WindWarrior75
1991
Cleared on March 2nd, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 1/160)
At the beginning of March, I have took on the challenge of clearing 160 games on the Sega Genesis. I cataloged each game that I thought looked interesting and play each of them from start to finish. However, I wasn't just going to decide on my own, so I roll a number to decide for me.
As fate would have it, it landed on Wings of Wor first. A 2D side-scroller shoot em up where you play as an angel shooting demons and all kinds of aberrations. Thinking it would be simple enough, I went on with the game... and realized just how hard this challenge was going to be.
Early on, you'll realize if you get hit once, you lose a life and if you don't know about the settings feature, you start out with 3 and all it takes is 3 hits and its game over. Obviously, getting hit once and losing a life is to be expected in a game like this at the time, but dodging the attacks themselves is a different matter.
You can remedy this through the settings as you can change the amount of lives you get, or through the dark arts of emulator save states. I'll admit, my patience can run very thin, and rather than try to beat the game like everyone else did in the 90s, I just decided to just wing it as a 2010s zoomer would. Somehow even then the game can feel rather tedious and patience trying, even on the game's default easy mode.
Difficulty aside, I really love the game's aesthetic. While the player character doesn't look all that detailed, the background is really good and the monsters (notable the bosses) actually look terrifying. It's a classic battle of angels vs demons in a battle to stop destruction, and the music for being a Genesis game is also quite appealing.
The mechanics are pretty fun too. Along the way, you collect blue and red orbs to empower your ability to shoot foes. Blue increases the radius of your spread shot while the red orbs increase the overall damage you deal. Both of them will be very valuable, but lost upon losing a life, so the game rewards you for surviving, but can snowball into a defeat which will make it even harder for you to recover from.
You can also get gems which will change the pattern of your shots. One lets all shots face directly forward, one spreads out in a cone, and one lets you shoot backwards although this one is rare and rather situational anyway.
And lastly, you have "special attacks" or spells as I call it. You can collect scrolls with a letter in order to gain an additional attack. The more scrolls you collect of the same letter, the more powerful it will be upon pressing the special button, but do be careful, if you collect two S scrolls and then collect an E scroll, but there's an S scroll coming up, you will not be able to empower the S spell to level 3. On the upside, you can have the E spell on hand if you somehow die or run out of spells. Oh yeah and you can lose them on death if they are active, so don't be afraid to go wild once you have them active.
I think what really stuck out to me about this game is that upon clearing the game while pretty much just cheesing it with the aforementioned dark arts, it gave me what I consider the fairest compliment that I could've gotten from doing this. "Congratulations, you are learning". Now I know it gives this message for beating the game on easy mode, but I can say that the difficulty was anything but. The mobs die faster, no doubt, but you still lose a life in one hit. And I can say that, yeah, I've learned quite a bit about the game. In fact, later on, I went back to try to beat the game on Normal difficulty without save states, relying purely on continues, but I can only get as far as beating the 4th level before the 5th level just annihilated all of my continues, but given the 6 levels the game has and the fact that I had to use save states at the 2nd level, I'd say not bad.
At the very least, even if the difficulty can seem brutal, it's at least a game I can see getting better at and maybe, in time, I'll be able to beat this game as people did back then. Until then, I'd say I had fun with it.
At the beginning of March, I have took on the challenge of clearing 160 games on the Sega Genesis. I cataloged each game that I thought looked interesting and play each of them from start to finish. However, I wasn't just going to decide on my own, so I roll a number to decide for me.
As fate would have it, it landed on Wings of Wor first. A 2D side-scroller shoot em up where you play as an angel shooting demons and all kinds of aberrations. Thinking it would be simple enough, I went on with the game... and realized just how hard this challenge was going to be.
Early on, you'll realize if you get hit once, you lose a life and if you don't know about the settings feature, you start out with 3 and all it takes is 3 hits and its game over. Obviously, getting hit once and losing a life is to be expected in a game like this at the time, but dodging the attacks themselves is a different matter.
You can remedy this through the settings as you can change the amount of lives you get, or through the dark arts of emulator save states. I'll admit, my patience can run very thin, and rather than try to beat the game like everyone else did in the 90s, I just decided to just wing it as a 2010s zoomer would. Somehow even then the game can feel rather tedious and patience trying, even on the game's default easy mode.
Difficulty aside, I really love the game's aesthetic. While the player character doesn't look all that detailed, the background is really good and the monsters (notable the bosses) actually look terrifying. It's a classic battle of angels vs demons in a battle to stop destruction, and the music for being a Genesis game is also quite appealing.
The mechanics are pretty fun too. Along the way, you collect blue and red orbs to empower your ability to shoot foes. Blue increases the radius of your spread shot while the red orbs increase the overall damage you deal. Both of them will be very valuable, but lost upon losing a life, so the game rewards you for surviving, but can snowball into a defeat which will make it even harder for you to recover from.
You can also get gems which will change the pattern of your shots. One lets all shots face directly forward, one spreads out in a cone, and one lets you shoot backwards although this one is rare and rather situational anyway.
And lastly, you have "special attacks" or spells as I call it. You can collect scrolls with a letter in order to gain an additional attack. The more scrolls you collect of the same letter, the more powerful it will be upon pressing the special button, but do be careful, if you collect two S scrolls and then collect an E scroll, but there's an S scroll coming up, you will not be able to empower the S spell to level 3. On the upside, you can have the E spell on hand if you somehow die or run out of spells. Oh yeah and you can lose them on death if they are active, so don't be afraid to go wild once you have them active.
I think what really stuck out to me about this game is that upon clearing the game while pretty much just cheesing it with the aforementioned dark arts, it gave me what I consider the fairest compliment that I could've gotten from doing this. "Congratulations, you are learning". Now I know it gives this message for beating the game on easy mode, but I can say that the difficulty was anything but. The mobs die faster, no doubt, but you still lose a life in one hit. And I can say that, yeah, I've learned quite a bit about the game. In fact, later on, I went back to try to beat the game on Normal difficulty without save states, relying purely on continues, but I can only get as far as beating the 4th level before the 5th level just annihilated all of my continues, but given the 6 levels the game has and the fact that I had to use save states at the 2nd level, I'd say not bad.
At the very least, even if the difficulty can seem brutal, it's at least a game I can see getting better at and maybe, in time, I'll be able to beat this game as people did back then. Until then, I'd say I had fun with it.
1994
Cleared on March 4th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 2/160)
Contra Hard Corps is a 2D side scroller shoot em up where you run through dangerous battlefields and enemy territories to stop them of their devious plan to use the Alien cell for world domination, and it is radical. It's really hard as you lose a life in one hit (oddly some versions have it where you take three hits before losing a life), but it's a game that you can get really good at because it doesn't go over-the-top with its difficulty through spikes although still hard enough that it may warrant using save states if you don't have patience.
They save the over-the-top aspect for the visuals and the action because good god it's wild. It's a sci-fi military world in chaos with machines and aliens running rampant and it looks incredible in its pixelated form. Also, I just love the music of this game. GTR attack is a hype-infusing song that boosts adrenaline and the bosses that this song accompanies tend to be the most fast-paced. The Last Springsteen invokes terror and suspense as you are about to square off against whatever monster you end up having to face last.
One of more interesting features of this game is that it has multiple routes which lets them add so much to the overall game while confining the general length and encouraging replay value to see what set of bosses you will get to face next. There are four routes that change based on the simple decision that only serves to move you along one of those routes. Of course, some bosses are mandatory to fight in all routes.
If this somehow sounds tedious, there are four playable characters and you could do what I did and assign those characters to a specific route. I'll go over them one by one.
Ray is about what you'd expect a Contra character to be. All of them share the same core mechanics as you jump, you shoot, you run, duck, and even powerslide (which from my understanding is new for this game and you are going to need it). However, Ray has weapons that are familiar enough to a classic Contra game like the Spread Shot from all Contra games and the Homing Shot from Contra III. However, from what I hear, the Spread Shot is argued as the best weapon in most of those games, but here, it feels kinda underwhelming and really, he's just the most underwhelming of all the characters to me.
Sheena is a favorite of mine as all of her weapons feel useful in some way. Her weapons deal impressive damage and if she needs some spread damage, then her Ax Laser should help her.
Fang is a cool character in visual style, a cyborg anthro wolf with sunglasses? That's awesome! But when playing as him, be extremely careful during the opening level because early on he picks up a charged shot in the middle of an enemy barrage that will put a delay on your attacks which will make you very suspectible to getting taken down. This is an issue exclusive to Fang and unlike the others, he doesn't really have a "Spread" shot, but his weapons do supposedly the most damage.
But then we get to Browny who is quite frankly the most busted character in the game. He's small which gives him an advantage when it comes to having a smaller hitbox than all the others. He doesn't jump as high, but why worry about that when he could double jump? He has many weapons for different situations be it single-target damage or pulverizing mobs. But what really stands out is his Yo-Yo which just shreds bosses and it locks on too. So if you ever find yourself struggling with this game, bring these guy out.
The routes themselves also linked with difficulty. Route A and B are kinda easy (at least for this game's standards), but Route C and D are pretty hard. My advice is to just start with Route A and then go from there, and you'll have a much better time with the game.
But regardless of how you do it, it's a fun game and among my favorites from the Sega Genesis catalog.
January 7th, 2024 Update: I went back to replay the game as the Japanese version intended with 3 hit points, and I was shocked at how easy the game was in comparison. Not only does 3 hits give you a better chance to not get smoked almost instantly at the first level, but because of how the game's mechanics work where you lose the weapon you have equipped upon losing a life, you can actually hold on to your weapon much longer which allows you to deal significantly more damage throughout the game, making it much faster to clear. If Contra Hard Corps is giving you a hard time, finding the means to buff your health points be it through a patch or the Japanese version may be your best shot.
Contra Hard Corps is a 2D side scroller shoot em up where you run through dangerous battlefields and enemy territories to stop them of their devious plan to use the Alien cell for world domination, and it is radical. It's really hard as you lose a life in one hit (oddly some versions have it where you take three hits before losing a life), but it's a game that you can get really good at because it doesn't go over-the-top with its difficulty through spikes although still hard enough that it may warrant using save states if you don't have patience.
They save the over-the-top aspect for the visuals and the action because good god it's wild. It's a sci-fi military world in chaos with machines and aliens running rampant and it looks incredible in its pixelated form. Also, I just love the music of this game. GTR attack is a hype-infusing song that boosts adrenaline and the bosses that this song accompanies tend to be the most fast-paced. The Last Springsteen invokes terror and suspense as you are about to square off against whatever monster you end up having to face last.
