounds. In fact, it will often hit his own men more than it will hit you, but then he dashes around and unless you can time your jump kick perfectly, you will take a massive hit from his melee attacks.

I don't know how this game compares to the later games in the series since at the time of reviewing, I don't know what they are like, but even I can tell that it has the issues that first games usually have with clunky control quirks such as how you can't jump around in any other direction besides left or right. I don't know if this is ever addressed in the sequels, maybe in Streets in Rage 4 with how modern it is, but it was something I found annoying. It's still worth a playthrough because the combat is satisfying enough and the music and atmosphere are really good. Just don't ever pick Adam like I did the first time since he has the worst movement speed in the game. Axel will give you the same power at the cost of having a weak jump which seems quite miniscule with how it works here while Blaze, despite having lower power, can still deal good damage with weapons and throws.

Cleared on May 5th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 62/160)

Vectorman is a game that I’ve always had access to through Sonic Genesis Collection, but I thought it was so hard that I could never get past the first level at the time, but now that I have had more experience with the run and gun genre, I can say that the game… is still really hard, but with enough patience, it is somewhat more manageable.

The plot is that robots are in charge of helping to clean up toxic waste that polluted earth in the year 2049 while the humans fled to space, but one of them known as Warhead went rogue and started a robot revolution. Vectorman, having come back from his routine of dumping the sludge in the sun, discovers the revolution and through his immunity to mind control, was able to challenge the revolution and set forth on a mission to take down Warhead.

The game is divided into multiple levels that you must clear within a time limit. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this style of gameplay as B.O.B. has that same structure, but Vectorman works so much better in practically every single way. The controls are fluent, there’s no fall damage or stuns from falling, you can double jump without it being tied to a gadget, you can aim diagonal upward and diagonal downward in the air, and you can aim straight down while in the air. On top of that, the ammo is unlimited, so you can freely shoot and not be as worried about enemies that you can’t see coming because the camera doesn’t cover a lot of area at a time.

The levels are appropriately designed with their length in mind and they carry a sort of labyrinth feel to it, but really, it’s not so much of an issue of getting lost. As long as you move right, you should be fine. At least until you get to Level 15, and that’s where you’re going to find yourself confused, and I think I was only able to beat it with less than 30 seconds left on the clock.

You have 3-5 health points depending on your difficulty of choice, but health point drops come fairly easily not just from the enemies in your way, but also from TVs which will net you other benefits such as score multiplier, a weapon upgrade, or some crazy power-up known as morphs. This allows you some leeway to rushdown the levels which may help you to save time, and the weapon upgrades you get are very powerful. You have spread shot, you have homing shot, you have shots that spin around you, and you have a shot that acts something like a flail. As for the morphs, they are odd power-ups that are activated as soon as you acquire them, which is admittedly one of its only real disadvantages over B.O.B. as you may not get to use it to its fullest and instead make you feel awkward for even acquiring it. You can acquire Bomb Morph when there’s no enemies nearby, Drill Morph or Buggy Morph when you are trying to go up, or Parachute Morph when you are trying to go down. The Missile Morph was practical for ascending in Absolute Zero given its level layout, and Jet Morph let you fly in Superstructure. Those two were the best power-ups, but they only appeared for those respective levels since morphs are tied to specific stages or we’d be acting like fish in the air.

The game is, as I’ve said, really hard. As I’ve said, enemies can come from you out of the screen to ambush you if you keep moving, but even from a positioning standpoint, there are enemies that can hit you from above diagonally, notably the turrets that show up in just about every level. Also, you cannot hit foes off-screen, so don’t think you can pull some sniper shenanigans which makes dealing with the enemies much harder. Oh and because your default shot is in a straight line, there may come points where hitting the enemy is actually difficult and this especially becomes apparent with the bosses, and they are the hardest parts of the game. The first boss has you avoid the boulders hanging on the wings and avoiding any bomb barrages while hitting the jet. The second boss is actually one of the worst bosses in the game because the perspective is trippy, you can only shoot in 3 directions, you have those flying robots shooting you from the side, and you gotta jump over them all while shooting the boss in front of you. The third boss is easily cheesed. The fourth boss is really frustrating with how difficult it is to avoid their shots just by trying to jump over them, but if you manage to keep shooting downward diagonally from above, you should get it down. The three phase penultimate boss does take up a bit of your time and the Piranha is the worst of the three since if you shoot it at the wrong time, it will move fast and trying to jump over it will be impossible without taking a hit. The final boss is a DPS race where you need to down it in 1 minute and 30 seconds as soon as you get up the tornado, but trying to aim for him is difficult due to its hitbox being conveniently below your highest jump point and above ground level. This makes it really frustrating to hit, and you need to worry about dodging him if he gets too close and if you damage him enough, he’ll just unleash shots that you also need to avoid. You can go under him through a moving platform, but only if you’re on the left as you will need to jump over him if you are right.

But if you can get past its difficulty, it’s a good game with some genuinely impressive 3D style visuals and a boppin soundtrack that fits the futuristic atmosphere the game has. It’s also quite flashy with so many enemies to shoot and in turn, so many explosions on screen.

Cleared on May 3rd, 2024

I’m not going to pretend to be a film critic with high standards and say that Barnyard is a terrible film because I really love the movie. It does heavily play off tropes seen in other animated films like Lion King and Toy Story, the tone shift can feel jarring at points such as the emotional apex of the film being followed up a few minutes later with a dance number and boy tipping, and don’t even get me started on the male cow udders. But I just love how chaotic and surreal it is just from cows doing stupid shit alone, but it also has some surprising emotional weight to it and there’s a sincere effort in its storytelling and characters. Plus, it’s one of the few movies to use its pop culture songs exceptionally well and even helps to capture the American culture with farmlands, the personalities, and wild parties.

I’ve been aware of the game based on the movie for a long time, but I didn’t think much of it besides the fact that you can squirt milk. I would’ve thought of it as just a run of the mill licensed game, but as I learned more about it through gameplay and archives of a streamer I watch regularly, I realized there might actually be more to it, and it was… high quality? And it’s not even me being nostalgically attached to the characters or the movie because it turns out I’m not alone on it. How is that even possible?

