WindWarrior75
2017
Warning: This review is very long and contains spoilers for the game.
It’s hard for me to say when something is the “greatest game of all time” or the “crown jewel of a genre”, and even I can say that A Hat in Time may not be that type of game. To some there may just be better 3D platformers out there, but that being said, I still think A Hat in Time is worthy of being one of the greats in its own right.
A Hat in Time is a kickstarter from 2013 that made a little over $295,000 that took off during a time when 3D platformers were suffering a mainstream drought, and fans of the genre were clamoring for a comeback. This game along with Yooka-Laylee and Fiona Frightening and the Wicked Wardrobe were hyped up to be the return to glory. Unfortunately, Fiona Frightening was ultimately canceled, and Yooka-Laylee, while it had its fans, was seen as primitive and uninspired. alsotherapsuckedass. With Yooka-Laylee’s reception, people are expecting A Hat in Time to be no different with someone explicitly saying on Twitter, and I still remember this vividly and who said it. “I can’t wait for A Hat in Time to turn out to be mediocre”. Against all odds, A Hat in Time managed to not only come through, but it also managed to stand on its own even when the granddaddy of 3D Platformers, Mario came out with Super Mario Odyssey which people are calling to be just as good, if not better than Super Mario 64 or even Galaxy, and that says a hell of a lot.
A Hat in Time does not have the backings of a multi-billion let alone multi-million, but it manages to work its budget to its advantage to deliver a charming looking game that’s reminiscent of something that would be more right at home with the Gamecube. The background and scenery is really colorful with a variety of locations like a beach town, a movie studio, a haunted forest, and the alpines to name a few. The character models are also really expressive that really emphasize their personalities such as DJ Grooves always dancing when he’s standing on-screen although I find it odd how many of them don’t have mouth movement when they speak, but a select few do which include The Conductor, The Snatcher, the Captain, and the Empress. And yes, the game has full on voice acting, and even some unimportant lines of dialogue you could easily gloss over end up getting one. Even the “silent protagonist” ends up getting some lines of dialogue at points of the game, and you can even have her emote to say even more lines. There aren’t a whole lot of big names in the voice acting department although you may recognize Xander Mobius, who is not only the voice of Persona 5’s protagonist, but the announcer of Super Smash Bros 4 and Ultimate. The other big name is one that doesn’t even have that many lines and isn’t even a VA and it’s, believe it or not, JonTron. Did you know that he was also supposed to make a cameo in Yooka-Laylee, but ended up being removed over a controversial opinion? Yet Yooka-Laylee ended up with lukewarm reception while A Hat in Time was highly praised. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
A Hat in Time’s gameplay takes cues from the 3D Super Mario games. You arrive at segmented open areas where you find a relic that is important for progression and to unlock more areas. In this game’s case, it is Time Pieces which are meant to be used to help Hat Kid return to her home planet, but was ultimately thwarted because a mafia decided to fuck with her because she wasn’t paying the toll. Everytime you collect one, you return to your hub, which is your spaceship. You need to collect the time pieces in order to repair your ship to access more rooms in order to access the areas. In the base game, there are 40 time pieces you can collect and the two DLCs add 16 more in total. In order to collect them, you will need to make the best of your movements and the abilities you acquire from your hats. The game opts for having a double jump as your means of gaining a boost in vertical movement, but the game also lets you dive which gives you a boost in horizontal movement. When you combine them both, you can reach some impressive distances. Of course, you also get help from your hats and there are six in the game. You have the standard hat which is designed to help guide you to your objective. The Sprint Hat which boosts your speed. The Ice Hat lets you perform a ground pound although it doesn’t seem to do any damage as far as I’m aware, but it does let you navigate specific platforms that bounce you when you ground pound. You can also become immune to attacks that way, but if it breaks, you’ll be met with a very long cooldown. The Explosive Hat lets you throw a potion that breaks crates and barrels while damaging enemies from afar. The Dweller Mask lets you create a reality warping bubble for a short period of time that lets you traverse through green transparent platforms. Lastly, the Time Stop Mask, the most powerful and most expensive to craft, lets you slow time for a brief moment although it does have a long cooldown which if used will be shared across all of your hats.
The game also has badges to assist you although you can only have three active at a time. In theory, this should give you some interesting customization, but in practice, the customization feels limiting due to how mandatory or “too good” some of these badges are. For example, the hookshot badge feels mandatory since many levels are built with the hookshot in mind. The Fast Hatter badge lets you reduce the cooldown of your hats which allow you to use hat abilities like Dweller Mask and Time Stop Hat much more frequently. The Scooter Badge upgrades your Sprint Hat to just let you ride a scooter. From there, you have the Projectile Badge which should be useful, but the laser hitbox isn’t as clear as you may think it is, and having it equipped can lead to some awkward stops when you’re just trying to use a melee attack as you may accidentally set off a level 1 laser. The Hover badge which lets you save yourself from taking fall damage, but if you’re skilled enough, you’ll find almost no use for it. If you are about to fall off too high, just dive when you get close enough to the ground to slow your fall or maybe even use Ice Hat. Item Magnet badge lets you draw nearby collectibles which is nice to have early game when you’re collecting gems. No Bonk badge is nice to have for beginners that struggle to cancel their dive when diving to walls, and maybe even useful in more hectic platforming scenarios. And finally, you have the Compass badge which lets you track down rift tokens that unlock cosmetics and relics that unlock time rifts which are bonus levels that are more linear. They’re short and not too difficult. The rest of the badges are either cosmetic or just designed to troll you which include mumbling to make it sound like Banjo & Kazooie, nerfing the graphics to look like a Nintendo 64 game, and one that makes you die to one hit.