One of more interesting features of this game is that it has multiple routes which lets them add so much to the overall game while confining the general length and encouraging replay value to see what set of bosses you will get to face next. There are four routes that change based on the simple decision that only serves to move you along one of those routes. Of course, some bosses are mandatory to fight in all routes.
If this somehow sounds tedious, there are four playable characters and you could do what I did and assign those characters to a specific route. I'll go over them one by one.
Ray is about what you'd expect a Contra character to be. All of them share the same core mechanics as you jump, you shoot, you run, duck, and even powerslide (which from my understanding is new for this game and you are going to need it). However, Ray has weapons that are familiar enough to a classic Contra game like the Spread Shot from all Contra games and the Homing Shot from Contra III. However, from what I hear, the Spread Shot is argued as the best weapon in most of those games, but here, it feels kinda underwhelming and really, he's just the most underwhelming of all the characters to me.
Sheena is a favorite of mine as all of her weapons feel useful in some way. Her weapons deal impressive damage and if she needs some spread damage, then her Ax Laser should help her.
Fang is a cool character in visual style, a cyborg anthro wolf with sunglasses? That's awesome! But when playing as him, be extremely careful during the opening level because early on he picks up a charged shot in the middle of an enemy barrage that will put a delay on your attacks which will make you very suspectible to getting taken down. This is an issue exclusive to Fang and unlike the others, he doesn't really have a "Spread" shot, but his weapons do supposedly the most damage.
But then we get to Browny who is quite frankly the most busted character in the game. He's small which gives him an advantage when it comes to having a smaller hitbox than all the others. He doesn't jump as high, but why worry about that when he could double jump? He has many weapons for different situations be it single-target damage or pulverizing mobs. But what really stands out is his Yo-Yo which just shreds bosses and it locks on too. So if you ever find yourself struggling with this game, bring these guy out.
The routes themselves also linked with difficulty. Route A and B are kinda easy (at least for this game's standards), but Route C and D are pretty hard. My advice is to just start with Route A and then go from there, and you'll have a much better time with the game.
But regardless of how you do it, it's a fun game and among my favorites from the Sega Genesis catalog.
January 7th, 2024 Update: I went back to replay the game as the Japanese version intended with 3 hit points, and I was shocked at how easy the game was in comparison. Not only does 3 hits give you a better chance to not get smoked almost instantly at the first level, but because of how the game's mechanics work where you lose the weapon you have equipped upon losing a life, you can actually hold on to your weapon much longer which allows you to deal significantly more damage throughout the game, making it much faster to clear. If Contra Hard Corps is giving you a hard time, finding the means to buff your health points be it through a patch or the Japanese version may be your best shot.
1990
Cleared on March 4th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 3/160)
A few things to note is that I've only played the Genesis version and not played the CD version. From my understanding, the only real difference are the OST which sounds incredible and animated cutscenes with voice acting.
The gameplay remains relatively the same, just shoot against enemies and collect weapons along the way. It's pretty standard as far as shooters go, but I think what I really like about the game is the OST which is really good even in the Genesis. I especially vibe with Mission 5 music.
The game itself is generous enough to give a checkpoint so if you were to just get a game over, you just start a level all over instead of from the very beginning of the game unlike other Genesis games like Wings of Wor or Contra Hard Corps. In other words, you have unlimited continues.
The reason I used save cheesing, anyway, is because of the boss of Mission 6... I know that some game's can be hard, but not to the point of being unbearable or unmanageable. But the boss not only goes on for awhile, but the attacks feel almost impossible to avoid, and just feels like a difficulty spike from what you've fought before. The minute is started firing homing piss lasers at me, I just gave up and moved on to another game, but then I came back with save states.
Once I got to the final level, I was expecting a fight for my life because if that earlier fight was supposed to be the penultimate boss, who knows what's ahead... and it's the easiest boss fight in the entire game. Just stay in the right place, shoot em up, and you're done... that's it. I had a fun time up until the penultimate boss and the music was great, so to see it fall this flat on its face at the end is unfortunate. Oh yeah, and the final boss didn't even have the courteousy to have its own boss theme, it just used the same one that Boss 3 had, lol. My theory is that they were planning for it to be exclusive to the final boss, but they knew it was going to suck, so they needed to stick it on a much cooler boss as well.
A few things to note is that I've only played the Genesis version and not played the CD version. From my understanding, the only real difference are the OST which sounds incredible and animated cutscenes with voice acting.
The gameplay remains relatively the same, just shoot against enemies and collect weapons along the way. It's pretty standard as far as shooters go, but I think what I really like about the game is the OST which is really good even in the Genesis. I especially vibe with Mission 5 music.
The game itself is generous enough to give a checkpoint so if you were to just get a game over, you just start a level all over instead of from the very beginning of the game unlike other Genesis games like Wings of Wor or Contra Hard Corps. In other words, you have unlimited continues.
The reason I used save cheesing, anyway, is because of the boss of Mission 6... I know that some game's can be hard, but not to the point of being unbearable or unmanageable. But the boss not only goes on for awhile, but the attacks feel almost impossible to avoid, and just feels like a difficulty spike from what you've fought before. The minute is started firing homing piss lasers at me, I just gave up and moved on to another game, but then I came back with save states.
Once I got to the final level, I was expecting a fight for my life because if that earlier fight was supposed to be the penultimate boss, who knows what's ahead... and it's the easiest boss fight in the entire game. Just stay in the right place, shoot em up, and you're done... that's it. I had a fun time up until the penultimate boss and the music was great, so to see it fall this flat on its face at the end is unfortunate. Oh yeah, and the final boss didn't even have the courteousy to have its own boss theme, it just used the same one that Boss 3 had, lol. My theory is that they were planning for it to be exclusive to the final boss, but they knew it was going to suck, so they needed to stick it on a much cooler boss as well.
1993
Cleared on March 5th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 4/160)
The game is very much like Contra, and if you know what Contra is, then you fire in multiple directions, run around and shoot things, all while using some fun weaponry. In fact, the people behind this were ex-Konami developers who went on to form their own studio and this was their debut game, a game to outmatch Contra in every way and well, I will say it's got its own charm. It has the advantage of being fair to play since you don't die in one hit and you get increased health over the course of the game to make later challenges manageable, and you do get unlimited continues... but I still have my problems with this game compared to Contra Hard Corps which came out one year later.
My biggest vendetta with this game is the lack of the ability to switch between Free or Fixed shot. Contra Hard Corps figured this out by pressing a button to switch between one or the other, but here, you have to choose one of two characters that represent these modes and stick with them. You either have to play a guy who can't be bothered to stand still while moving or a guy who is too afraid he'll miss if he moves. Not exactly a hallmark of a great soldier, and it becomes a bit of liability for certain boss fights where you feel you could've avoided an attack if you could move or just better able to aim by standing still.
I also didn't really like the majority of the common enemies just trying to approach you grapple you up in melee because it doesn't make sense to me. If you're facing someone in a gun, you don't just bull rush them, what do you think is going to happen? Sure some of them do shoot, but the ones that approach you in melee to grab you are just weird to me.
But other than that, this game is pretty much what you'd expect out of Contra except with a more colorful artstyle and a large variety of weapons. And by variety, I mean 16 different weapons in the game. You have 4 Elements that you can choose which include Homing, Lightning, Flame, and Machine Gun. Once you pick your starter, you can pick up an orb representing one of those four to create a new weapon and you'll have opportunities to try them out even ones not related to your starter weapon. They are fun to mix and match, and play around with.
That said, once you find out what might be the stupidest combination in the game, all bets are off. You pretty much just won the entire game. Homing and Lightning gives you a lightning fast laser shot that homes in on an enemy. You don't need to aim, just hold down a button, watch enemies get desecrated all around, dodge attacks, and that's it. The damage and mobility ratio it provides is absurd.
I know I mostly addressed the game's flaws, but I still really enjoy it. Like I said, it's a much more fair Contra. It has sharp and responsive controls and the difficulty never feels like it's cheapening you out. The bosses are really fun too.
The game is very much like Contra, and if you know what Contra is, then you fire in multiple directions, run around and shoot things, all while using some fun weaponry. In fact, the people behind this were ex-Konami developers who went on to form their own studio and this was their debut game, a game to outmatch Contra in every way and well, I will say it's got its own charm. It has the advantage of being fair to play since you don't die in one hit and you get increased health over the course of the game to make later challenges manageable, and you do get unlimited continues... but I still have my problems with this game compared to Contra Hard Corps which came out one year later.
My biggest vendetta with this game is the lack of the ability to switch between Free or Fixed shot. Contra Hard Corps figured this out by pressing a button to switch between one or the other, but here, you have to choose one of two characters that represent these modes and stick with them. You either have to play a guy who can't be bothered to stand still while moving or a guy who is too afraid he'll miss if he moves. Not exactly a hallmark of a great soldier, and it becomes a bit of liability for certain boss fights where you feel you could've avoided an attack if you could move or just better able to aim by standing still.
I also didn't really like the majority of the common enemies just trying to approach you grapple you up in melee because it doesn't make sense to me. If you're facing someone in a gun, you don't just bull rush them, what do you think is going to happen? Sure some of them do shoot, but the ones that approach you in melee to grab you are just weird to me.
But other than that, this game is pretty much what you'd expect out of Contra except with a more colorful artstyle and a large variety of weapons. And by variety, I mean 16 different weapons in the game. You have 4 Elements that you can choose which include Homing, Lightning, Flame, and Machine Gun. Once you pick your starter, you can pick up an orb representing one of those four to create a new weapon and you'll have opportunities to try them out even ones not related to your starter weapon. They are fun to mix and match, and play around with.
That said, once you find out what might be the stupidest combination in the game, all bets are off. You pretty much just won the entire game. Homing and Lightning gives you a lightning fast laser shot that homes in on an enemy. You don't need to aim, just hold down a button, watch enemies get desecrated all around, dodge attacks, and that's it. The damage and mobility ratio it provides is absurd.
I know I mostly addressed the game's flaws, but I still really enjoy it. Like I said, it's a much more fair Contra. It has sharp and responsive controls and the difficulty never feels like it's cheapening you out. The bosses are really fun too.
Cleared on April 22nd, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 5/160)
Sonic 3D Blast is a game I had on my list of 160 Sega Genesis games, but unlike the others, I didn't even roll this one, I just chose this one, wanting to finish what I started years ago.
Sonic 3D Blast is the first Sonic game I ever played. I thought it was fun at the time, but having replayed the original on the Genesis back in 2012, I realized... wow, the game is so slippery. I just figured at that point it wasn't worth enduring it past the first few levels. But then sometime back in, I believe 2017, the game's original director announced he was going to revise the game, making the controls more manageable, make the flicky hunting less dreadful, have a better camera, and just add new features like Time Attack and Super Sonic. I was on board, a game that I had nostalgic feelings for, but couldn't bring myself to fully enjoy sounded like a dream. So, what did I think? Well, it was fine... I guess.