A key aspect of Barnyard and its TV series is goofing around and having wild parties, and since there’s so much going on in the movie, making it into a collection of minigames on top of the core gameplay would make the most sense. But I think what makes Barnyard more interesting is that they didn’t just make it where you go from one level to the next, but made the game an open world where you have to manually move your character from one point to the next in order to do the next mission. The world itself doesn’t feel too small that it's confined, but it’s not even that large where it feels more like a glorified loading screen than it does actually playing the game, and there’s a lot to do in the world. You can explore for recipe rocks across the world, and find notes on trees and fences for game tips with the earlier ones seeming blatantly obvious, but later ones may even prove useful and give you some lore tidbits that the movie or even the TV series never really touch on. You can go to the vegetable farm to collect crops which are all used for recipes except for cabbage because it’s nasty, you can collect an egg a day from the chickens, and you can go honey collecting in a stealth minigame to hide from the bees and steal honey from the bees which could then be used for recipes. And there are a few secrets across the world that even I haven’t found all of, yet, so if exploration is your thing, it’s bound to keep you interested.

The game follows a mission based structure and all of them are mandatory, even ones that have you playing minigames. The game has a day and night cycle which lasts in real time around 15 minutes. You’re not actually playing as Otis or any of his friends this time around, but instead you’re playing as an OC (Original Cow) named, gendered, and customized to your choice. My character is a female angus named Milla because if I’m going to be staring at cow ass throughout the game and squirting milk, then it might as well be a girl. Also, I don’t even think the milk that comes out of the guys is actually… anyway, you do missions for the characters. Some can be as simple as fetch quests, others may have you putting your squirting skills to use, and others will have you play minigames. The core gameplay is, of course, the one where you control the cow on two legs. It does feel heavy at first to the point where I thought my emulator was running the game slowly, but you get used to it after a while. Once you get sunglasses, you can proceed to squirt milk which is only really applicable for a few minigames. You can also fuck with the characters and squirt on them. It should be noted that it has only five ammo until you are able to acquire a milk container on the ground which can be quite inconvenient if you find yourself far away from a container when you need it most. You can also lock on your enemies, so it ends up feeling like a third person shooter in a sense.

The minigames themselves are quite a lot, and if I go over all of them in detail, we’d be here all day. But to give you a brief rundown.
Mud Jumpers has you on a platform spinning pipes and timing your jumps and kicks to avoid getting knocked off. It’s a game about choosing your reaction and preparing for whatever move your foe makes. It’s an easy game to understand.
Sharp Squirters has you shoot at cans laid out across the area. The more cans you shoot within a short time frame, the better your score will be.
Barnyard Pool is a simple game of pool, but the catch is that you have two different color of balls assigned to both you and Duke (your opponent). If you shoot Duke’s color into the hole, it is considered a foul and he gets two free turns. However, it is possible for him to do the same by accident and you get two free turns. If either of you shoot the white ball into the hole, it’s also a foul, and if you directly touch the black ball before clearing all out all of your colors, it’s a foul. It’s not that hard, but you will need good accuracy for a high score.
Tease the Mailman and its variant Tease Ms. Beady has you performing poses through a series of button presses and then dropping down when the Mailman or Mr. Lump turns around. Doing 5 button prompts is ideal although if you think the mailman will turn around before you can complete the pose, you can opt to squeeze in a 3 or 4 button prompt pose.
Bike Racers has you race the Jersey Cows. You’ll be doing it quite a few times with different courses across the area, and you’ll luckily be accustomed to the controls since biking is how you’ll travel across the Barnyard, anyway.
Chasing Chicks has you picking up chicks and going to a designated target to throw them towards their coop. But it won’t be simple since you’ll be competing with Otis and later on the Jersey Cows for the most points. The latter won’t be as big of an issue as they may end up being busy squirting each other.
Vegetable Patch Defenders has you squirting at raccoons to stun them to allow you to throw them out and ensuring that at least 10 vegetables are not stolen. You also need to close the fences and prepare for raccoons that will attack you directly.
Honey Hunt has you going through a stealth mission to collect Honey. Unlike other minigames where you are competing for the high score, it will actually net you Honey which you can net up to 3 a day (in-game time, of course)
Chicken Coop Defenders has you protecting eggs against raccoons. You squirt them and throw them, but to get the high score, you need to let them steal eggs, intercept them, and go to a designated spot to throw the eggs. That is easier said than done, especially once the enemies start to outnumber you. Another variant involves the coyotes trying to steal the chicks, but you cannot throw the coyotes.
Chicken Launcher is where you launch Peck and have him fly through rings and at the end fly through windows. It’s one of the cooler minigames on paper, but in execution, it might just be one of the worst because of how sensitive Peck’s aerial controls are. It becomes difficult for precise movement and trying to get the best window for the high score takes a lot of trial and error.
Gopher Golf is a recurring one that they will have you play six times… yeah, the game sure loves its golf. It’s not your traditional golf or even mini-golf for that matter. What you have to do is tee-off and then let the gophers steer the ball to the goal. For the first four missions, it’s about how fast you can get the ball there although getting a hole-in-one by some chance will allow you to gain an extra life which will net you extra points. However, the last two golf missions are about making the shot in as few shots as possible. The final golf mission is such bullshit, and I didn’t even get a star because of how difficult the layouts are. Also, Hole 14 in general is ass. It has a guide hole that you need to aim at up on a slope, I got it into the guide hole and it can still bounce off of it.
Whack-A-Rac is one of the few actually optional mini-games that has you whack raccoons, but because Freddy is looking for Peck in the machine, he will pop up every now and then and should be avoided. Also eggs and chicken will also pop up and those need to be avoided too, but coyotes will pop up and those definitely need to be hit for the high score.
Joy Ride has you going on a ride in the farmer’s truck to race against the Jersey Cows on Ms. Beady’s car. It’s not that difficult, but it’s another one of those games that they have you do very often.
Milk Bar has you sliding milkshakes onto the customers to knock them back into the curtains. If they aren’t far away enough, they’ll throw a glass at you that you need to pick up or else you lose points. If you’ve ever played the retro game known as Tapper, that’s basically the same idea.
Barnyard Darts is another optional minigame where you can challenge Root to a game of darts. You have your own color to shoot and so does he. If you hit the enemy color, Root gets points. Now since his AI is so good, he will never hit your target and always hit his, but even if you hit one or two of his targets, you can actually gang up on him in points if you shoot early since it will give you an additional 10 points. Meanwhile, Root will only net around 2 points from the time bonus at most
Cow Tipping has you launch tomatoes at kids trying to tip cows like in the movie in order to scare them off, but another variant has you stopping raccoons and unlike the kids, they will actually try to put up a fight. There is one more variant of the minigame, but it is actually the game’s final boss against Dag, and it’s… well, not very good, but most of my problem stems from the annoying music although once you figure out you can lower the music volume by 1 star, crank up the speech volume by 5 stars, and turn on You Gotta Move by Aerosmith (the song that played during the final battle of the movie), it’s not so much of an issue. But the fact I had to rely on outside music to enhance the experience does not add any points.