The level design across the board is pretty good. It’s not designed to be over difficult, making it friendly enough for beginners to clear the game while offering room for skill expression. They often take advantage of the game’s mechanics and interactions which include hookshot points, tightropes, and wall climbing. Enemies don’t really appear all that often particularly in Dead Bird Studios or Subcon Forest, and attacking enemies is usually optional to the point where if not for the mandatory boss fights, you could actually do a pacifist run.
There are five bosses in the game, but not a single one I would even consider bad. They are all incredible. They aren’t the most challenging or off the wall… well, until you do Death Wish, but more on that later, but they have a lot of engaging mechanics that it doesn’t feel repetitive or one-note. You have the Mafia boss which takes place in 2D planes, and he can spin around towards you, spin to create electric shockwaves, or throw spinning weapons at you. And of course, he has the mafia ball.
The Dead Bird Studios boss actually depends on who you help get the most points. Meaning you either fight DJ Grooves or the Conductor. They all play the same with both of them even using attacks more associated with the other such as DJ using knives and bombs when it's more Conductor’s thing, or Conductor crashing a disco ball on you or running you over with cars despite being DJ’s thing. There is one attack that combines both aspects of the characters which is a parade with knives. My favorite thing about this fight is that half-way through, they just turn out the lights, play the piano, and pause the action to have a little “heart to heart” with you. They try to reason with you and explain their motives for wanting that one time piece. If you’re fighting DJ, he wants to use it to undo every loss he got because he thinks the Conductor is cheating. If you’re fighting The Conductor, he wants to use it to reclaim his perfect streak as he lost the 42nd bird awards to DJ. You have the choice to “maybe” give it to them, or just say no. If you say no, they will get upset and even project what they actually are onto you with the DJ calling you selfish while the Conductor calls you greedy. If you say “maybe”, they will be so happy… except they’ll still try to kill you because they didn’t want word going out that they cheated with time powers. So now you gotta time bomb on you, but that’s ok, because the person you’re not fighting is helping you to diffuse it.
There are two Subcon Forest bosses, the Snatcher who utilizes in trickery and even takes away your hat, so you can’t use Sprint Hat or even any of the hat mods against him (more on that later). This makes him arguably the most challenging fight in the game although he is still able to be figured out.
The other boss is one you fight earlier and it’s kinda ridiculous… It's a possessed toilet. It’s framed as more of a mini-boss, but there are enough mechanics that I think warrants being called a real boss. It’s really complicated to explain because if I had told you what all it does, you’d think I’m bullshitting, so you’re just gonna have to see it for yourself to believe it. All I can say is that this thing is so terrifying that even the Snatcher doesn’t want to fuck with it.
The final boss is against Mustache Girl, and she has the power of time on her side after having stolen your time pieces as she can now teleport around and throw time pieces to damage you. She also has her own tricks such as a “flying drill tackle” which she does in the first phase, but in the 2nd phase, she starts firing lasers and her time pieces leave behind a fissure. She can also jump around and leave behind a shockwave. However, you’re not alone as you have allies from across the game and they assist you when Mustache Girl starts playing unfair. The 3rd phase is basically a “you win” phase because you just get unlimited health despite her attacks getting much faster and more desperate. However, if you have the 1 hit badge active… well, you better actually put that Time Stop hat to use. I know this fight isn’t held in high regards compared to the others because you have a high chance of having the Time Stop on hand, but I still love it for its use of the “power of friendship” which is unironically one of my favorite tropes in fiction, and the music is incredible.
The soundtrack in this game is among my favorites in any video game, and there’s a shocking lot of them too to the point where there are songs that couldn’t even make the game, but even then, what they manage to get in is a surprising lot, and I’m talking 78 songs in just the base game alone. Not a single one I even recall being dull as even the weaker tracks at least fit with the atmosphere, and there’s plenty of upbeat songs. The overworld theme is one you’ll be hearing the most often, but the music instruments will shift around depending on which room you end up like for example, if you end up in the bathroom where the Arctic Cruise telescope is, then it changes to a more “sailor” feel to it, or if you end up in the attic, it becomes more intimidating. Also, if it sounds familiar to you, then that’s because this is the sole contribution to the game’s soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope and of course anything he touches is gold, but the rest of the soundtrack was done by Pascal Michael Stiefel. A lot of them are surprising contenders for the best song in the game, and there is something in there for everyone.
For people who love tranquility, Clocktowers Beneath the Sea makes you feel as though you are drifting lost in the vastness of time while you hear what I assume are dolphins in the background. For the people who love more casual music, Welcome to Mafia Town makes a great first impression as you venture into your first level and as you explore, you see the place in a harmonious state… well, aside from Mustache Girl beating up the mafia and mafia beating up old people for some reason. You want something smooth, you got Mafia HQ. You want the Homebrew Theme that plays when you successfully hacked your Wii? It is literally in the game. You want something spooky & upbeat with an emphasis on upbeat? She Came From Outer Space is there. What about something with an emphasis on spooky? You got Subcon Forest for that. You want something downright terrifying? Why not go play with Vanessa and find out? It really goes to show how much the soundtrack has going on. My favorites are the boss themes, and especially the credit theme.