It definitely didn't misled the audience or anything. What was advertised is what you get, but the game still felt kinda boring to me on an inherent level. It's no traditional Sonic game and even with the new Time Attack, you can't really change that. In fact, going fast is actually a liability in later levels because you might miss an enemy or crash into something and take damage, so you're best off just going slow.
The music is fine, but it does pale in comparison to the Saturn version although some of the music in the Genesis version would later go on to be remixed in Sonic Adventure 1 which is pretty cool.
I do love the visuals of the game. For a Genesis game, it had a certain charm to it being an isometric Sonic game, and I can tell it must have been a lot of effort to make it look this way on the Genesis. Hell, I heard the game's code is such a mess that even if there was some secret cult that wanted to make the game good, then they would need the knowledge that the game's director had... well, not like we needed that because the director himself went to refine the game.
You won't really miss much even with the Director's Cut of Sonic 3D Blast since it isn't really traditional in its objective in reaching the goal post, and it does take exploration in a slow pace and nobody has time for that, but if you want to play the game for any reason, this is the definitive version.
Sonic 3D Blast is a game I had on my list of 160 Sega Genesis games, but unlike the others, I didn't even roll this one, I just chose this one, wanting to finish what I started years ago.
Sonic 3D Blast is the first Sonic game I ever played. I thought it was fun at the time, but having replayed the original on the Genesis back in 2012, I realized... wow, the game is so slippery. I just figured at that point it wasn't worth enduring it past the first few levels. But then sometime back in, I believe 2017, the game's original director announced he was going to revise the game, making the controls more manageable, make the flicky hunting less dreadful, have a better camera, and just add new features like Time Attack and Super Sonic. I was on board, a game that I had nostalgic feelings for, but couldn't bring myself to fully enjoy sounded like a dream. So, what did I think? Well, it was fine... I guess.
It definitely didn't misled the audience or anything. What was advertised is what you get, but the game still felt kinda boring to me on an inherent level. It's no traditional Sonic game and even with the new Time Attack, you can't really change that. In fact, going fast is actually a liability in later levels because you might miss an enemy or crash into something and take damage, so you're best off just going slow.
The music is fine, but it does pale in comparison to the Saturn version although some of the music in the Genesis version would later go on to be remixed in Sonic Adventure 1 which is pretty cool.
I do love the visuals of the game. For a Genesis game, it had a certain charm to it being an isometric Sonic game, and I can tell it must have been a lot of effort to make it look this way on the Genesis. Hell, I heard the game's code is such a mess that even if there was some secret cult that wanted to make the game good, then they would need the knowledge that the game's director had... well, not like we needed that because the director himself went to refine the game.
You won't really miss much even with the Director's Cut of Sonic 3D Blast since it isn't really traditional in its objective in reaching the goal post, and it does take exploration in a slow pace and nobody has time for that, but if you want to play the game for any reason, this is the definitive version.
Cleared on April 26th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 6/160)
Review updated on May 14th, 2024.
Thinking back to my review of Castle of Illusion, I thought to myself that maybe it was too harsh because I played on the wrong difficulty. I accused it of being unfair, but when somebody said it was "easy". I thought it was strange to say, but then I remembered I played on Hard difficulty because when I accidentally set the game on practice, I thought you had to play Hard mode to get the full game experience, but now that I've gone back to play the game on Normal, I can say that the majority of the game's problems do not apply.
On Hard difficulty, the enemy placement was atrocious. I still remember that one bat that spawned right out of nowhere at the end of the Storm, all of those bats that kept gimping me on the flood, and just so many bats that it feels cluttered and undodgeable. To my surprise, that didn't even apply on Normal mode. There are still some level design nuisances like the falling block trap in The Castle that requires trial and error to know how to avoid because there is no indicator which one will fall and which one doesn't, but I think having three starting HP and not as many enemies to worry about throughout the levels do help give you more breathing room to figure that out. The bosses also go down much faster and by fast, I mean the tree boss took around 3 hits to beat, but on Hard mode? It reportedly takes 10 hits. Its attack pattern is also even faster.
I'm still indifferent to the slow movement speed, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, and after having played that god awful Fantasia game, I've come to better terms with how the jumping mechanic works.
Visually, I still love the well varied environments with an enchanted forest, a toyland, storming lands, candy land, library, and the castle itself. I still don't like the saccharine sprite for Mickey himself.
When I was replaying the game, I was expecting maybe a 2.5 stars at best, but this game managed to be an actually good game, and I can now see why people think positively of it. It still doesn't hold a candle to the remake, but I wouldn't going mind another round.
Moral of the story: Hard Mode sucks.
Review updated on May 14th, 2024.
Thinking back to my review of Castle of Illusion, I thought to myself that maybe it was too harsh because I played on the wrong difficulty. I accused it of being unfair, but when somebody said it was "easy". I thought it was strange to say, but then I remembered I played on Hard difficulty because when I accidentally set the game on practice, I thought you had to play Hard mode to get the full game experience, but now that I've gone back to play the game on Normal, I can say that the majority of the game's problems do not apply.
On Hard difficulty, the enemy placement was atrocious. I still remember that one bat that spawned right out of nowhere at the end of the Storm, all of those bats that kept gimping me on the flood, and just so many bats that it feels cluttered and undodgeable. To my surprise, that didn't even apply on Normal mode. There are still some level design nuisances like the falling block trap in The Castle that requires trial and error to know how to avoid because there is no indicator which one will fall and which one doesn't, but I think having three starting HP and not as many enemies to worry about throughout the levels do help give you more breathing room to figure that out. The bosses also go down much faster and by fast, I mean the tree boss took around 3 hits to beat, but on Hard mode? It reportedly takes 10 hits. Its attack pattern is also even faster.
I'm still indifferent to the slow movement speed, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, and after having played that god awful Fantasia game, I've come to better terms with how the jumping mechanic works.
Visually, I still love the well varied environments with an enchanted forest, a toyland, storming lands, candy land, library, and the castle itself. I still don't like the saccharine sprite for Mickey himself.
When I was replaying the game, I was expecting maybe a 2.5 stars at best, but this game managed to be an actually good game, and I can now see why people think positively of it. It still doesn't hold a candle to the remake, but I wouldn't going mind another round.
Moral of the story: Hard Mode sucks.
First cleared on November 18th, 2017.
Recently cleared on April 27th, 2023.
The remake of a Sega Genesis game of the same name. This game sought to bring the old classic to the modern audience. In the past, I didn't enjoy the original all that much, but as of May 14th, 2024, I realized that my problems were due to being a moron and playing on hard mode. That said, my initial distaste did encourage me to relook at its remake because I remember enjoying it at the time.
At its core, it's the same game as the Genesis being a 2D platformer where Mickey goes to save Minnie from Mizrabel from the castle filled with colorful scenery. However, there are some changes made.
No longer using the pixelated visuals, it opts for 3D graphics which look really good even now, and I think playing the original Genesis has made me better appreciate the details of the remake as they went out of their way to recapture some of the environments in the original to make it feel like an update. Also, bonus points for making Mickey look more adventurous and bold compared to the Genesis version.
The music is amazing and when you got Grant Kirkhope on board for the soundtrack, you know you're in for an awesome time. It just fits right in with Mickey Mouse's grand scale adventure in dangerous territory just as it had fit a Bear and a Bird traversing through harrowing witch mountains.
And really, the gameplay had improved immensely with slightly faster movement speed and a jump that actually felt like its propelling you forward. The game also puts you in 3D sometimes which isn't too bad. The bosses are also a lot more fun with a great deal of effort to make them more engaging than just having a few attacks.
The game is easier, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I mean, it's on level with the default difficulty of the Genesis game except lives are more abundant. My biggest problem with the game is that it's just too short that in both of my playthroughs, I manage to beat it in one sitting, but that is pretty much the nature of the remake since the original wasn't that long either. It would've been really cool to adapt all of the Illusion games like Land of Illusions and World of Illusions to add to the overall run time of the game.
Also enjoyed the narration added in the game as it gives a more enchanted storybook feel to the game.
Recently cleared on April 27th, 2023.
The remake of a Sega Genesis game of the same name. This game sought to bring the old classic to the modern audience. In the past, I didn't enjoy the original all that much, but as of May 14th, 2024, I realized that my problems were due to being a moron and playing on hard mode. That said, my initial distaste did encourage me to relook at its remake because I remember enjoying it at the time.
At its core, it's the same game as the Genesis being a 2D platformer where Mickey goes to save Minnie from Mizrabel from the castle filled with colorful scenery. However, there are some changes made.
No longer using the pixelated visuals, it opts for 3D graphics which look really good even now, and I think playing the original Genesis has made me better appreciate the details of the remake as they went out of their way to recapture some of the environments in the original to make it feel like an update. Also, bonus points for making Mickey look more adventurous and bold compared to the Genesis version.
The music is amazing and when you got Grant Kirkhope on board for the soundtrack, you know you're in for an awesome time. It just fits right in with Mickey Mouse's grand scale adventure in dangerous territory just as it had fit a Bear and a Bird traversing through harrowing witch mountains.
And really, the gameplay had improved immensely with slightly faster movement speed and a jump that actually felt like its propelling you forward. The game also puts you in 3D sometimes which isn't too bad. The bosses are also a lot more fun with a great deal of effort to make them more engaging than just having a few attacks.
The game is easier, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I mean, it's on level with the default difficulty of the Genesis game except lives are more abundant. My biggest problem with the game is that it's just too short that in both of my playthroughs, I manage to beat it in one sitting, but that is pretty much the nature of the remake since the original wasn't that long either. It would've been really cool to adapt all of the Illusion games like Land of Illusions and World of Illusions to add to the overall run time of the game.
Also enjoyed the narration added in the game as it gives a more enchanted storybook feel to the game.
1993
Cleared on April 27th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 7/160)
Despite my low expectations (I don't remember why I added the game to begin with), the game was better than I expected. The game itself can be pretty difficult, but I was actually having fun bonking prehistoric creatures with the ol club, sometimes riding a pterodactyl and venturing through lands of old... for like the first four levels.
Once the fifth level came in, the game just cranked up the bull, and I cranked up the save states. The fifth level is one of the worst Genesis levels I've had to endure because the lightning is unpredictable and at a certain point, it will just always hit you, so if the enemies themselves don't kill you, then the Lightning surely will. You managed to get past that? Get ready for falling rocks that requires a keen eye to know when it's going to fall, very precise platforming, and a barrage of enemies looking to ruin your day. Oh and slow down at some points too, those are not fun.