There’s some good songs in the soundtrack although it seems like many of them are ripped from outside sources such as instrumentals from other songs, and I don't know how many of them are even original. There are some day time songs that show up, but the problem is that I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of them because the bike music during the daytime will override any song playing and either pause or reset the current song (I don’t remember which) and you’ll be spending a lot of your time in-game on the bike. For some reason, that rule does not apply when riding a bike at night and the overworld song plays as normal. Apparently there’s a good amount of unused songs in the game, and supposedly more songs exclusive to the Wii version of the game.

There is an incentive to try to explore the area and get the highest score in minigames. If you manage to get a star rank on at least 20 minigames, you can be crowned the Barnyard Champion surpassing even Otis. There are Gopher Coins you can acquire through missions and breaking crates which allow you to buy equipment to enhance the barnyard during the night. Other than two minigames, they are merely cosmetic, and you can’t even play pinball since the partygoers are always hogging the game. I don’t even think you can even ride the mechanical human for that same reason, but I never bothered to check if you can. You could bust a move on the dance floor, though. The purpose of it, though, is to get you additional awards including milkweeds which will take you to secret areas for more coins and other secrets and bonus content as well as Gold Rush tokens which you can head for a stump around the map to start a coin trail that you will need to follow under a time limit. Some stumps net more than others and the best one is near the junkyard which will net 200 gopher coins. When you get to 100% barn completion, you get to be the Number One Party Animal once again surpassing even Otis.

If that sounds like some mary sue plot where you just inserted yourself into the plot of Barnyard… well, at least it takes place in its own canon and being a video game, it does get away with it. It follows the plot of the movie, and I wouldn’t say it's “abridged”. It even adds in a few things not in the movie like the raccoon problem, but some of the cooler moments of the movie happened off-screen and seemingly in an instant. The characters are there and they are in character for the most part, but they don’t really feel at their best. Doesn’t exactly help that their character models are uhh… let’s just say reeks of PS2 that much I can say. Of course it is a 6th generation game, so it’s not to say it’s a bad thing, but at the same time, you do need to come to terms that this is a PS2 game from 2006. Also, there is limited voice acting in this one. I understand there’s a lot of dialogue, but it feels weird that they have audio at the beginning of each conversation and then again at the end. I feel like it would’ve been better if they had full audio for the actual important scenes. In case you’re wondering, all of the voice actors from the movie are all intact, even Kevin James as Otis when he would later be voiced by Chris Hardwick in the TV series, although I don’t think that was a tall order in this case since they didn’t have many lines they need to say.

What I love about this game is that it manages to capture what I love about the movie in the first place. At one point it’s a chaotic madhouse of partying and games, but another, it can feel calm and atmospheric like staring off into the moon on top of Ben’s Hill at night while listening to beautiful acoustic music. Fun fact, staring off into the moon was how I accidentally found two notes and a recipe rock that I likely would not have found on my own otherwise. I never found myself bored even when playing it for 8 hours straight at one point because there is just so much to do. Different ways to optimize your gold gain, the new areas to explore, and all of the minigames. There is unfortunately nothing left for the game once you become Barnyard Champion and Number One Party Animal. You could play minigames for the fun of it, try to scour for bonuses you haven't got yet, or maybe just replay the game 5 years from now and experience it all over again. But the journey was a lot of fun, and it’s already become one of my favorite licensed games of all time.

Cleared on May 2nd, 2024

First of all, this review or even my knowledge of the game would not have been possible without @duhnuhnuh. You’re really generous for gifting the steam key gift.

Strikey Sisters is a fantastical and energetic take on a genre of block breakers that is so simple that even a middle schooler with Scratch could develop. Instead of a paddle, you have magicians swinging magic balls, clearing blocks and taking on enemies and bosses on a quest to get their pet bat back.

Surprisingly, the game not only has a premise, but also cutscenes and even voice acting. The bad news is that my feelings are very mixed. It’s not that I have a problem with an Arkanoid/Breakout style game having a story or anything, it’s designed to be a comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously which makes it good for chuckles in-between stages or more specifically before a boss fight begins, and I did get some amusement here and there. The problem is that the main leads can feel very predictable and repetitive after a while. Marie is a diet Lina Inverse where she’s brash and rude with a pursuit of luxury and a confident magician attitude. The problem is that some of her jokes feel kinda mean and she’s just picking fights for no reason other than just because. Though to be fair, Elene tries to be polite to the bosses, and still ends up rubbing some of them the wrong way. As for Elene, she whines a lot. I know she’s concerned about her pet, but they could have cut it down by half, and we’d have still got the point of how over-sensitive she is. The rest of the characters consist of the bosses which have one scene and a few lines of dialogue during boss fights. This makes them fairly one note although you may remember a few for very bizarre reasons such as that one monster that name dropped Monsters Inc. No, not some parody of the movie, but Monsters Inc. straight up. To further drive home that point, in the credits, we have Mike and Sully watching the movie with the monster in question. And moments later, on an unrelated note, we could see another boss with… Wile.E Coyote… huh? Monsters Inc I guess I get since they are monsters, but the hell does Wile.E have to do with Strikey Sisters? I hope the royalties they have to pay are worth the joke. The biggest problem I have with the story is that some of the cutscenes take a bit too long, and it wouldn’t be such a problem if some of the dialogue didn’t feel deliberately padding.