You thought you were done when collecting all the time pieces? Think again because you have a mode called Death Wish waiting for you, and if you thought the game was easy before, you have not seen anything yet. These challenges get so hard that I haven’t even got to the last part of the boss rush that amps up the bosses, and Mustache Girl on Death Wish mode alone took me over 30 tries to defeat even with the Time Stop hat. Not just the bosses that are amped up, but the challenges. This includes clearing levels with a new condition as well as two bonus objectives, finding tokens which isn’t actually that hard if you have the compass badge and a good amount of knowledge of the games movement mechanics, and defeating bosses that have been amped up to oblivion. Everyone is a lot faster with their attacks and even develops new attack patterns. The Mafia Boss now has sacks constantly raining on you, so you can’t afford to not move around. You have to fight both directors instead of whoever you let win. Snatcher is constantly throwing shockwaves, so you have to keep moving. The Mustache Girl is throwing out time piece fissures even when she uses lasers and shockwaves. And if you thought that was bad, Snatcher at the end of the boss rush throws everything at you, but the kitchen sink and you don’t have your hat abilities in this fight and the amount of health you lost in your fight against Mustache Girl is what you’re stuck with with all chances, so if you only have two health left against Mustache Girl after beating her, you only have two health per chance against the Snatcher. And you wanna know what’s messed up? This is all supposedly the “nerfed” version of those fights.
That aside, if by some miracle you managed to get every contract in Death Wish finished, then there’s pretty much nothing left to do… if you’re playing on Console. The PC is an entirely different story as you got thousands of mods, a few of which are even endorsed by the creators themselves. Vanessa’s Curse DLC isn’t even done by the creators of the game, but by its community and introduces a brand new gamemode which I never got to experience since I couldn’t find anyone to play with and felt nervous to ask. But you also got level mods, badge mods, and even hat mods. One level mod that stuck out to me was Viospace which was available as part of a community gauntlet when I went to replay the game, and while you can’t die which means you have as many tries as you’d like even with the gauntlets “3 chances”, it is actually ridiculous and I only had one more chance from dying to a following level and felt grateful that the last level was so easy because the creator’s development engine crashed and ended up losing the remainder of the level they planned. It was unfortunate the creator got screwed over, though. You also have badge mods with the most notable was Lilac’s earpiece which replaces your homing attack with Lilac’s cyclone which is one of the game’s earlier mods, and even Gears For Breakfast endorsed it because you’ll sometimes hear Hat Kid say “cyclone!” when you use it. One mod that I’m sure they definitely didn’t endorse was the Mario Odyssey hat. Can’t afford the game or you don’t have the switch? That’s fine. Just install this mod, and you can throw Cappy out and bounce on him for great vertical distance. Since Lilac’s headpiece is a badge and Cappy is a hat, you can equip them both and achieve ridiculous distances the game did not intend for you to achieve. Hell, I’m sure even with these two, an average player could outrun or at least keep up with a speedrunner. Obviously they would not count towards any speedrun records, but it really shows the kind of power you have. Now because I want a more authentic experience with my playthrough since it's been 7 years since my last one, the only times I ever used the combo were to explore for rift tokens and relics that I missed. But there are a lot of mods in this game. There’s obviously gonna be some amateur half-baked ones in the workshop, some that function but are insanely overpowered (not like Lilac or Cappy are any different), but there are some that could be really cool. With the game’s overall eccentric tone, you could splash Hat Kid into many different scenarios and adventures whether it’d be something that would actually be in the game or even something designed to be a shitpost. Here's a catalog of all the A Hat in Time mods I've used, and the list will grow as I play more. https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Sq-eOHJO2hrIRDTSaGDFy3baxOhI6XtJ61XQOPBEEE/edit?usp=sharing
It really shows the amount of care that went into this game from the developers as not only have they delivered an incredible experience, but they allowed their community to do what they want and share it with everyone. It makes the game rich in content, and somehow makes it more than just another platformer that you’ll play; maybe like ok and move on. With the mods, it creates an experience that’ll keep you invested and if you ever want to tap out because you think you’ve played the game too much. That’s fine, there’s no “fear of missing out” gimmicks that’ll force you to play till the end of time. It’s just something there to give you a fresh take on something that feels familiar whenever you feel like it, and all the mods you subscribed to years ago will still be in your profile. You could make due with what the console gives you, and you’ll still have a good time and a lot of time trying to 100% Death Wish, but if you already got a good PC, I would prioritize that version above all else.
It’s hard for me to say when something is the “greatest game of all time” or the “crown jewel of a genre”, and even I can say that A Hat in Time may not be that type of game. To some there may just be better 3D platformers out there, but that being said, I still think A Hat in Time is worthy of being one of the greats in its own right.