The sixth level wasn't as bad once you figure out you can deflect projectiles on the minecart, but it did demonstrate to me just how truly annoying the knockback and stun was in a game when you manage to get hit on a narrow platform, effectively one-hit KO'ing you.
It's kinda disappointing because I liked the rest of the levels. The first one is what you'd expect from Flintstones. The Shark path was difficult, but not something you can't overcome. The second level is a water level that feels manageable as long as you keep collecting health. The third is a fun driveway using the iconic car which doesn't feel overbearingly too fast. The fourth level is an auto-scrolling train which is... a nuisance, but compared to what came after, it was far more manageable.
I did hate how long it took for the bosses to go down, though. It's probably because I played it on Hard mode just to be show-offy. They weren't too hard, though, just tedious. Even the final boss was actually easy once you realize you can hit her from underneath where she is standing, well the second phase can be a challenge, but the third phase is just as easy as the first.
It was fun when it was, but towards the final two levels, it just ended up being a slog to get through.
Despite my low expectations (I don't remember why I added the game to begin with), the game was better than I expected. The game itself can be pretty difficult, but I was actually having fun bonking prehistoric creatures with the ol club, sometimes riding a pterodactyl and venturing through lands of old... for like the first four levels.
Once the fifth level came in, the game just cranked up the bull, and I cranked up the save states. The fifth level is one of the worst Genesis levels I've had to endure because the lightning is unpredictable and at a certain point, it will just always hit you, so if the enemies themselves don't kill you, then the Lightning surely will. You managed to get past that? Get ready for falling rocks that requires a keen eye to know when it's going to fall, very precise platforming, and a barrage of enemies looking to ruin your day. Oh and slow down at some points too, those are not fun.
The sixth level wasn't as bad once you figure out you can deflect projectiles on the minecart, but it did demonstrate to me just how truly annoying the knockback and stun was in a game when you manage to get hit on a narrow platform, effectively one-hit KO'ing you.
It's kinda disappointing because I liked the rest of the levels. The first one is what you'd expect from Flintstones. The Shark path was difficult, but not something you can't overcome. The second level is a water level that feels manageable as long as you keep collecting health. The third is a fun driveway using the iconic car which doesn't feel overbearingly too fast. The fourth level is an auto-scrolling train which is... a nuisance, but compared to what came after, it was far more manageable.
I did hate how long it took for the bosses to go down, though. It's probably because I played it on Hard mode just to be show-offy. They weren't too hard, though, just tedious. Even the final boss was actually easy once you realize you can hit her from underneath where she is standing, well the second phase can be a challenge, but the third phase is just as easy as the first.
It was fun when it was, but towards the final two levels, it just ended up being a slog to get through.
1994
Cleared on April 28th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 8/160)
I know this game isn't really regarded as complex as games like A Link to the Past as far as top down adventure games go, but I think as somebody put it, it's not really meant to be and is more of an Arcade style game even down to showing your results like clear time and collectibles. This explains why this game feels shorter and the story is well... basic.
All that aside, though, this is among my favorite games in the Sega Genesis so far. The visuals are some of the best in the Sega Genesis with the spritework being just as good as the Sonic games, the boss design being on par with Wings of Wor, and just having detailed and intriguing environment taking place in an oasis as the name of the game suggests.
I also really loved the music in this game because of how much it reminded me of Warcraft 1 likely using the same instruments. I don't have any nostalgic feelings for it, but something about the songs in that game just rang with me, and the soundtrack in Beyond Oasis gave me that same feeling. I just love the pixelated trumpets, I guess.
The game itself is also really fun too. You have a few attacks, some of which are harder to pull off than others, but nothing you can't down with some practice. The combat is similar to The Legend of Zelda except with a little more variety I'd say.
The highlight of the game are the spirits and you are going to need their help for not just puzzles, but for combat as well.
The Water Spirit will create a watery tornado that deals damage to enemies at random and heals you.
The Fire Spirit will automatically attack nearby enemies with a punch, surge forward against enemies, and unleash a barrage of fireballs in an area.
The Shadow Spirit will protect you from damage in exchange for mana.
The Plant Spirit will attack enemies near it and explode into a poisonous cloud to deal massive damage.
Each of them will have their own means of letting you overcome obstacles and the main objective is to reunite these spirits to take on the evil that holds the silver armlet. In the meantime, you'll have weapons to support you like the knife which is unlimited in use, but other weapons like the sword and crossbow among others can help speed along the damage while keeping a safe distance against the enemies. You will venture across dungeons with puzzles that might get you confused to the point of having to look some of them up, and often having bosses accompany them which may sometimes be difficult.
I could see myself replaying this game some time in the future to beat my old scores and maybe I'll be able to collect everything in the game while at it because it's just that fun to me.
I know this game isn't really regarded as complex as games like A Link to the Past as far as top down adventure games go, but I think as somebody put it, it's not really meant to be and is more of an Arcade style game even down to showing your results like clear time and collectibles. This explains why this game feels shorter and the story is well... basic.
All that aside, though, this is among my favorite games in the Sega Genesis so far. The visuals are some of the best in the Sega Genesis with the spritework being just as good as the Sonic games, the boss design being on par with Wings of Wor, and just having detailed and intriguing environment taking place in an oasis as the name of the game suggests.
I also really loved the music in this game because of how much it reminded me of Warcraft 1 likely using the same instruments. I don't have any nostalgic feelings for it, but something about the songs in that game just rang with me, and the soundtrack in Beyond Oasis gave me that same feeling. I just love the pixelated trumpets, I guess.
The game itself is also really fun too. You have a few attacks, some of which are harder to pull off than others, but nothing you can't down with some practice. The combat is similar to The Legend of Zelda except with a little more variety I'd say.
The highlight of the game are the spirits and you are going to need their help for not just puzzles, but for combat as well.
The Water Spirit will create a watery tornado that deals damage to enemies at random and heals you.
The Fire Spirit will automatically attack nearby enemies with a punch, surge forward against enemies, and unleash a barrage of fireballs in an area.
The Shadow Spirit will protect you from damage in exchange for mana.
The Plant Spirit will attack enemies near it and explode into a poisonous cloud to deal massive damage.
Each of them will have their own means of letting you overcome obstacles and the main objective is to reunite these spirits to take on the evil that holds the silver armlet. In the meantime, you'll have weapons to support you like the knife which is unlimited in use, but other weapons like the sword and crossbow among others can help speed along the damage while keeping a safe distance against the enemies. You will venture across dungeons with puzzles that might get you confused to the point of having to look some of them up, and often having bosses accompany them which may sometimes be difficult.
I could see myself replaying this game some time in the future to beat my old scores and maybe I'll be able to collect everything in the game while at it because it's just that fun to me.
1988
Cleared on April 29th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 9/160)
Ok, I'll say the base game itself would get a 3 stars. It's really hard in an arcade fashion that requires near perfection in order to pull through. It makes sense since arcades are a business that aims to frustrate the player as much as possible for coins, but the port is just... oh god.
It's impressive that they even got it working on the Sega Genesis at all, but when you're put on a platform that's nowhere near as powerful as what an arcade machine is capable of, you have a lot of problems.
The projectiles and enemies are not as clear which makes you prone to surprise attacks and in this game, every damage you take will lead to your downfall. See, the game has an Energy meter which depletes as you move along. You are rewarded with energy by shooting foes which then refills by crossing a threshold or finishing a level. While you might think you have a chance as long as you keep racking up energy, it's only a matter of time before the damage you took and the enemies you missed start catching up to you.
Heck, this game is so disgustingly hard that I used not only save states, but the rewind feature on the Sega Genesis Classics Collection, and I still felt like I wasn't going make it to the enemy core on time to blow it up.
If you can get your hands on the Arcade version and be able to play it with a gamepad, just play that instead.
Ok, I'll say the base game itself would get a 3 stars. It's really hard in an arcade fashion that requires near perfection in order to pull through. It makes sense since arcades are a business that aims to frustrate the player as much as possible for coins, but the port is just... oh god.
It's impressive that they even got it working on the Sega Genesis at all, but when you're put on a platform that's nowhere near as powerful as what an arcade machine is capable of, you have a lot of problems.
The projectiles and enemies are not as clear which makes you prone to surprise attacks and in this game, every damage you take will lead to your downfall. See, the game has an Energy meter which depletes as you move along. You are rewarded with energy by shooting foes which then refills by crossing a threshold or finishing a level. While you might think you have a chance as long as you keep racking up energy, it's only a matter of time before the damage you took and the enemies you missed start catching up to you.
Heck, this game is so disgustingly hard that I used not only save states, but the rewind feature on the Sega Genesis Classics Collection, and I still felt like I wasn't going make it to the enemy core on time to blow it up.
If you can get your hands on the Arcade version and be able to play it with a gamepad, just play that instead.
1992
Cleared on April 29th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 10/160)
This game enrages me because the base game itself is actually really fun. I'd say at least 3 stars, 3.5 or even 4. But this port is atrocious. It never dawned on me how bad it truly was until I got to the third boss which revealed to me the inconsistent frame rate this game had with constant slowdown. Oh and the final boss is just as bad.
I would just play the Arcade version, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work with a gamepad on browser or setup an Arcade Emulator. If you can get your hands on the Arcade version, just play that. Alternatively, I heard the PS1 version is fine too although the music is different from the Arcade version, but from what I listened to, it seems serviceable. Maybe when I get around to it in my eventual Playstation 1 challenge, or somehow find a way to play the Arcade port with controllers, then I'll do a review on this game proper.
The one positive thing that I can say is that they were classy enough to give unlimited continues because something tells me they knew this game was going to be a slog.
This game enrages me because the base game itself is actually really fun. I'd say at least 3 stars, 3.5 or even 4. But this port is atrocious. It never dawned on me how bad it truly was until I got to the third boss which revealed to me the inconsistent frame rate this game had with constant slowdown. Oh and the final boss is just as bad.
I would just play the Arcade version, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work with a gamepad on browser or setup an Arcade Emulator. If you can get your hands on the Arcade version, just play that. Alternatively, I heard the PS1 version is fine too although the music is different from the Arcade version, but from what I listened to, it seems serviceable. Maybe when I get around to it in my eventual Playstation 1 challenge, or somehow find a way to play the Arcade port with controllers, then I'll do a review on this game proper.
The one positive thing that I can say is that they were classy enough to give unlimited continues because something tells me they knew this game was going to be a slog.
Cleared on May 11th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 11/160)
Review updated on May 12th, 2024 (How has it been literally one year since I beaten the game, where the fuck did that time go?!)