The voice acting is something else I should bring attention to, and depending on your standards for voice acting, you might either think it's fine or really grating. As someone who watches anime exclusively with English audio, I’m definitely on the side that thinks it's fine. It’s very amateur, but it does have charm to it. Even though I kinda ragged on Marie, her voice actress wasn’t too bad, and I even thought she was voiced by Sarah Wiedenheft at first because of how similar they sounded. Omri Rose voiced all of the male characters, and he did a good job making me convinced there was at least one or two other male actors involved.

As for the game itself, it takes the usual block breaker genre routine and puts a lot more action into it. Each level has enemies that will stand in your way of clearing all the blocks with means of trying to mess with you. You have enemies that will try to waste your time with defensive tactics while others will try to attack your character directly either through melee approach or through projectiles. They are well varied which means you’ll need to take note of what they do and strategize accordingly, and luckily you have your own arsenal of skills to help you. You can not only bump the ball with your body, but you can swing your sword at the ball to increase its speed and width in which you are able to hit the ball, and it's also useful for enemies that get too close or to just block projectiles. You can even charge the attack to launch the ball faster and give it enough force to take down a block in one hit when it would take two, and it does more damage to enemies and deflects projectiles. In addition, you have spells and buffs which drop off of enemies and you’ll need to pick up as it heads toward you. Here’s my ranking from least useful to most useful.

Slow Ball can be usable in more frantic scenarios where you need better reaction time, and allow you to better aim your swing at the ball. The thing is, it doesn’t always come at the best time which slows the pacing of the game, and even contributes to an issue that I have with all block breaker games. That one moment where the ball is just bouncing around the field making no progress while you slowly wait it out like the DvD logo bouncing around the screen. If you could actually control when you activate it, it would be so much better.
Fireball is one of those “better that you have than you don’t” power ups where it's nice to have, but it isn’t always practical. When it bounces around, it leaves trails of fire that when touched, will damage the enemies. The issue is that it only works on grounded enemies, and if you accidentally get it while Iron Ball is active, it overrides the buff.
Monster Trap is another “better than you have than you don’t” spells except it's more useful in that it lasts indefinitely which means that the chances of them landing on it are better than Fireball flames, but the positioning of the traps are randomized and monsters move so slow that you might end up taking them down already before they can get close to the traps.
Lightning is a nice spell to have for randomized damage across the board, but the downside besides its randomness is that it can make 100% runs more difficult if you aren’t careful. You don’t have to collect all of the coins that come out of the blocks, but you do need to collect at least 60% of the coins for the green gems, and sometimes 70% for hidden levels.
Speed is a good power up for covering more ground, especially in single player mode where the board distance feels much wider, but very few times has it ever come in clutch for me.
Spread Shot gives you more controlled damage compared to Lightning, but it only hits four targets and sometimes may not land where you intend to, at least concerning narrow spaces.
Double Ball is a great power up to have, and it's easier to maintain in this game compared to others in the genre. It still takes a bit of skill, but it does synergize really well with the other ball power ups. Even Slow Ball since it gives you more time to react.
Bombs are launched towards all enemies on the field, and after a few seconds detonates and blow them up. Generally, they can avoid it just by getting out of the way, but most of the time, they would be too slow and get hit.
Dark flame gives you more controlled damage in a straight line and pierces through all blocks and enemies. It is very useful for harder to reach blocks and if positioned well can take down up to two columns of blocks.
Both Shield and Chicken give you extra protection and healing which is insanely invaluable as you only have three lives before you have to start the level from the beginning. Not much to say there.
Iron Ball is the ultimate power up and should be acquired with every chance possible. It will go right through blocks, allowing you to speedrun levels. It doesn't always swing in your favor, but at least early on in each level, you are bound to gain some value out of it.

And you’re really going to need these powers because the game is hard. It does translate the level progression format better than pinball games when they try to adopt the idea, but this is a game where you bounce balls on bricks, so precision, foresight, and even luck play a hand in the game. Not only can certain layouts be a real pain, such as when blocks are behind multiple pillars, but some enemies can be difficult in their own right. The hardest ones are the set of enemies during the final area and the mechanical area. There are units that take a lot more damage than normal and explode if they get close enough, there are units that burrow underground and strike with little warning unless you keep moving to avoid the attack in advance, and there are units that will shoot faster than you can block with your swings. The worst part is that oftentimes these harder enemies will force you at a major positional disadvantage. If they attack while the ball is heading in your direction, you may not be able to deflect the ball at the risk of taking damage, and of course, let’s not forget the accuracy of your shots when dealing with enemies will not go in your favor, and they may be positioned to where it’s even harder to hit them and they will infinitely spawn until you clear the blocks or in the case of the boss, until you defeat them.

The bosses are really difficult. Well, a good majority of them, anyway. What many of them have in common is that you cannot hit them up front as they will deflect your shots and need to hit them from the side or back, or with a spell which is a tall order as is, but combine that with all the blocks and enemies in your way, not to mention a barrage of attacks you need to worry about. Get comfortable because it’s gonna take awhile. That said, most of the bosses have only two attacks and one enemy type to worry about, but those attacks may be enough to give you serious trouble such as the succubus that can teleport to you and strike which will force you in a very bad position. My favorite fight in the game is Erin, the policewoman as she is the only boss fight (maybe aside from both phases of the final boss combined) with four attacks and for some reason uses one of the final boss themes as if she was meant to be a superboss (when in reality she’s one of the easier fights from what I remember)

The soundtrack adds to the game’s enjoyment with each zone having its own theme, and the upbeat tune really blends well with the world and its cute artstyle and colorful pixelated graphics. Some highlights include Valdia’s Theme, Elysaid’s Theme, Odavius’ Theme, Lord Vanik’s Hideout, and all of the boss themes.

And when you’re done with the game, there are a bunch of extra levels that you can do, and while I’ve yet to do all of them, I think I’ve played enough of the game to give my assessment.