A Hat in Time is a kickstarter from 2013 that made a little over $295,000 that took off during a time when 3D platformers were suffering a mainstream drought, and fans of the genre were clamoring for a comeback. This game along with Yooka-Laylee and Fiona Frightening and the Wicked Wardrobe were hyped up to be the return to glory. Unfortunately, Fiona Frightening was ultimately canceled, and Yooka-Laylee, while it had its fans, was seen as primitive and uninspired. alsotherapsuckedass. With Yooka-Laylee’s reception, people are expecting A Hat in Time to be no different with someone explicitly saying on Twitter, and I still remember this vividly and who said it. “I can’t wait for A Hat in Time to turn out to be mediocre”. Against all odds, A Hat in Time managed to not only come through, but it also managed to stand on its own even when the granddaddy of 3D Platformers, Mario came out with Super Mario Odyssey which people are calling to be just as good, if not better than Super Mario 64 or even Galaxy, and that says a hell of a lot.
A Hat in Time does not have the backings of a multi-billion let alone multi-million, but it manages to work its budget to its advantage to deliver a charming looking game that’s reminiscent of something that would be more right at home with the Gamecube. The background and scenery is really colorful with a variety of locations like a beach town, a movie studio, a haunted forest, and the alpines to name a few. The character models are also really expressive that really emphasize their personalities such as DJ Grooves always dancing when he’s standing on-screen although I find it odd how many of them don’t have mouth movement when they speak, but a select few do which include The Conductor, The Snatcher, the Captain, and the Empress. And yes, the game has full on voice acting, and even some unimportant lines of dialogue you could easily gloss over end up getting one. Even the “silent protagonist” ends up getting some lines of dialogue at points of the game, and you can even have her emote to say even more lines. There aren’t a whole lot of big names in the voice acting department although you may recognize Xander Mobius, who is not only the voice of Persona 5’s protagonist, but the announcer of Super Smash Bros 4 and Ultimate. The other big name is one that doesn’t even have that many lines and isn’t even a VA and it’s, believe it or not, JonTron. Did you know that he was also supposed to make a cameo in Yooka-Laylee, but ended up being removed over a controversial opinion? Yet Yooka-Laylee ended up with lukewarm reception while A Hat in Time was highly praised. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
A Hat in Time’s gameplay takes cues from the 3D Super Mario games. You arrive at segmented open areas where you find a relic that is important for progression and to unlock more areas. In this game’s case, it is Time Pieces which are meant to be used to help Hat Kid return to her home planet, but was ultimately thwarted because a mafia decided to fuck with her because she wasn’t paying the toll. Everytime you collect one, you return to your hub, which is your spaceship. You need to collect the time pieces in order to repair your ship to access more rooms in order to access the areas. In the base game, there are 40 time pieces you can collect and the two DLCs add 16 more in total. In order to collect them, you will need to make the best of your movements and the abilities you acquire from your hats. The game opts for having a double jump as your means of gaining a boost in vertical movement, but the game also lets you dive which gives you a boost in horizontal movement. When you combine them both, you can reach some impressive distances. Of course, you also get help from your hats and there are six in the game. You have the standard hat which is designed to help guide you to your objective. The Sprint Hat which boosts your speed. The Ice Hat lets you perform a ground pound although it doesn’t seem to do any damage as far as I’m aware, but it does let you navigate specific platforms that bounce you when you ground pound. You can also become immune to attacks that way, but if it breaks, you’ll be met with a very long cooldown. The Explosive Hat lets you throw a potion that breaks crates and barrels while damaging enemies from afar. The Dweller Mask lets you create a reality warping bubble for a short period of time that lets you traverse through green transparent platforms. Lastly, the Time Stop Mask, the most powerful and most expensive to craft, lets you slow time for a brief moment although it does have a long cooldown which if used will be shared across all of your hats.
The game also has badges to assist you although you can only have three active at a time. In theory, this should give you some interesting customization, but in practice, the customization feels limiting due to how mandatory or “too good” some of these badges are. For example, the hookshot badge feels mandatory since many levels are built with the hookshot in mind. The Fast Hatter badge lets you reduce the cooldown of your hats which allow you to use hat abilities like Dweller Mask and Time Stop Hat much more frequently. The Scooter Badge upgrades your Sprint Hat to just let you ride a scooter. From there, you have the Projectile Badge which should be useful, but the laser hitbox isn’t as clear as you may think it is, and having it equipped can lead to some awkward stops when you’re just trying to use a melee attack as you may accidentally set off a level 1 laser. The Hover badge which lets you save yourself from taking fall damage, but if you’re skilled enough, you’ll find almost no use for it. If you are about to fall off too high, just dive when you get close enough to the ground to slow your fall or maybe even use Ice Hat. Item Magnet badge lets you draw nearby collectibles which is nice to have early game when you’re collecting gems. No Bonk badge is nice to have for beginners that struggle to cancel their dive when diving to walls, and maybe even useful in more hectic platforming scenarios. And finally, you have the Compass badge which lets you track down rift tokens that unlock cosmetics and relics that unlock time rifts which are bonus levels that are more linear. They’re short and not too difficult. The rest of the badges are either cosmetic or just designed to troll you which include mumbling to make it sound like Banjo & Kazooie, nerfing the graphics to look like a Nintendo 64 game, and one that makes you die to one hit.
The level design across the board is pretty good. It’s not designed to be over difficult, making it friendly enough for beginners to clear the game while offering room for skill expression. They often take advantage of the game’s mechanics and interactions which include hookshot points, tightropes, and wall climbing. Enemies don’t really appear all that often particularly in Dead Bird Studios or Subcon Forest, and attacking enemies is usually optional to the point where if not for the mandatory boss fights, you could actually do a pacifist run.