For awhile, I thought the game was pretty good, but that's because I never got past the first half, but when you get to the second half, the game demonstrates its barrage of major issues. My biggest problem? The Double Jump is inconsistent. It's like it decides when it feels like working even when you thought you got it down and this wouldn't be a problem if one of the last levels requires you to double jump and it requires it to work before the platform fall out of screen. That was frustrating.
The rest of the movements seem to work fine, though. You have a run which is triggered by tapping right or left twice, you have attack which fires a projectile by default or swings a sword if you are in melee. You have ninjitsu's that you can activate for a power boost although you get a limited amount and you should be careful when you use it.
The game itself does get really hard by the second half, though where more precise platforming and awareness is demanded which I would say is fair, but just a reminder that when one crucial aspect of your movement is not consistent, it leads on to being extremely unfair. It's one thing if you're as harsh with high demand for precision as a game like Rayman 1 where at least the controls are sharp and responsive, but this game made me genuinely not regret using save states for the sake of my sanity.
It's such a shame that I don't enjoy this game as much as I should because I love the ninja aesthetic and the feeling of being a ninja fighting other ninjas and robots, riding horses, and when the game works, it feels fun
Wow, did I severely misjudge this game out of skill issues. It turns out the double jump issue that I claim to have was likely because I kept holding the jump button instead of tapping it which seemed to make the timing feel much more narrow. I went back to the game thinking it was an emulator issue, but when I compared the official SEGA Genesis Collection emulator along with the emulator on Retroarch, it literally makes no difference. For this reason, this game got its score buffed from 2.5 stars to 4 stars. That seems like a large gap, but you gotta understand how big of a difference it made because the movement was already really fun with the sprinting, divekicking, and wall jumping as if you were a ninja, but finally figuring out how the double jump timing actually works helped me to overcome obstacles that was seemingly impossible without save cheesing such as the 6th level with falling rocks. I will say, though, the final boss is still bullshit. I'm surprised I didn't bring this up in my initial review, but he attacks way too frequently and too quickly, his shuriken from above is near impossible to avoid, and I had to use Mirin ninjitsu 2 times and that lightning ninjitsu for extra damage protection, and I still was only barely able to defeat him with 1 HP left.
Review updated on May 12th, 2024 (How has it been literally one year since I beaten the game, where the fuck did that time go?!)
The rest of the movements seem to work fine, though. You have a run which is triggered by tapping right or left twice, you have attack which fires a projectile by default or swings a sword if you are in melee. You have ninjitsu's that you can activate for a power boost although you get a limited amount and you should be careful when you use it.
Wow, did I severely misjudge this game out of skill issues. It turns out the double jump issue that I claim to have was likely because I kept holding the jump button instead of tapping it which seemed to make the timing feel much more narrow. I went back to the game thinking it was an emulator issue, but when I compared the official SEGA Genesis Collection emulator along with the emulator on Retroarch, it literally makes no difference. For this reason, this game got its score buffed from 2.5 stars to 4 stars. That seems like a large gap, but you gotta understand how big of a difference it made because the movement was already really fun with the sprinting, divekicking, and wall jumping as if you were a ninja, but finally figuring out how the double jump timing actually works helped me to overcome obstacles that was seemingly impossible without save cheesing such as the 6th level with falling rocks. I will say, though, the final boss is still bullshit. I'm surprised I didn't bring this up in my initial review, but he attacks way too frequently and too quickly, his shuriken from above is near impossible to avoid, and I had to use Mirin ninjitsu 2 times and that lightning ninjitsu for extra damage protection, and I still was only barely able to defeat him with 1 HP left.
2014
First Cleared on July 22nd, 2014 (Literally one day after it launched)
Recently Cleared on April 11th, 2023
Freedom Planet is a game that I've followed quite closely back in 2013. I discovered this game going down internet rabbit holes on trolls related to Sonic the Hedgehog who are long gone or irrelevant, and I was immediately invested. I played the demo and had a fun time.
When I heard it was going to be released as a full game, I got excited. I spent a lot of my 9th grade high school time thinking about it. I’ve kept up with news on the game, I’ve replayed the demo, and I was hoping the game would eventually catch on. The game, at the time, did not. But I wasn’t going to stop my excitement. When it finally came out on July 21st, 2014, I wasted no time getting into it. I installed it and spent a good amount of my week getting through all three characters, and it was worth the wait.
Freedom Planet is considered the spiritual successor to the 2D Sonic Games back before Sonic Mania was even announced. While I've always been more interested in the 3D Sonic games, I could not deny how amazing Freedom Planet looked and played. It felt more in-depth with its combat system and the other characters all felt fun to play with their own distinct style which allows you to approach levels and bosses in different angles. The three characters that you play as are Lilac the Dragon, Carol the Wildcat, and Milla the Hound.
Lilac the Dragon is the powerhouse that bears resemblance to Sonic except in place of the spindash, we have the Dragon Boost which was borrowed from Rocket Knight and, in my opinion, feels so much better to use because you don't have to stop to charge up speed. On top of being the fastest character in the game and having the extremely powerful Dragon Boost which propels you in six different directions, deals damage and gives you a few frames of invincibility, she also gets Cyclone which can be used to gain a little extra height and increase her horizontal distance while dealing damage in the way.
Carol the Wildcat is a more agile combatant of the three as her basic attacks although not as strong as Lilac's, is much faster. Her movement speed isn't as fast, but her strength over Lilac is being able to cover vertical distance much better than she can as she can climb up walls Mega Man X style. She can somersault like a traditional Sonic character could, Pounce to cover horizontal distance, Pounce + Claw combo for burst damage, and use her signature Wild Kick which lets her deal rapid damage while having invincibility. This aspect of Carol is so busted, for the record, that it might explain why they took it away from her in Freedom Planet 2 and gave her a new ability. The most notable thing about Carol, however, is that she can ride a motorcycle and by that point, she becomes even faster likely matching or even surpassing Lilac, at the least, having better initial acceleration. It gives her a double jump although it takes away her ability to Pounce. She also loses it upon taking damage with the exception of some bosses.
Milla is the explorer of the three. She is the slowest character and makes her the best character for taking in scenery and exploring, but even with her slow speed, she can be very strong in her own way. She can conjure a shield that deflects enemy projectiles, create a cube that she can either throw for long distance damage, or create a bigger shield and follow up with a massive blast that can hit multiple enemies. She can also flutter in the air. While that’s not impressive compared to what Lilac or Carol could do, it gives her much better air control in comparison.
That said, as fun as Milla is, she is very unbalanced. Her shield allows her to cheese aspects of the game that the other characters would find hellish, but Milla having much lower health means that she dies very easily. Milla has a high skill-ceiling compared to the other characters, and was even at one point considered a character of choice for speedrunners which might have to do with how her path is structured as a few segments could be considered shorter.
There were supposed to be two more characters that are playable being Torque and Spade. Torque would resemble a Gunstar Hero with a range of weaponry based on the colored orbs that he picked up, and Spade is a ranged fighter that darts around and throws cards at people. However, those two were "put on an indefinite hold" with future plans to give them their own side games instead. Kind of a shame since I was looking forward to seeing their stories unfold... that reminds me.
The story of this game is another aspect I was interested in, and it’s… interesting. The thing is, depending on who you ask, the story is either well-written and exciting, or sloggish with an inconsistent tone. Honestly, I've never really had a problem with the story's tone. Namely with the things the villain Brevon does, it was established in the intro that Brevon is a ruthless psychopath the moment that he beheaded the king of Shuigang, and even before the infamous Thermal Base cutscene, things were already getting really bad for the protagonists, anyway, and I've completely forgotten about the cootie joke that got removed in later patches in the game. And if we're going off the logic of tone inconsistency, I'd argue that Freedom Planet 2 is noteworthy sometimes in that regard and that story is praised by the same people who call Freedom Planet 1 "tonally inconsistent". I don't have a problem with Freedom Planet 2 in that regard, it's just something I wonder why people don't call into question. I think a far more pressing matter in regards to the story of Freedom Planet 1 is just the pacing as some cutscenes in the game can go on for a long while. Like I'm not even kidding when I say this, but Lilac's story alone has exactly 1 hour of cutscenes and she gets like 12 levels which could each go on for around 5-10 minutes depending on how skilled and knowledgeable you are at the game, and the cutscene to get from Level 2 to Level 3 takes like 13 minutes. If this sounds absurd, don't worry, you can just play Classic mode and ignore the story altogether.
The story is nowhere near as bad as other people say it is, but that's not to say I think the story is perfect and everybody doesn't get it. I have a few qualms with the story which include Neera Li's character, a misplaced dialogue where Lilac rants about ignorant leaders which could've been a lot better when said some time after Shang-Tu turned on Lilac and her friends, and some unanswered questions that came from the negative effect of putting Torque and Spade on an indefinite hold.
The thing that carried the story for me are the main cast, namely Lilac the Dragon. When revisiting the story, I thought maybe I was exaggerating when I believed Lilac to be one of my favorite characters in all of fiction, but when I went through it again, I realized she’s more than just one of my favorite characters, but my favorite heroine in all of fiction. It’s remarkable how she had stood the test of time in the face of new heroines because many of them are obnoxious brats like Frey (Forspoken) or just poorly written like Abbey (The Last of Us II). The writers understands that Lilac doesn’t have to sacrifice being compassionate and friendly in order to be strong. If anything, it’s because of how much Lilac cares that makes her more badass, and I think her ability to have fun and goof around gives an amazing contrast to just how pissed off she can be, making it all the more shocking. Think of it this way, when you see someone that’s usually angry get angry, you think “oh great, they’re at it again”, but when you see the person that’s usually fun and quirky get angry, you think “oh god”. Lilac is a character that can have fun with what she does, but quickly shift to serious mode when she knows the stakes. And yet Lilac is not a flawless Mary Sue character, she does display headstrong and stubborn tendencies even when her intentions are good, but it’s not overbearing like the average “stronk wooman”, and actually adds to the character that she is, the person she wants to be. A hero, and when you control her, you feel heroism and a rush to fight and save the world. And this is all just in the first game.
Anyway, Carol is funny although a bit annoying some times, and Milla is just a cute and sweet character. I don't really have as much else to say about them compared to Lilac, but they're good characters too.
Some other things I love about the game include it's visual presentation, and even now it still looks great for the developer's debut game. The music is also fantastic, and Battle Glacier in particular is an amazing song that invokes the feeling of triumph, and a final push against Brevon's armies.
The sequel may blow it out of the waters, but Freedom Planet 1 is still a good game and worth at a playthrough.
Recently Cleared on April 11th, 2023
Freedom Planet is a game that I've followed quite closely back in 2013. I discovered this game going down internet rabbit holes on trolls related to Sonic the Hedgehog who are long gone or irrelevant, and I was immediately invested. I played the demo and had a fun time.