TL;DR: Strikey Sisters is a great way to experience block breaking to make it more dynamic while minimizing the inherent repetitiveness. Instead of keeping you engaged for maybe 3 rounds at most, it can keep you engaged for over 60 levels with its enemy variety, powerful spells in your arsenal, and the pursuit of mastery through collection of green gems and filling in the bestiary. It took me 7 hours to clear the main game, but I imagine that it’ll take me more time just to clear the extra levels with all 3 stars each. If you see this game on sale, it might be worth looking into, and there’s no harm in keeping it in your storage since it only has 60 megabytes.

Cleared on April 25th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 61/160)

The first of the "Strike" trilogy, Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf is a top down helicopter shooter where you complete a series of missions given to you in a large desert map whether it'd be shooting down targets, rescuing allies and civilians, or just deploying your co-pilot to carry out ground missions.

Desert Strike isn't typical from your usual shoot em ups for the 4th console generation as you have an open world to roam rather than scrolling through an area and shooting anything in your way. The controls are much more clunky which is a deliberate choice although there is a setting that allows you to control "From Above" which is considered the "easy" mode as you are able to strafe while you shoot. For some reason, even though it would've made the game easier, I really did not like the feel of the setting as you can't go backwards, making picking up objects and people difficult. You feel slower, and I don't know if I'm crazy, but it feels like you're consuming more fuel. For this reason, I just ended up playing the whole game with momentum active and while dodging attacks are more difficult, sometimes requiring trial and error even, it does encourage a more strategic approach overall.

Even though the game is hard, there is a mercy aspect of being able to acquire resources that can replenish your armor and fuel which are both crucial for survival as well as ammo which is crucial for offensive missions. You have fuel cans, armor boxes with the option of unloading people at landing sites to regenerate armor, and ammo crates which refuel your ammo.

The weapons in your arsenal consists of Machine Gun, Hydra which are small missiles, and Hellseekers which are big missiles. The Machine Gun you will never run out of, but the damage it deals is very minimal and is more useful for damaging buildings and on-foot soldiers. Hydra and Hellseekers both serve the purpose of being able to take on vehicle units as well as destroying tougher buildings if time isn't on your side, and that's going to happen often as even if you are able to avoid attacks with ease, your fuel will deplete overtime and you need to decide whether you should take your time and conserve your ammo, or blow it away immediately and rush to the nearest can. Also, both fuel cans and ammo are limited and while you can find more in buildings, they are hidden from the map.

On that note, the map offers you insight on where you need to go which makes it much more useful for navigation as to what you need to do, so you don't get lost. Well, that is until at one point in the 3rd level where it doesn't tell you where you need to go for the final mission which is the one where you escort the buses.
Side note: I've had the game actually crash on me when I landed near the area. I don't know what happened, but then I tried clearing out nearby units and it bypassed the crash issue.
There was also another vague mission inquiry in the final level where it doesn't tell you where you need to go to deal with the garbage trucks holding the nuclear weapons. The game does at least give you a visual detail of the trucks, and there's a chance you might know if you somehow passed by the area while doing the 3rd mission, but I still thought it was strange.

Another one of my problems is just the lack of music. It does have an awesome opening theme and the mission briefing music is also good, but as you play the game itself, I was left with no choice but to use my own music. To be fair, each campaign is long, and it may be annoying to listen the same song for that period of time, but that didn't stop Outlanders from trying to make you listen to the same song for 3 hours on end.

But I like the more strategic approach of the game as you need to make out your surroundings, do some exploring for extra resources, and plan your every move in order to overcome your foes. Worst case scenario, the game does have a password system, so you can pick up where you left off or just keep trying until you nailed down the perfect strategy.

Cleared on March 18th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 60/160)

I can't with this game. I just fucking can't. It is so awful, and no, I'm not just going to leave it at that. I'm going all the way with this review, hopefully to the point where I reach the character limit because if I'm going to be rating a game 1 or 0.5 stars, it needs to be said with confidence and clarity as to why the game is so bad.

At a glance, when you look at snippets of the gameplay, you see a first person shooter where you face off a gauntlet bosses. You think that the game doesn't seem all that bad although you may sometimes hear the opinion that the game is not very good although not bad enough to make the Top 10 or even Top 30. Maybe Top 50, so you'd assume that maybe it's just mediocre. Nothing special. So you pick up the game, start it up and prepare to shoot down the dragon.

The first thing you are greeted with is a large wall of text that gives you a rundown of the premise which I guess doesn't seem too bad. The premise is that disputes across the galaxy are settled with a duel to the death. Your interest in these death duels is that you're part of a federation seeking to regain control of the traffic lanes that ensure trade and food supply in an ongoing effort to win the war against the pirates ruled over by the "super 9", and you must take down all of them in the duel.

The game also tells you, in it's own words "Do not simply hold down the fire button and blast away! If you do, you will not be successful! Death Duel is not a "shooter"! Get to know how your targeting system works and learn to select the proper weapons from the weapons shop! No two weapons or opponents are the same. A good warrior studies the weaknesses of his opponent and plans the proper strategy to take advantage of them." This gives you an indicator of the mechanics that you are to expect.

With the exception of the first boss which comes from a preset of weapons, you are able to buy weapons per round. However, you can only have three weapons at a time, and all of the ammo you didn't use is lost, so you'll need to buy them again or buy a new set of weapons. Each boss has it's own set of weak points which make timing and aiming your attacks mean a lot in a game like this. But what are your weapons?

Machine Gun is the simple projectile weapon which is very cheap although very underpowered. For earlier battles, this can be a good weapon to have on hand and even for a few later battles it could be useful to pick off certain weak spots.

Missiles are a powerful weapon with scarce ammo that aims in an upward arc. If it lands, it can be very potent for taking out weaponry on the foe.

Laser Gun is supposed to be a stronger Machine Gun, but due to some enemies having an immunity, it's only really practical when it is on sale early game.

Skimmer is a strong weapon that is strong all throughout the game and accomplishes what the Machine Gun does being a bullet weapon.

Lob Grenade causes the foe to stop attacking for a couple of seconds which is good against foes that repeatedly attack you nonstop.

Grenade is a downward arc explosive that can pack a lot of heat when it connects, but is very hard to aim.

Energy Ring locks the foe in place to stop them from moving, making your aiming easier.

SloMo Cloud slows the enemy down which sounds inferior to the Energy Ring, but some foes have an immunity to that and not the cloud.