There are five bosses in the game, but not a single one I would even consider bad. They are all incredible. They aren’t the most challenging or off the wall… well, until you do Death Wish, but more on that later, but they have a lot of engaging mechanics that it doesn’t feel repetitive or one-note. You have the Mafia boss which takes place in 2D planes, and he can spin around towards you, spin to create electric shockwaves, or throw spinning weapons at you. And of course, he has the mafia ball.
The Dead Bird Studios boss actually depends on who you help get the most points. Meaning you either fight DJ Grooves or the Conductor. They all play the same with both of them even using attacks more associated with the other such as DJ using knives and bombs when it's more Conductor’s thing, or Conductor crashing a disco ball on you or running you over with cars despite being DJ’s thing. There is one attack that combines both aspects of the characters which is a parade with knives. My favorite thing about this fight is that half-way through, they just turn out the lights, play the piano, and pause the action to have a little “heart to heart” with you. They try to reason with you and explain their motives for wanting that one time piece. If you’re fighting DJ, he wants to use it to undo every loss he got because he thinks the Conductor is cheating. If you’re fighting The Conductor, he wants to use it to reclaim his perfect streak as he lost the 42nd bird awards to DJ. You have the choice to “maybe” give it to them, or just say no. If you say no, they will get upset and even project what they actually are onto you with the DJ calling you selfish while the Conductor calls you greedy. If you say “maybe”, they will be so happy… except they’ll still try to kill you because they didn’t want word going out that they cheated with time powers. So now you gotta time bomb on you, but that’s ok, because the person you’re not fighting is helping you to diffuse it.
There are two Subcon Forest bosses, the Snatcher who utilizes in trickery and even takes away your hat, so you can’t use Sprint Hat or even any of the hat mods against him (more on that later). This makes him arguably the most challenging fight in the game although he is still able to be figured out.
The other boss is one you fight earlier and it’s kinda ridiculous… It's a possessed toilet. It’s framed as more of a mini-boss, but there are enough mechanics that I think warrants being called a real boss. It’s really complicated to explain because if I had told you what all it does, you’d think I’m bullshitting, so you’re just gonna have to see it for yourself to believe it. All I can say is that this thing is so terrifying that even the Snatcher doesn’t want to fuck with it.
The final boss is against Mustache Girl, and she has the power of time on her side after having stolen your time pieces as she can now teleport around and throw time pieces to damage you. She also has her own tricks such as a “flying drill tackle” which she does in the first phase, but in the 2nd phase, she starts firing lasers and her time pieces leave behind a fissure. She can also jump around and leave behind a shockwave. However, you’re not alone as you have allies from across the game and they assist you when Mustache Girl starts playing unfair. The 3rd phase is basically a “you win” phase because you just get unlimited health despite her attacks getting much faster and more desperate. However, if you have the 1 hit badge active… well, you better actually put that Time Stop hat to use. I know this fight isn’t held in high regards compared to the others because you have a high chance of having the Time Stop on hand, but I still love it for its use of the “power of friendship” which is unironically one of my favorite tropes in fiction, and the music is incredible.
The soundtrack in this game is among my favorites in any video game, and there’s a shocking lot of them too to the point where there are songs that couldn’t even make the game, but even then, what they manage to get in is a surprising lot, and I’m talking 78 songs in just the base game alone. Not a single one I even recall being dull as even the weaker tracks at least fit with the atmosphere, and there’s plenty of upbeat songs. The overworld theme is one you’ll be hearing the most often, but the music instruments will shift around depending on which room you end up like for example, if you end up in the bathroom where the Arctic Cruise telescope is, then it changes to a more “sailor” feel to it, or if you end up in the attic, it becomes more intimidating. Also, if it sounds familiar to you, then that’s because this is the sole contribution to the game’s soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope and of course anything he touches is gold, but the rest of the soundtrack was done by Pascal Michael Stiefel. A lot of them are surprising contenders for the best song in the game, and there is something in there for everyone.
For people who love tranquility, Clocktowers Beneath the Sea makes you feel as though you are drifting lost in the vastness of time while you hear what I assume are dolphins in the background. For the people who love more casual music, Welcome to Mafia Town makes a great first impression as you venture into your first level and as you explore, you see the place in a harmonious state… well, aside from Mustache Girl beating up the mafia and mafia beating up old people for some reason. You want something smooth, you got Mafia HQ. You want the Homebrew Theme that plays when you successfully hacked your Wii? It is literally in the game. You want something spooky & upbeat with an emphasis on upbeat? She Came From Outer Space is there. What about something with an emphasis on spooky? You got Subcon Forest for that. You want something downright terrifying? Why not go play with Vanessa and find out? It really goes to show how much the soundtrack has going on. My favorites are the boss themes, and especially the credit theme.