When I heard it was going to be released as a full game, I got excited. I spent a lot of my 9th grade high school time thinking about it. I’ve kept up with news on the game, I’ve replayed the demo, and I was hoping the game would eventually catch on. The game, at the time, did not. But I wasn’t going to stop my excitement. When it finally came out on July 21st, 2014, I wasted no time getting into it. I installed it and spent a good amount of my week getting through all three characters, and it was worth the wait.
Freedom Planet is considered the spiritual successor to the 2D Sonic Games back before Sonic Mania was even announced. While I've always been more interested in the 3D Sonic games, I could not deny how amazing Freedom Planet looked and played. It felt more in-depth with its combat system and the other characters all felt fun to play with their own distinct style which allows you to approach levels and bosses in different angles. The three characters that you play as are Lilac the Dragon, Carol the Wildcat, and Milla the Hound.
Lilac the Dragon is the powerhouse that bears resemblance to Sonic except in place of the spindash, we have the Dragon Boost which was borrowed from Rocket Knight and, in my opinion, feels so much better to use because you don't have to stop to charge up speed. On top of being the fastest character in the game and having the extremely powerful Dragon Boost which propels you in six different directions, deals damage and gives you a few frames of invincibility, she also gets Cyclone which can be used to gain a little extra height and increase her horizontal distance while dealing damage in the way.
Carol the Wildcat is a more agile combatant of the three as her basic attacks although not as strong as Lilac's, is much faster. Her movement speed isn't as fast, but her strength over Lilac is being able to cover vertical distance much better than she can as she can climb up walls Mega Man X style. She can somersault like a traditional Sonic character could, Pounce to cover horizontal distance, Pounce + Claw combo for burst damage, and use her signature Wild Kick which lets her deal rapid damage while having invincibility. This aspect of Carol is so busted, for the record, that it might explain why they took it away from her in Freedom Planet 2 and gave her a new ability. The most notable thing about Carol, however, is that she can ride a motorcycle and by that point, she becomes even faster likely matching or even surpassing Lilac, at the least, having better initial acceleration. It gives her a double jump although it takes away her ability to Pounce. She also loses it upon taking damage with the exception of some bosses.
Milla is the explorer of the three. She is the slowest character and makes her the best character for taking in scenery and exploring, but even with her slow speed, she can be very strong in her own way. She can conjure a shield that deflects enemy projectiles, create a cube that she can either throw for long distance damage, or create a bigger shield and follow up with a massive blast that can hit multiple enemies. She can also flutter in the air. While that’s not impressive compared to what Lilac or Carol could do, it gives her much better air control in comparison.
That said, as fun as Milla is, she is very unbalanced. Her shield allows her to cheese aspects of the game that the other characters would find hellish, but Milla having much lower health means that she dies very easily. Milla has a high skill-ceiling compared to the other characters, and was even at one point considered a character of choice for speedrunners which might have to do with how her path is structured as a few segments could be considered shorter.
There were supposed to be two more characters that are playable being Torque and Spade. Torque would resemble a Gunstar Hero with a range of weaponry based on the colored orbs that he picked up, and Spade is a ranged fighter that darts around and throws cards at people. However, those two were "put on an indefinite hold" with future plans to give them their own side games instead. Kind of a shame since I was looking forward to seeing their stories unfold... that reminds me.
The story of this game is another aspect I was interested in, and it’s… interesting. The thing is, depending on who you ask, the story is either well-written and exciting, or sloggish with an inconsistent tone. Honestly, I've never really had a problem with the story's tone. Namely with the things the villain Brevon does, it was established in the intro that Brevon is a ruthless psychopath the moment that he beheaded the king of Shuigang, and even before the infamous Thermal Base cutscene, things were already getting really bad for the protagonists, anyway, and I've completely forgotten about the cootie joke that got removed in later patches in the game. And if we're going off the logic of tone inconsistency, I'd argue that Freedom Planet 2 is noteworthy sometimes in that regard and that story is praised by the same people who call Freedom Planet 1 "tonally inconsistent". I don't have a problem with Freedom Planet 2 in that regard, it's just something I wonder why people don't call into question. I think a far more pressing matter in regards to the story of Freedom Planet 1 is just the pacing as some cutscenes in the game can go on for a long while. Like I'm not even kidding when I say this, but Lilac's story alone has exactly 1 hour of cutscenes and she gets like 12 levels which could each go on for around 5-10 minutes depending on how skilled and knowledgeable you are at the game, and the cutscene to get from Level 2 to Level 3 takes like 13 minutes. If this sounds absurd, don't worry, you can just play Classic mode and ignore the story altogether.
The story is nowhere near as bad as other people say it is, but that's not to say I think the story is perfect and everybody doesn't get it. I have a few qualms with the story which include Neera Li's character, a misplaced dialogue where Lilac rants about ignorant leaders which could've been a lot better when said some time after Shang-Tu turned on Lilac and her friends, and some unanswered questions that came from the negative effect of putting Torque and Spade on an indefinite hold.
The thing that carried the story for me are the main cast, namely Lilac the Dragon. When revisiting the story, I thought maybe I was exaggerating when I believed Lilac to be one of my favorite characters in all of fiction, but when I went through it again, I realized she’s more than just one of my favorite characters, but my favorite heroine in all of fiction. It’s remarkable how she had stood the test of time in the face of new heroines because many of them are obnoxious brats like Frey (Forspoken) or just poorly written like Abbey (The Last of Us II). The writers understands that Lilac doesn’t have to sacrifice being compassionate and friendly in order to be strong. If anything, it’s because of how much Lilac cares that makes her more badass, and I think her ability to have fun and goof around gives an amazing contrast to just how pissed off she can be, making it all the more shocking. Think of it this way, when you see someone that’s usually angry get angry, you think “oh great, they’re at it again”, but when you see the person that’s usually fun and quirky get angry, you think “oh god”. Lilac is a character that can have fun with what she does, but quickly shift to serious mode when she knows the stakes. And yet Lilac is not a flawless Mary Sue character, she does display headstrong and stubborn tendencies even when her intentions are good, but it’s not overbearing like the average “stronk wooman”, and actually adds to the character that she is, the person she wants to be. A hero, and when you control her, you feel heroism and a rush to fight and save the world. And this is all just in the first game.
Anyway, Carol is funny although a bit annoying some times, and Milla is just a cute and sweet character. I don't really have as much else to say about them compared to Lilac, but they're good characters too.
Some other things I love about the game include it's visual presentation, and even now it still looks great for the developer's debut game. The music is also fantastic, and Battle Glacier in particular is an amazing song that invokes the feeling of triumph, and a final push against Brevon's armies.
The sequel may blow it out of the waters, but Freedom Planet 1 is still a good game and worth at a playthrough.
2022
Lilac's Story cleared on April 12th, 2023
Milla's Story cleared on April 17th, 2023
Carol's Story cleared on May 4th, 2023
Neera Li's Story cleared on June 7th, 2023
Freedom Planet 2 was a game I was fairly hyped for when it was announced. A continuation to one of my favorite games of all time, that sounds great. It looks better, the gameplay feels better from the demo I played, and from what I've kept up in development, there will be a lot more to do. The game came out in September of 2022, almost seven years after the game was announced in December of 2015. Admittedly, it did take me a good while to get around to even buying the game as you can see, and I did want to replay Freedom Planet 1 to get caught up with the story, and having played Freedom Planet 2, I can confidently say that gameplay wise and visual wise, it is even better than the original which makes it look very underwhelming in comparison.
Freedom Planet 2's visual style moves away from its Sonic the Hedgehog inspiration and moves more towards the Chinese aesthetic that it established in the original game, giving it a highly distinctive look with gorgeous scenery with a variety of locations.
The gameplay has been improved immensely with the three playable characters returning and with the new character... Neera Li. Honestly, with how I felt about Neera in the first game, I had to wonder why she was even picked to be a playable character in the first place and more insulting was the indefinite delay of Torque and Spade being playable in Freedom Planet 1, but I was willing to give her a chance. In fact, I almost planned to play as her first just to get her out of the way, but as I was tipped off, it would've been a terrible idea.
Lilac the Dragon returns with the same moveset that she has. Her high speed, her cyclone, her hard hitting physical attacks, and her dragon boost. But here are some differences. Her cyclone could now combo into Dragon Boost much easier since it no longer takes up energy to use Cyclone which means it is now exclusively for Dragon Boost. Her uppercut can be used in the air for extra vertical distance. Her Dragon Boost can be cancelled early for not only mobility control, but to unleash a blast of power that damages anyone caught in it. She also now gets a Guard which everyone gets, but after pressing guard again, she activates Blink Dash which lets her quickly surge a small gap which is very useful defensively.
Carol the Wildcat remains mostly the same with claws and her pounces, but now she's lost her Wild Kick and is replaced with Jump Disc which lets her hurl a projectile at the enemy which could then follow up homing in on the projectile for extra damage against enemies and for additional mobility. Rather unfortunate since Wild Kick was something I liked about Carol although I guess it was probably extremely busted given how it gives her a longer invincibility frame in a time window compared to Dragon Boost and is able to stand still while doing it. Plus, it may already overlap with the Guard mechanic, anyway. Even still, it could've been repurposed into a standard attack that Carol can do while standing still. She also retains her motorcycle except its more rare than in Freedom Planet 1, but is fortunately unable to be destroyed after a few hits. She can also throw her motorcycle at enemies too.
Milla the Hound returns to be more fluent than ever before, but her moveset does change in the process. She can now fight with physical attacks when she originally had to use a shield blast or a cube throw or a cube blast to damage them, but now she can kick and punch things as well as use her magic to blast enemies. She can fire ranged pellets now from her shield instead of being a small short ranged blast, and rather than charging up her cube and carrying it around, it just appears through the Guard button and follows her until she's ready to fire cube projectiles or use Cube Blast. While I enjoyed Milla's take here, her Cube Blast is such a powerful move that it almost obsoletes everything else in her kit making the rest of the moves, save for the shield, to be situational at best.
Neera Li is the new character, and originally I was expecting her to be the powerful, but "not as fast" kind of character and while she is quite powerful with long ranged attacks, a means of deflecting projectiles, and a damage booster, in a twist of fate, she can actually go fast by spamming the attack button while moving and I swear, she has the potential to go faster than pretty much all of the characters in this game, even Lilac. She's also quite strong that even though the final boss was pretty difficult, I managed to use Neera to beat her in very few tries although I think by that point I was getting it figured out.