Lob Mine is a powerful weapon that acts as a trap that if the foe steps on, they will feel a lot of pain although this is only if they are grounded and their weak points are already dealt with.

Homing Missile is the ultimate weapon. It deals a lot of damage, it is sure to hit weak points, and if it doesn't finish it off, then it will pave way for your other weapons to finish it. The problem is that it is super expensive as all hell.

For now, though, you have a preset of weapons for your first boss, and right off, you are greeted with this ugly ass entity they call a human girl with a face that's reminiscent of the wojak npc meme. She just straight up looks like a mannequin with a face, a robot. I know this is the Sega Genesis, and sprites that try to look sexy aren't going to be worth a nut in this day and age, but having played Outrun recently, I thought they looked passable there, and the Genesis port was 1 year ago. The game in general is just unpleasant with its graphics. Some of the boss designs might look alright, but Krax Xarkton, Kuros Tizrak when his mask comes off, and especially Yorgik Somtix were so gross to look at, and I mean in a bad way. And you might not pay much attention in motion, but when you look at it the sprites for the dragons, you realize their heads look really stupid too. They're so ugly they had to hide them both behind a wall at the start of a match. But then there's the shopkeeper who looks like a fucked up fusion of Cyborg from Teen Titans and Long John Silver from Treasure Planet, and you have to see his face and exposed belly every round. Also his monkey has a wojak npc face too. Of course, let's not forget the ending screen if by some chance you actually get to the end where this "sexy lady" congratulates you for winning the game. They try to make it detailed, but the textures and colors are really off. You can also point towards the thick eyebrows, but I like girls with thick eyebrows. It's the dark shade of blonde in contrast with the golden shade of blonde hair that makes it unattractive. Also, if you pause at a certain frame while she talks, it looks like she is pogging.

Another issue with the presentation is the soundtrack which is just... not good. It's not the worst Sega Genesis soundtrack or even the worst that I played through, but it is so forgettable. To be fair, I end up forgetting about soundtracks from the Sega Genesis games even the good ones, but at the very least I want it to make me feel something in the moment, and the game's soundtrack never does that for me. It's just really mediocre.

But what about the gameplay? Well, as a first person shooter duel, your objective is to aim at the enemy boss, take down their weak points, and you win. But each foe has their own complications.

Shanox Moisail is the first boss of the game and despite what the game tells you, you can in fact just senselessly shoot him and very likely win. The thing is, though, he is so agile that trying to shoot him down is really frustrating and this goes for almost all bosses in the game. Combine that with the scuffed aiming and sometimes even hitboxes, and it's just a recipe for disaster. And keep in mind, your ammo is limited and if you run out, you have to try again or until you get a game over. Now you can remedy this by pressing the start button which will allow you to move your cursor to better aim, but you are going to have to stand still and your foes will attack you, and if you lose all your health, you have to try again.

So you're thinking, ok. I'll just simply take my time... except time isn't what you got because you have a set time limit to take your foes down. And when you combine that with the cover they can take, it can drag fights on for longer than needed.

So once you manage to get the boss down, you can enter a qualifier round to gain some points which are converted into currency, or the Pheelae as the game calls it, and the aiming is so scuffed. You have 3 buttons for aiming. One that fires left, one that fires center, and one that fires right. This also applies to the duels themselves, but because of how small the targets are, aiming for them is actually really difficult. And you will notice that the cursor will initially be slow when you move it and then suddenly jank itself forward which makes it that much harder to aim. And these aren't just mere bonuses to rack up Pheelae, they are required in order to progress and if you don't meet the quota, you lose a life and have to try again.

And don't think the bare minimum is going to cut it because you need to perform well, take the enemies down fast, meet the qualifier quota fast, and hit enemies in as many of their weak points as possible in order to rack up more Pheelae and if you don't have enough Pheelae, you don't have enough ammunition to take down the bosses, and if you don't have enough ammunition, you can't defeat the boss, and it's practically a game over. But perhaps the most fucked up thing is that just the simple act of choosing the wrong layout is enough to ensure an automatic defeat and the worst part? You can't go back to the store, you are forced to commit to the battle until you lose all of your lives and you have to start the game from the very beginning. This isn't as much of an issue when you are playing with save states, but keep in mind that you can't conserve ammo in between rounds as you lose them all, so you have to rebuy the weapons. So even when using save states, I still ended up in a position where I didn't have enough ammo which meant I was forced in an unwinnable situation and had to start all the way from the beginning. To top it off, it's not just the ammo you are paying for, but also the repairs on your robot as failure to do so will mean taking more damage from the foe.

So what about the rest of the bosses? Forsal Jeraba is actually easy enough if you are able to bait him to the right. He will never move and you can just shoot off his limbs and his tail, then his face and you win. If you time your shots well, you can do it with only 80 machine gun ammo.
Krax Xarkton is aggravating as he can curl into a ball which will make him invincible and he'll just spam it, making it harder for you to actually get him down.
Darrius Morb's legs are so scuffed to aim at which makes this seemingly slow robot harder to aim. When you get his legs down, however, he will convert into a spring although by that point, as long as his weapons are down, you can just shoot his head to win.
Borb Eubistapcia is a dragon that regenerates his health, he flies around, and there is so much cover on the field that it makes it really hard to even hit him in the first place. Easily one of the worst bosses in the game.
Karl Borgas is one of the easier fights as long as you shoot his right arm (his right), so he doesn't regain his left arm. He's also one of the slower enemies if I recall correctly, but still not that easy to aim.
Kuros Tizrak, despite being a slug, is remarkably agile and hits hard too. Dispatching his weapons means he won't be an issue in that regard, but defensively, he will juke your weapons and take a bit of damage himself.
Yorgik Somtix requires you to take down his arms and then his legs in that order. Once you figure out what you need to do, he is really easy... and that's another problem. Once you figure out the best loadout, the fights go from frustrating to just being boring. You don't feel this great sense of accomplishment, you just feel nothing. If that sounds like the effect of looking up a walkthrough, maybe it is, but I was already losing my patience with this game to begin with, so it's not like I'm missing out on anything impactful. If anything, I may have saved myself from having to fight the final boss a second time after the bullshit he would've pulled on me.