You thought you were done when collecting all the time pieces? Think again because you have a mode called Death Wish waiting for you, and if you thought the game was easy before, you have not seen anything yet. These challenges get so hard that I haven’t even got to the last part of the boss rush that amps up the bosses, and Mustache Girl on Death Wish mode alone took me over 30 tries to defeat even with the Time Stop hat. Not just the bosses that are amped up, but the challenges. This includes clearing levels with a new condition as well as two bonus objectives, finding tokens which isn’t actually that hard if you have the compass badge and a good amount of knowledge of the games movement mechanics, and defeating bosses that have been amped up to oblivion. Everyone is a lot faster with their attacks and even develops new attack patterns. The Mafia Boss now has sacks constantly raining on you, so you can’t afford to not move around. You have to fight both directors instead of whoever you let win. Snatcher is constantly throwing shockwaves, so you have to keep moving. The Mustache Girl is throwing out time piece fissures even when she uses lasers and shockwaves. And if you thought that was bad, Snatcher at the end of the boss rush throws everything at you, but the kitchen sink and you don’t have your hat abilities in this fight and the amount of health you lost in your fight against Mustache Girl is what you’re stuck with with all chances, so if you only have two health left against Mustache Girl after beating her, you only have two health per chance against the Snatcher. And you wanna know what’s messed up? This is all supposedly the “nerfed” version of those fights.
That aside, if by some miracle you managed to get every contract in Death Wish finished, then there’s pretty much nothing left to do… if you’re playing on Console. The PC is an entirely different story as you got thousands of mods, a few of which are even endorsed by the creators themselves. Vanessa’s Curse DLC isn’t even done by the creators of the game, but by its community and introduces a brand new gamemode which I never got to experience since I couldn’t find anyone to play with and felt nervous to ask. But you also got level mods, badge mods, and even hat mods. One level mod that stuck out to me was Viospace which was available as part of a community gauntlet when I went to replay the game, and while you can’t die which means you have as many tries as you’d like even with the gauntlets “3 chances”, it is actually ridiculous and I only had one more chance from dying to a following level and felt grateful that the last level was so easy because the creator’s development engine crashed and ended up losing the remainder of the level they planned. It was unfortunate the creator got screwed over, though. You also have badge mods with the most notable was Lilac’s earpiece which replaces your homing attack with Lilac’s cyclone which is one of the game’s earlier mods, and even Gears For Breakfast endorsed it because you’ll sometimes hear Hat Kid say “cyclone!” when you use it. One mod that I’m sure they definitely didn’t endorse was the Mario Odyssey hat. Can’t afford the game or you don’t have the switch? That’s fine. Just install this mod, and you can throw Cappy out and bounce on him for great vertical distance. Since Lilac’s headpiece is a badge and Cappy is a hat, you can equip them both and achieve ridiculous distances the game did not intend for you to achieve. Hell, I’m sure even with these two, an average player could outrun or at least keep up with a speedrunner. Obviously they would not count towards any speedrun records, but it really shows the kind of power you have. Now because I want a more authentic experience with my playthrough since it's been 7 years since my last one, the only times I ever used the combo were to explore for rift tokens and relics that I missed. But there are a lot of mods in this game. There’s obviously gonna be some amateur half-baked ones in the workshop, some that function but are insanely overpowered (not like Lilac or Cappy are any different), but there are some that could be really cool. With the game’s overall eccentric tone, you could splash Hat Kid into many different scenarios and adventures whether it’d be something that would actually be in the game or even something designed to be a shitpost. Here's a catalog of all the A Hat in Time mods I've used, and the list will grow as I play more. https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Sq-eOHJO2hrIRDTSaGDFy3baxOhI6XtJ61XQOPBEEE/edit?usp=sharing
It really shows the amount of care that went into this game from the developers as not only have they delivered an incredible experience, but they allowed their community to do what they want and share it with everyone. It makes the game rich in content, and somehow makes it more than just another platformer that you’ll play; maybe like ok and move on. With the mods, it creates an experience that’ll keep you invested and if you ever want to tap out because you think you’ve played the game too much. That’s fine, there’s no “fear of missing out” gimmicks that’ll force you to play till the end of time. It’s just something there to give you a fresh take on something that feels familiar whenever you feel like it, and all the mods you subscribed to years ago will still be in your profile. You could make due with what the console gives you, and you’ll still have a good time and a lot of time trying to 100% Death Wish, but if you already got a good PC, I would prioritize that version above all else.
1992
Cleared on May 22nd, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 75/160)
I wanted to like this game, but there is way too much stacked against it that it ends up feeling unfun in the grand scheme of things.
Taz-Mania is a platformer featuring the Looney Tunes icon Taz as he ventures through the wilds of tasmania in pursuit of a giant egg that could feed his family for about a week. At first, nothing really seems off. You can jump, throw items, and even breath fire if you've collected peppers. However, what makes this game interesting is Taz's spin which makes him go really fast and can damage foes in your way. It is a very powerful tool, but in a platformer like this, it is also very risky since it can cause you to fall off which best case scenario would knock you down a peg and force you to get back up, but worst case scenario is that you end up losing your life.
Yet you are required at points to jump and spin in order to get from one point to another, and sometimes because the camera is so zoomed in on your character, there are times where you can't tell where your platform is which puts you at risk of overshooting it, and you can get ambushed by enemies as well. Even with your spin attack, some enemies like the little spear dudes can still hit you while performing the move.
The game also throws in a few gimmicks such as "perspective platforming" which is where the game looks 2.5D with being able to move from multiple different logs at seeming different angles on the river, but it is so jank and trying to determine where to land is actually really difficult, and it's not like you can just bull rush it either. The minecart level is probably the most infamous of them all because it requires trial and error to figure out the pattern. Not even Donkey Kong Country can prepare you for how precise you need to be. You can slow down, sure. But there are points where you need to speed up to cross a ramp.