As for the other key aspects including the story and music, they took some time to get used to. There was a different style of music compared to Freedom Planet 1, but it's not bad and once you go through the game a few times, you just kinda vibe with it. I will say there were a few instant bangers from the very start which include Zulon Jungle, Sky Bridge boss theme, Globe Opera 2, and Inversion Dynamo. I can definitely say that while not every song can be a winner, the overall soundtrack does match up to the original and some songs are even better than the majority of the songs of Freedom Planet 1.
The story, meanwhile, I had to think about it and I'll admit, I enjoyed it and from a technical standpoint, it's definitely a better story than its predecessor. It has a much better pace where cutscenes don't usually go on for a long time, and the ones that do, like the 12 minute series of cutscenes was placed in the beginning of the game's second half instead of being as early as after clearing the 2nd stage and by that point the game expects you to get invested enough in the characters to appreciate a moment to slow down and reflect. The humor is so much funnier too. I busted out laughing watching Carol zooming out of the magister halls, Serpentine and Aaa's argument in the Zulon Jungle, and Carol annoying her sister. And the story still retains its dramatic edge which I was initially concerned it would kinda lose in response to people's reaction to how dark the original game got. While there weren't any visually shocking events on that caliber which to be fair is because Brevon is not present, there were some notably dramatic themes that expand on the world and what we know about Avalice's lore. We're talking about dark truths that ancestors do not want the future to know. I think my concern with this is that we aren't really visually shown in any capacity what happened. I'm not saying to make a flashback and see it all explicitly happen, but I feel like carvings and drawings would at least go a bit of ways and I think they have a few opportunities on that front while the heroes were at Parusa. Instead it's mostly just text of what happened that I called into question if any of these "dark truths" even happened the way they did until I listened to the entry log recordings that explained the user's perspective of the events. I think I recall seeing a Youtube video where someone complained about Freedom Planet 1 breaking the "Show don't tell" rule, but going off that logic, Freedom Planet 2 breaks it even harder. I'm not going to go story elitist by saying that because I don't think it's binary and actually overrated, but in this context, some visual implications would've helped add to the impact of the story.
But like with the predecessor, the thing that makes the story for me is seeing the characters. 3 years had passed, so some things may have changed. Lilac and Carol haven't exactly changed much from how they were in Freedom Planet 1. Lilac is still as heroic and caring as she once was while Carol is the same humorous albeit still kinda annoying at times, but to the stories credit, they sometimes use her obnoxiousness to their advantage. Milla had got a lot more confident than she used to be and has even had some moments of being badass, especially when playing her side of the story. Neera Li has mellowed out compared to Freedom Planet 1, but I still don't really vibe with her character. At least her voice is not as pretentious, and she does have her moments at least.
I also really love a few of the side characters, my favorites are Serpentine, making a return from Freedom Planet 1, going from a henchman of Brevon to being a menace in his own right. He has this perfect mix of humorous, crazy, and genuinely menacing and hard to take on. It's reminiscent of Dr. Nefarious from the Ratchet and Clank series who stands as one of my favorite video game villains of all time.
Aaa is another favorite as he's just chaotic and hearing him scream never gets old.
Mayor Zao is the same as he's always been, just over-dramatic in a comical way.
And overall, I appreciate them expanding on what we know of the characters such as Lilac's origins, Milla's origins, and Carol's sister relations which interesting enough had been alluded to for a long time when she had a dialogue mentioning it in Freedom Planet 1 that was scrapped.
So once you're done with the game, what do you do? Well, you can go around talking to people across hubs to learn about the lore of Avalice, partake in Battlesphere challenges, get Rainbow S by not taking hits, and just explore for treasure and other collectibles.
To say this game did not waste its seven years of development would be an underestimate, they really gave their all to make an incredible 2D platformer not deserving anything but the best gameplay and visuals. That's a Rainbow S rank from me.
Milla's Story cleared on April 17th, 2023
Carol's Story cleared on May 4th, 2023
Neera Li's Story cleared on June 7th, 2023
Freedom Planet 2 was a game I was fairly hyped for when it was announced. A continuation to one of my favorite games of all time, that sounds great. It looks better, the gameplay feels better from the demo I played, and from what I've kept up in development, there will be a lot more to do. The game came out in September of 2022, almost seven years after the game was announced in December of 2015. Admittedly, it did take me a good while to get around to even buying the game as you can see, and I did want to replay Freedom Planet 1 to get caught up with the story, and having played Freedom Planet 2, I can confidently say that gameplay wise and visual wise, it is even better than the original which makes it look very underwhelming in comparison.
Freedom Planet 2's visual style moves away from its Sonic the Hedgehog inspiration and moves more towards the Chinese aesthetic that it established in the original game, giving it a highly distinctive look with gorgeous scenery with a variety of locations.
The gameplay has been improved immensely with the three playable characters returning and with the new character... Neera Li. Honestly, with how I felt about Neera in the first game, I had to wonder why she was even picked to be a playable character in the first place and more insulting was the indefinite delay of Torque and Spade being playable in Freedom Planet 1, but I was willing to give her a chance. In fact, I almost planned to play as her first just to get her out of the way, but as I was tipped off, it would've been a terrible idea.
Lilac the Dragon returns with the same moveset that she has. Her high speed, her cyclone, her hard hitting physical attacks, and her dragon boost. But here are some differences. Her cyclone could now combo into Dragon Boost much easier since it no longer takes up energy to use Cyclone which means it is now exclusively for Dragon Boost. Her uppercut can be used in the air for extra vertical distance. Her Dragon Boost can be cancelled early for not only mobility control, but to unleash a blast of power that damages anyone caught in it. She also now gets a Guard which everyone gets, but after pressing guard again, she activates Blink Dash which lets her quickly surge a small gap which is very useful defensively.
Carol the Wildcat remains mostly the same with claws and her pounces, but now she's lost her Wild Kick and is replaced with Jump Disc which lets her hurl a projectile at the enemy which could then follow up homing in on the projectile for extra damage against enemies and for additional mobility. Rather unfortunate since Wild Kick was something I liked about Carol although I guess it was probably extremely busted given how it gives her a longer invincibility frame in a time window compared to Dragon Boost and is able to stand still while doing it. Plus, it may already overlap with the Guard mechanic, anyway. Even still, it could've been repurposed into a standard attack that Carol can do while standing still. She also retains her motorcycle except its more rare than in Freedom Planet 1, but is fortunately unable to be destroyed after a few hits. She can also throw her motorcycle at enemies too.
Milla the Hound returns to be more fluent than ever before, but her moveset does change in the process. She can now fight with physical attacks when she originally had to use a shield blast or a cube throw or a cube blast to damage them, but now she can kick and punch things as well as use her magic to blast enemies. She can fire ranged pellets now from her shield instead of being a small short ranged blast, and rather than charging up her cube and carrying it around, it just appears through the Guard button and follows her until she's ready to fire cube projectiles or use Cube Blast. While I enjoyed Milla's take here, her Cube Blast is such a powerful move that it almost obsoletes everything else in her kit making the rest of the moves, save for the shield, to be situational at best.
Neera Li is the new character, and originally I was expecting her to be the powerful, but "not as fast" kind of character and while she is quite powerful with long ranged attacks, a means of deflecting projectiles, and a damage booster, in a twist of fate, she can actually go fast by spamming the attack button while moving and I swear, she has the potential to go faster than pretty much all of the characters in this game, even Lilac. She's also quite strong that even though the final boss was pretty difficult, I managed to use Neera to beat her in very few tries although I think by that point I was getting it figured out.
As for the other key aspects including the story and music, they took some time to get used to. There was a different style of music compared to Freedom Planet 1, but it's not bad and once you go through the game a few times, you just kinda vibe with it. I will say there were a few instant bangers from the very start which include Zulon Jungle, Sky Bridge boss theme, Globe Opera 2, and Inversion Dynamo. I can definitely say that while not every song can be a winner, the overall soundtrack does match up to the original and some songs are even better than the majority of the songs of Freedom Planet 1.
The story, meanwhile, I had to think about it and I'll admit, I enjoyed it and from a technical standpoint, it's definitely a better story than its predecessor. It has a much better pace where cutscenes don't usually go on for a long time, and the ones that do, like the 12 minute series of cutscenes was placed in the beginning of the game's second half instead of being as early as after clearing the 2nd stage and by that point the game expects you to get invested enough in the characters to appreciate a moment to slow down and reflect. The humor is so much funnier too. I busted out laughing watching Carol zooming out of the magister halls, Serpentine and Aaa's argument in the Zulon Jungle, and Carol annoying her sister. And the story still retains its dramatic edge which I was initially concerned it would kinda lose in response to people's reaction to how dark the original game got. While there weren't any visually shocking events on that caliber which to be fair is because Brevon is not present, there were some notably dramatic themes that expand on the world and what we know about Avalice's lore. We're talking about dark truths that ancestors do not want the future to know. I think my concern with this is that we aren't really visually shown in any capacity what happened. I'm not saying to make a flashback and see it all explicitly happen, but I feel like carvings and drawings would at least go a bit of ways and I think they have a few opportunities on that front while the heroes were at Parusa. Instead it's mostly just text of what happened that I called into question if any of these "dark truths" even happened the way they did until I listened to the entry log recordings that explained the user's perspective of the events. I think I recall seeing a Youtube video where someone complained about Freedom Planet 1 breaking the "Show don't tell" rule, but going off that logic, Freedom Planet 2 breaks it even harder. I'm not going to go story elitist by saying that because I don't think it's binary and actually overrated, but in this context, some visual implications would've helped add to the impact of the story.
But like with the predecessor, the thing that makes the story for me is seeing the characters. 3 years had passed, so some things may have changed. Lilac and Carol haven't exactly changed much from how they were in Freedom Planet 1. Lilac is still as heroic and caring as she once was while Carol is the same humorous albeit still kinda annoying at times, but to the stories credit, they sometimes use her obnoxiousness to their advantage. Milla had got a lot more confident than she used to be and has even had some moments of being badass, especially when playing her side of the story. Neera Li has mellowed out compared to Freedom Planet 1, but I still don't really vibe with her character. At least her voice is not as pretentious, and she does have her moments at least.
I also really love a few of the side characters, my favorites are Serpentine, making a return from Freedom Planet 1, going from a henchman of Brevon to being a menace in his own right. He has this perfect mix of humorous, crazy, and genuinely menacing and hard to take on. It's reminiscent of Dr. Nefarious from the Ratchet and Clank series who stands as one of my favorite video game villains of all time.
Aaa is another favorite as he's just chaotic and hearing him scream never gets old.
Mayor Zao is the same as he's always been, just over-dramatic in a comical way.
And overall, I appreciate them expanding on what we know of the characters such as Lilac's origins, Milla's origins, and Carol's sister relations which interesting enough had been alluded to for a long time when she had a dialogue mentioning it in Freedom Planet 1 that was scrapped.