The final boss, Simas Julius is a robot much like you, and you need to down his arms, his legs, his cannons, and his head in that order. He is competing with Borb as the worst boss in the game. He attacks way too fast, he can phase out and still attack you while you yourself can't hit him, and you have to be specific as to where to aim. He doesn't take a lot of damage otherwise, and hopefully by this point you'll have enough Pheelae on hand for some Homing Missile shenanigans, but once you defeat him, the game will proceed to trick you into thinking that you have defeated him. He will then pull out a white flag which might make you think he surrendered, but no, he's about to blow up in your face which will spell an instant game over for you. So you need to shoot him down before he blows up and that's it. The game is cleared.

You are then greeted with dialogue from the girl at the ending, and it's well... let me show you.

"The Council has promised me to the champion
The Duels have ended
There will be no more pain for you, today
The road was not easy, but you have shown yourself to be a worthy hero
Take some time off now, Barret Jade and prepare for the terror that awaits you in Death Duel II
I always leave with the champion!!"

Yes, this is real dialogue from the game, and it's so half-assed even for Sega Genesis standards. Oh yeah, and the credits are in her dialogue box as if she is talking about the people that made this game. Also, "prepare for the terror that awaits you in Death Duel II" lol. The dialogue in general is just really crass especially with that earlier mentioned wojak girl as though she's trying to be quirky with "hardcore" dialogue, but all I can think is a robot saying that to me. The good news is that you can press start before she shows her face and says anything, so you can get straight to the fight.

This is a game that might've been too ambitious for its own good. It has the idea of delivering a first person arcade style shooter battling against bosses on the Sega Genesis complete with a variety of weapons and budget management, but they really did not think these ideas through. Could it have been a lot better with extra time in development? Would Death Duel II even improve on the original? I'm not sure.

Cleared on March 18th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 59/160)

Here's an interesting tidbit about this game. The "get ready" sound effect that is used when you start a race is also used by Space Harrier every time you respawn after you lose a life. Never would've imagined running into that sound effect just after I played that game.

Anyway, Outrun is a game where you drive one large course with multiple different paths leading you to 5 different outcomes. Each route has it's own layout and scenery, and it is well versed in its locations. You drive a car at a high speed, totally not putting the girl next to you in danger. There's 2 different speeds that you can set it to which include L which is meant to be slow and steady while H allows you to move at incredible speed. L is initially useful for starting the race as it has better acceleration, but once you get to 110 miles, switching to and staying in H is optimal as you can just tap the drive button to slow down to improve your steering while maintaining good speed.

There are four different songs that you can choose which include Magical Sound Shower, Passing Breeze, Splash Wave, and Step on Beat. Each of which try to emit a more tropical sound, and Splash Wave in particular reminds me of something I would hear in Sonic Adventure if it was demade on Sega Genesis. I will say that the soundtrack from the arcade does translate really well onto the Sega Genesis. It isn't going to outdo it, but the arcade version already sounded like the Sega Genesis with some extra depth to it.

It's really just a simple race to the finish game. It doesn't give me the excitement that Outrun 2019 did, but for a game made in 1986 and ported to the Genesis in 1991, it did what it sought out to do and make a game where you can go driving.

Cleared on March 17th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 58/160)

For a game that tries to match the gameplay of its predecessor on the Arcade in 1988 on the Sega Genesis, it has aged better than it's partner in crime Super Thunder Blade as the openness of the game makes it feel more suited to an arcade port as you don't find yourself being distorted with incoming obstacles nowhere near as much. The game can seem pretty choppy with its frame rate, but after playing it enough, I learn to get used to it. At least it actually stays consistent throughout the game.

The game is a 3D perspective shooter where you can collide with the ground to run across the battlefield at high speed, or fly in the air to hit enemies in the sky and avoid ground attacks. There's nothing much else to it. Just shoot and dodge. The controls do handle itself well as I never really felt like it was working against me, and the speed isn't too slow that it makes the attacks unavoidable, but not too fast that you just accidentally crash into something.

One thing I find odd about the game is that it doesn't follow the usual conventions of distributing music. Most games will have it so that every stage has its own level, but the boss themes are shared across most bosses in the game (usually aside from the final boss theme getting its own theme). However, this is a case of the same song playing across the levels, a really long song, but every boss in the game has its own theme. It's odd, but in retrospective, it made the boss rush towards the end a little more bearable.

The bosses are relatively simple once you get them down. Really most of them amount up to keep moving so you don't get shot although some of them such as the cat do try to make things more interesting. There's 12 before you get to the final boss, and you will have to fight them all once you clear all 12 levels with significantly less health before you can take on the final boss. I know people really hate boss rushes because they are always there to pad out gameplay although personally I've never really minded all that much. As for the final boss, he is really hard, especially when he transforms into a spiraling fireball and charges at you, and he just attacks really fast in general. And everytime you hit him, he will teleport.

For what it is, I thought the game was fine. Dare I say, with enough practice, I think it could actually be one of the easier games in the Genesis lineup.

Note: Even though Hellfire Saga is a Sega Genesis game, it is not listed as part of my ongoing 160 Sega Genesis Games challenge.

I was wanting to wait until I was finished with my challenge before delving into more modern Sega Genesis games, but damnit, I couldn't help myself even if I tried. So I decided to give it a playthrough, and it was a hell of a good time.

Now from the cover, what do you think this game is about? Is it an adventure game about a demon hunter venturing into the depths of hell? A shoot em up game where you shoot demons in your wake?

If you're answer was a Sonic the Hedgehog game, you would be correct... I'm not even kidding. If you thought Shadow the Hedgehog's video game was edgy with guns, mild swearing and aliens that resemble demons, you have seen nothing yet. There is blood, explicit demons, and Sonic literally venturing into the depths of hell.

It's a 2D side-scroller in the same vein as the Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Genesis where you jump and spindash, but compared to the other games in the series, it will really test your knowledge of momentum, and you know that Instant Shield you had in Sonic 3 & Knuckles? I hope you've got the timing on it down because you're going to need it to stand a better chance against the obstacles this game throws at you. As hard as the game is, they are generous enough to give you unlimited lives, and you can always save and come back later if need be. Although given how short the game is, it's likely you'll beat it in one sitting, anyway. Another interesting quirk is that the health system works differently from all other Sonic games. Usually, the way it works is that if you take damage, you lose all of your rings although some games will just have you lose a set amount like 20 or so. Here, you have health points and the rings you collect here will replenish it which means that you'll have 5 set hit points maximum compared to the usual 2 (or more depending on your ability to collect rings).