On top of that, I just really don't like the sound design of this game. There is often so much going on at once, and it gets more grating than anything. The music is ok, I guess, but nothing to go wild over. The graphics are quite nice with Taz's sprite and the environments, and the game even has an opening cutscene which is limited animation and textbox, but the sprites are pretty detailed. The game's ending felt rather jarring. It was meant to be comedic in Looney Tunes fashion, but it felt like the game just decided to end abruptly after defeating the last boss.
The game feels like a prelude to the Crash Bandicoot series, and I think Crash was even inspired by Taz himself. So seeing Taz take on the idea prior was kinda cool, and I would be down to see him try a 3D platformer with a wild spin to it... wait, there is one?
I wanted to like this game, but there is way too much stacked against it that it ends up feeling unfun in the grand scheme of things.
Taz-Mania is a platformer featuring the Looney Tunes icon Taz as he ventures through the wilds of tasmania in pursuit of a giant egg that could feed his family for about a week. At first, nothing really seems off. You can jump, throw items, and even breath fire if you've collected peppers. However, what makes this game interesting is Taz's spin which makes him go really fast and can damage foes in your way. It is a very powerful tool, but in a platformer like this, it is also very risky since it can cause you to fall off which best case scenario would knock you down a peg and force you to get back up, but worst case scenario is that you end up losing your life.
Yet you are required at points to jump and spin in order to get from one point to another, and sometimes because the camera is so zoomed in on your character, there are times where you can't tell where your platform is which puts you at risk of overshooting it, and you can get ambushed by enemies as well. Even with your spin attack, some enemies like the little spear dudes can still hit you while performing the move.
The game also throws in a few gimmicks such as "perspective platforming" which is where the game looks 2.5D with being able to move from multiple different logs at seeming different angles on the river, but it is so jank and trying to determine where to land is actually really difficult, and it's not like you can just bull rush it either. The minecart level is probably the most infamous of them all because it requires trial and error to figure out the pattern. Not even Donkey Kong Country can prepare you for how precise you need to be. You can slow down, sure. But there are points where you need to speed up to cross a ramp.
On top of that, I just really don't like the sound design of this game. There is often so much going on at once, and it gets more grating than anything. The music is ok, I guess, but nothing to go wild over. The graphics are quite nice with Taz's sprite and the environments, and the game even has an opening cutscene which is limited animation and textbox, but the sprites are pretty detailed. The game's ending felt rather jarring. It was meant to be comedic in Looney Tunes fashion, but it felt like the game just decided to end abruptly after defeating the last boss.
The game feels like a prelude to the Crash Bandicoot series, and I think Crash was even inspired by Taz himself. So seeing Taz take on the idea prior was kinda cool, and I would be down to see him try a 3D platformer with a wild spin to it... wait, there is one?
1989
Cleared on May 21st, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 74/160)
Note: While I did play a little bit of the mage, I ran through the whole game using the fighter. Review is subjected to be updated when I clear a playthrough with the mage.
Cadash is an side-scroller action platformer brought to you by the once arcade titan, Taito. I have not played the Arcade version although from my understanding the differences involve a timer for each level as well as two additional characters with the Priest and Ninja. On the Sega Genesis, it's just the Fighter and Mage.
The Fighter is the melee class that lets you attack with a sword with its advantage that they can take a lot of hits, but lack the range and versatility which can make it monotonous as you only have one attack button. The Mage, meanwhile, is the spellcaster that's advantage is that it has versatility with spells along with the range, but they do not take damage all that well, their melee attacks are much weaker, and their spells have a mana limit to be wary of.
Despite being an arcade title, it feels more like an Action RPG that you have to beat in 1 sitting (which I don't have to, thankfully). The problem is when you account for the fact that you can actual backtrack like you could in a metroidvania in order to fully heal yourself and just have as much time as you want to. In fact, I've used up a good amount of playtime just killing mobs until I reached Level 20 which from my understanding is the soft cap because the exp required to get from 20 to 21 is so high that you'll never really get there unless you're insane.
With the arcade structure, in mind, don't expect any complex puzzles or even any inventory management as if there's something you need, the game will just handle it for you. There are maybe a few secrets, but for the most part, the game follows a linear path from one point to the next, and if there are multiple paths, there's a good chance that it doesn't stray you for long, or its inaccessible until you get a certain item within the area.
The game ends up being fairly easy, and sure the first boss can give you real trouble, but if you can get past that, it gets much easier with the new equipment and the ability to just go back to town and heal back to full health as well as have medicine herbs on hand, and of course, much more effective mob farm hotspots become open to boost up your levels. Unfortunately, the game ends up feeling kinda boring. I don't mean to say that game's being easy means being boring, but not having much going on mechanically does. I understand that it was meant to be simple due to the timer that was there in the arcade which would encourage time management among your skills, but if they were going to get rid of it, they could've done more with the overall game to make it more engaging.
There's not much else to say about it. It's pretty run of the mill as far as action RPGs go, and I wouldn't really care to recommend it to even a die-hard RPG fan. It's not a terrible game, but it's the type of game that other games of its genre build off of.
Note: While I did play a little bit of the mage, I ran through the whole game using the fighter. Review is subjected to be updated when I clear a playthrough with the mage.