So once you're done with the game, what do you do? Well, you can go around talking to people across hubs to learn about the lore of Avalice, partake in Battlesphere challenges, get Rainbow S by not taking hits, and just explore for treasure and other collectibles.
To say this game did not waste its seven years of development would be an underestimate, they really gave their all to make an incredible 2D platformer not deserving anything but the best gameplay and visuals. That's a Rainbow S rank from me.
1995
Cleared on June 17th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 12/160)
This game is a very strong contender for my favorite Sega Genesis game. I won't say that it is until I've cleared my challenge, but I would be surprised if anything else could even top it.
You play as Epsilion and as you'd expect from a game like this, you run, you gun, you jump, and you maneuver against enemies. This game is brought to you by the same developers of Gunstar Heroes which is considered their own take on Contra. You might think they should've just made a Gunstar Heroes sequel, but Alien Soldier is a lot more different than just another Contra competitor, and dare I say, I don't think I've run into another game quite like it.
On top of the traditional abilities that you have, you can also dash across the screen which will give you a brief window of invincibility while letting you reposition against the enemies, and you will need it. The game was built with this mechanic in mind.
You can hover in the air which lets you get better precision against the enemies although you can't move unless you dash which then cancels the hover. Pressing the hover button again will let you double jump. You can move on ceilings, and when your health is full, you can dash to unleash a devastating Phoenix Force except it takes a small chunk of your health. It's really negligible and only applied so you can't use it repeatedly.
On top of that, you can use a "Counter" which lets you convert most projectiles into health orbs. While they also drop from enemies, they won't usually be present in bosses and thus learning this mechanic is crucial to survive.
And guess what? The Treasure developers actually corrected the issue Gunstar had that didn't let you switch between Free or Fixed mode on a whim, and here, they have a combination that lets you switch although it's more complicated than what Contra Hard Corps would simply have you do. In fact, the controls in this game are actually very complex for a Sega Genesis game.
Some things are simple enough to understand like Jump, Shoot, Run, Hover, and Weapon Switch. However, to switch between Free and Fixed mode, you need to press the Weapon Switch button + Down. To dash, you need to press Down + Jump at the same time. To counter, you need to tap the Shoot button twice.
Keep in mind that you need to factor all of this in, master the mechanics, all while managing the four weapons you have active at a time because they aren't unlimited, so switching between the weapons you got is mandatory, but what are the weapons?
Buster Force is the standard straight line shot that fires repeatedly. It's not a bad weapon to end up with although you may have trouble getting it to connect with some of the bosses in the game.
Ranger Force is the spread shot weapon that's damage is so lacking that you should definitely avoid using above all else, especially in the mid and late game.
Flame Force is the close ranged high damage dealing shot and pretty useful if you can afford to get up close.
Homing Force is a weapon that, as the name suggests, homes projectiles at nearby enemies making it quite possibly the most versatile weapon in the game and it's not bad at dealing with bosses as long as you aren't playing Superhard Difficulty.
Sword Force is a thin beam of light that is similar to the Flamethrower that getting up close deals more damage, but the difference is that it deals more damage up close while being weaker the farther you are. I never realized it in my playthrough.
Lancer Force is my favorite weapon as it just a beam of light that deals immense damage and a must have to be able to clear out bosses much easier although it has very low ammunition count, so it's more high risk high reward.
So there is a lot you need to understand and it's not just your character you need to understand, but the bosses as well because there are 25 stages and each of them has a boss at the end. Yes, there are 25 bosses in this game and that's what the game's primary focus is on since it doesn't usually take long for you to get from one boss to the next and during these intermission periods, you're just shooting up lesser enemies to collect health orbs and countering their projectiles for that same reason, all while finding these weapon capsules which can either let you swap weapons or, by shooting it, you can force rotate it to the weapon you shot with and upgrade the ammo count.
The bosses can range from fairly easy once you get it down, notably the earlier fights, to being really tough and in general, this game is just really hard. However, there is a mercy aspect to the game called "Supereasy mode". If you are put off with being forced back to the beginning after 3 game overs, I feel you. It can be quite tedious, but given this is developed by Treasure, they took a page from Gunstar Heroes unlimited continues and incorporate it here although they don't do so by default. In order to access Supereasy mode, you need to go into the settings. On top of that, they slightly nerfed the health of the bosses which is considered a boon given how bosses all have a time limit, yeah, I did not mention that part. Plus, you can even slow down the game to give you time to react to the boss mechanics or otherwise give some extra time to switch between weapons because it's not like Ratchet and Clank where the whole game pauses to let you switch weapons.
Backed up with amazing gameplay is the space anthropomorphic aesthetic that reminds me a lot of Star Fox, and many of the bosses have impressive and creative designs. There is one I really want to gush over, but it comes too late in the game, and I don't want to spoil it even though the game came out in 1995. But let's just say you'll want to look out for Level 23.
The music itself is also pretty good and really fits the badass feel of the overall game. Charging through the enemy lines and barraging aliens in your wake. There is also a Gunstar Heroes track that was used in this game which I thought was kinda cool.
And the thing that surprised me is that the majority of the game was done by one person. He eventually had to get help to meet the deadlines and they originally planned to have 100 bosses (if it did, then this would've really been the Dark Souls of the 90s), but for what they were able to get in the game, it's impressive. I'd say I'd recommend this game to anyone looking for something really exciting, but even with the unlimited continues, I understand that the complicated controls may be too much if you aren't familiar with the Contra style of games. My advice, in this case, is to play Gunstar Heroes first and then go into this game. Even if it seems too much still, just know that the game will let you get accustom to the controls as long as it takes before you even get to the first level.
This game is a very strong contender for my favorite Sega Genesis game. I won't say that it is until I've cleared my challenge, but I would be surprised if anything else could even top it.
You play as Epsilion and as you'd expect from a game like this, you run, you gun, you jump, and you maneuver against enemies. This game is brought to you by the same developers of Gunstar Heroes which is considered their own take on Contra. You might think they should've just made a Gunstar Heroes sequel, but Alien Soldier is a lot more different than just another Contra competitor, and dare I say, I don't think I've run into another game quite like it.
On top of the traditional abilities that you have, you can also dash across the screen which will give you a brief window of invincibility while letting you reposition against the enemies, and you will need it. The game was built with this mechanic in mind.
You can hover in the air which lets you get better precision against the enemies although you can't move unless you dash which then cancels the hover. Pressing the hover button again will let you double jump. You can move on ceilings, and when your health is full, you can dash to unleash a devastating Phoenix Force except it takes a small chunk of your health. It's really negligible and only applied so you can't use it repeatedly.
On top of that, you can use a "Counter" which lets you convert most projectiles into health orbs. While they also drop from enemies, they won't usually be present in bosses and thus learning this mechanic is crucial to survive.
And guess what? The Treasure developers actually corrected the issue Gunstar had that didn't let you switch between Free or Fixed mode on a whim, and here, they have a combination that lets you switch although it's more complicated than what Contra Hard Corps would simply have you do. In fact, the controls in this game are actually very complex for a Sega Genesis game.
Some things are simple enough to understand like Jump, Shoot, Run, Hover, and Weapon Switch. However, to switch between Free and Fixed mode, you need to press the Weapon Switch button + Down. To dash, you need to press Down + Jump at the same time. To counter, you need to tap the Shoot button twice.
Keep in mind that you need to factor all of this in, master the mechanics, all while managing the four weapons you have active at a time because they aren't unlimited, so switching between the weapons you got is mandatory, but what are the weapons?
Buster Force is the standard straight line shot that fires repeatedly. It's not a bad weapon to end up with although you may have trouble getting it to connect with some of the bosses in the game.
Ranger Force is the spread shot weapon that's damage is so lacking that you should definitely avoid using above all else, especially in the mid and late game.
Flame Force is the close ranged high damage dealing shot and pretty useful if you can afford to get up close.
Homing Force is a weapon that, as the name suggests, homes projectiles at nearby enemies making it quite possibly the most versatile weapon in the game and it's not bad at dealing with bosses as long as you aren't playing Superhard Difficulty.
Sword Force is a thin beam of light that is similar to the Flamethrower that getting up close deals more damage, but the difference is that it deals more damage up close while being weaker the farther you are. I never realized it in my playthrough.
Lancer Force is my favorite weapon as it just a beam of light that deals immense damage and a must have to be able to clear out bosses much easier although it has very low ammunition count, so it's more high risk high reward.
So there is a lot you need to understand and it's not just your character you need to understand, but the bosses as well because there are 25 stages and each of them has a boss at the end. Yes, there are 25 bosses in this game and that's what the game's primary focus is on since it doesn't usually take long for you to get from one boss to the next and during these intermission periods, you're just shooting up lesser enemies to collect health orbs and countering their projectiles for that same reason, all while finding these weapon capsules which can either let you swap weapons or, by shooting it, you can force rotate it to the weapon you shot with and upgrade the ammo count.
The bosses can range from fairly easy once you get it down, notably the earlier fights, to being really tough and in general, this game is just really hard. However, there is a mercy aspect to the game called "Supereasy mode". If you are put off with being forced back to the beginning after 3 game overs, I feel you. It can be quite tedious, but given this is developed by Treasure, they took a page from Gunstar Heroes unlimited continues and incorporate it here although they don't do so by default. In order to access Supereasy mode, you need to go into the settings. On top of that, they slightly nerfed the health of the bosses which is considered a boon given how bosses all have a time limit, yeah, I did not mention that part. Plus, you can even slow down the game to give you time to react to the boss mechanics or otherwise give some extra time to switch between weapons because it's not like Ratchet and Clank where the whole game pauses to let you switch weapons.
Backed up with amazing gameplay is the space anthropomorphic aesthetic that reminds me a lot of Star Fox, and many of the bosses have impressive and creative designs. There is one I really want to gush over, but it comes too late in the game, and I don't want to spoil it even though the game came out in 1995. But let's just say you'll want to look out for Level 23.
The music itself is also pretty good and really fits the badass feel of the overall game. Charging through the enemy lines and barraging aliens in your wake. There is also a Gunstar Heroes track that was used in this game which I thought was kinda cool.
And the thing that surprised me is that the majority of the game was done by one person. He eventually had to get help to meet the deadlines and they originally planned to have 100 bosses (if it did, then this would've really been the Dark Souls of the 90s), but for what they were able to get in the game, it's impressive. I'd say I'd recommend this game to anyone looking for something really exciting, but even with the unlimited continues, I understand that the complicated controls may be too much if you aren't familiar with the Contra style of games. My advice, in this case, is to play Gunstar Heroes first and then go into this game. Even if it seems too much still, just know that the game will let you get accustom to the controls as long as it takes before you even get to the first level.