As edgy as it is, I just really love the aesthetic of the game. I have such a odd fascination with the clashing style of dark themes with colorful cartoony characters. It's difficult to explain, but seeing Sonic venture into hell itself is just really cool. Like I never would've imagined wanting to see it, but after seeing the proof of concept a few years back, now I did. Along the way, he sees demons of all kinds, many of which are directly ripped from or based off of games from the 16 bit era notably Castlevania. The only one that I thought was out of place was that guardian transforming into Mickey Mouse for some reason. I'm not really sure what the explanation here was. Maybe something about Disney being evil, modern Disney being driven by greed, or maybe it has to do with that South Park episode involving Mickey.

The boss fights are a highlight, and the advantage of a Sega Genesis game in 2023 is that they already figured out what it means to be engaging while also keeping the challenge. There are three acts with each of them having a mid-boss and another boss at the end and a few of which will have multiple phases. So there are a lot of bosses in the game with about 18 in total, and I wouldn't say that there's a single boss that I found to be dreadful to face. On Hard mode they develop new patterns with their attacks and the final boss goes from being kinda underwhelming to being a challenge. The only problem that I have is that (at least concerning the V2 patch + Hard Mode) the final boss can crash the game when you get close to him for the 4th time which I thought was odd since I was able to clear him once. My first thought was maybe it had something to do with level select, but it turns out that even after playing through the full game once again in one sitting, it still somehow crashes. Upon further investigation (for Hard Mode specifically, not sure about the other difficulties), I have theorized that during the third wave of attacks, he needs to use his missiles before he turns the screen black. If he does not do it, then don't hit him until he performs the attack. Otherwise, it may store data towards the fourth wave that it wasn't supposed to. I don't know how this works since I am not a programmer, but the point is to not hit him too early during the third wave of attacks.

The music is easily the best part of the game. Some of which is remixed from other games, namely Castlevania, but some of them are entirely original and they all really match the fast-paced action of the levels. To say that picking a favorite among them all is no joke would be an understatement. However, I think the miniboss themes, Forest of Decay Act 2, Death's boss theme, all three of Malicious Glance's songs, and the Main Theme are my contenders. In a recent patch, they added a new song for the final boss which I thought was going to be ass, but after listening to it long enough, I think it ended up being one of the best songs in the game, and it really improved the final boss. Too bad it's not uploaded anywhere on Youtube as far as I'm aware. But to give you an idea on what it sounds like, it's a 16 bit remix of the song Follow Your Ghost by Periphery.

The game is technically not any longer than a typical Sega Genesis game, yet it somehow still feels really short. To be fair, there are a lot more bosses in that game than what Sonic 1 and 2 had, and it took the lock-on cartridge technology from Sonic & Knuckles to let Sonic 3 achieve 30+ bosses as well as 12 levels. None of which I recall having the quality that Sonic Hellfire has. When I think about it, Sonic Hellfire might have a chance to dethrone Alien Soldier as my favorite Sega Genesis game. The amount of time and effort put into Sonic Hellfire really overflows, and if nothing else, it may just be my favorite 2D Sonic game whether it'd be official or not.

Cleared on March 14th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 57/160)

I've known this game for a very long time via the Sonic Mega Collection for the Gamecube. It was an unlockable that you get from having Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on your memory card with the alternative method being that you have to boot up Mean Bean Machine 30 times... these unlockables were weird. I have played it, mistakening it for a Sonic game since it had a Flicky. I thought of it as hard, but nothing really special. So, when I decided to play through the game, I found that it is hard, but nothing really special.

The game has you play as a Flicky while you to collect baby chicks across the level, but watch out for those pesky cats that wants to pounce on you and sever your connections with the baby chicks and force you to recollect them. You venture through levels that loop back around when you move left or right across the screen with 48 different level layouts.

The idea is easy enough to grasp, but being a port of an arcade game from 1984, there is a catch. When you get to get later levels, you will find that the layouts are specifically engineered to really ensure you never win. It's beatable, but it requires near perfect precision and a great deal of understanding of the layout in question. For example, there was a level where the only way through is a tight corridor. The good news is that each of them have an object that you can fling at incoming enemies, but the bad news is that if you show up too late, you will not be able to jump over them. Also by that point in the game, there are these green lizards that crawl through walls and leap across walls. And some of the levels will actively work the game's finicky physics against you by making you bounce against the walls, specifically placing the exit in the most inconvenient spots, or just making ammunition harder to come by.

Honestly, the biggest problem I have with the game is that it's just really boring. The same music plays across each of the levels aside from the bonus levels which I think livens up the game a bit, and the gameplay doesn't really excite me all that much. It's not a bad game, and it must have been great for its time. Heck, I did have a bit of fun with it growing up, but I would've rather stuck to the Sonic the Hedgehog games.

(SEGA Genesis Challenge: 56/160)

Oh look at that, this is the first review of this game on this website. Well, that doesn't make me a little pressured.

The game is just pinball, but with Motley Crue's name on it. It has a few songs in 16 bit form which include Dr. Feelgood, Live Wire, and Home Sweet Home. I will say the physics feel really close to actual pinball with its weight and momentum, but it does mean it's easy enough to end up getting gimped in-between the flippers, and that is just so unfortunate. As for the sides, you can actually reshoot yourself up as long as it is blinking green which does at least give you that chance to not get screwed over. However, once you crank up the volume the first time, it will make it so that the side that blinks is based on which side you pressed, so you need to be careful which button you pressed at this time to avoid getting screwed.

The game has progression where you can perform tasks to progress along with the board and change how it operates. You can also try to try to perform specific conditions to start up a ramp which will put you through a bonus sequence where you play a game of pong. There is an end, but given that it is pinball, it's going to be really difficult, so just think of the end as a bonus for persistence.

Seeing the end screen makes me think if whoever owns the house takes a shit, then whoever is near the bottom of the dirt pillar that is holding the house up is really going to get it.