Cadash is an side-scroller action platformer brought to you by the once arcade titan, Taito. I have not played the Arcade version although from my understanding the differences involve a timer for each level as well as two additional characters with the Priest and Ninja. On the Sega Genesis, it's just the Fighter and Mage.
The Fighter is the melee class that lets you attack with a sword with its advantage that they can take a lot of hits, but lack the range and versatility which can make it monotonous as you only have one attack button. The Mage, meanwhile, is the spellcaster that's advantage is that it has versatility with spells along with the range, but they do not take damage all that well, their melee attacks are much weaker, and their spells have a mana limit to be wary of.
Despite being an arcade title, it feels more like an Action RPG that you have to beat in 1 sitting (which I don't have to, thankfully). The problem is when you account for the fact that you can actual backtrack like you could in a metroidvania in order to fully heal yourself and just have as much time as you want to. In fact, I've used up a good amount of playtime just killing mobs until I reached Level 20 which from my understanding is the soft cap because the exp required to get from 20 to 21 is so high that you'll never really get there unless you're insane.
With the arcade structure, in mind, don't expect any complex puzzles or even any inventory management as if there's something you need, the game will just handle it for you. There are maybe a few secrets, but for the most part, the game follows a linear path from one point to the next, and if there are multiple paths, there's a good chance that it doesn't stray you for long, or its inaccessible until you get a certain item within the area.
The game ends up being fairly easy, and sure the first boss can give you real trouble, but if you can get past that, it gets much easier with the new equipment and the ability to just go back to town and heal back to full health as well as have medicine herbs on hand, and of course, much more effective mob farm hotspots become open to boost up your levels. Unfortunately, the game ends up feeling kinda boring. I don't mean to say that game's being easy means being boring, but not having much going on mechanically does. I understand that it was meant to be simple due to the timer that was there in the arcade which would encourage time management among your skills, but if they were going to get rid of it, they could've done more with the overall game to make it more engaging.
There's not much else to say about it. It's pretty run of the mill as far as action RPGs go, and I wouldn't really care to recommend it to even a die-hard RPG fan. It's not a terrible game, but it's the type of game that other games of its genre build off of.
1991
Cleared on May 19th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 73/160)
For some odd reason, there's no Valis II on the Sega Genesis unless you count Syd of Valis, but I ain't touching that. However, I liked Valis I enough that I was willing to play through the game, and it was... good. It does some things better than its predecessor, but there are others that it does... really bad.
First of all, the big thing it does better is that it has much better dialogue. Some things from the plot still had to be cut, but never did I suspect something was off at the least although there were some funny grammatical errors like "take this swords" or "survivers". There were also text boxes within levels that make it hard to tell who's talking although you may be able to get an idea as to who is talking. Lastly, it's no longer called Fantasy World, it's now Dreamland... as it should be... which would now confuse players that played the original, but hey, I'm sure they'll like the new name just fine. Since there isn't really a Valis II on the system, the game gives you a recap on the story that happens for both Valis and Valis II which I suppose is nice to answer a few questions that I would've had otherwise. I also give it points for having the anime cutscenes feel more animated and while it doesn't compare to other versions of the game, it is a step-up from Valis I on the Genesis.
As far as gameplay goes, I like the addition of Cham and Valna as playable characters although this does come at some caveats. For one thing, you don't have a selection of spells like in the first game, and the spell you use depends on the wand that you picked up. One with the red orb, blue orb, or cyan orb. The good news is that each character has a spell that they can use, giving them three to work with. Also, I don't remember if this also applies to Valis I, but the camera when you're going up or left is atrocious. When you move left, it becomes difficult to see your foes coming because the camera is treated as though you are about to move right or rather that the level design was exclusively for you to go right.
Other than that, the usual gameplay applies. It's a 2D action game where you swing your weapon at foes, jump, high jump, and powerslide. The powerslide appears more responsive and works more the way I thought it should've in the original, but... there's an odd catch. It appears to be tied to the attack meter which determines how far your projectile will fire. Now in the original, if you collect the proper power-up, you can just press the button and fire projectiles which made the game one of the easier games on the system, but here, you have to wait a moment before you fire out a projectile and if you don't let it charge enough, it'll become too short. Perhaps this change was necessary for balancing purposes, but it kinda made combat feel odd as it would lead to some range scuff because you thought you waited enough and then it turned out you were just a second short. This is why I gravitate towards Cham and Valna because they don't have this issue at the least as Cham has a whip akin to Castlevania while Valna has projectiles that fire forward and another upward. Now you can remedy this issue with buffs that increase the range of your attack and the charge up speed which can make Yuka ok enough.
Strangely, this is another game that, despite being no shorter than a typical Genesis game, made me wish there was more to it. I know the PC Engine/TurboGrafx CD version has more stages and whatnot, but another major factor in why I felt disappointed... the final boss was so bad.
Rogles was a hard boss fight when I faced him, but with a great song and some build-up, it was a serviceable enough and in hindsight is probably one of the better bosses that I've fought on a Sega Genesis game so far.
Glames... more like, Gay and lame! AAAAAAA!!!! Dumb name aside, it was so disappointing that you have a solid build-up with the classic "good weapon vs bad weapon" where Yuka fights with Valis while Glames fights with Leethus... only for Glames to barely use Leethus and in the second phase proceeds to spam these insanely difficult to avoid flaming knives. You can hit them, but you might not have enough attack frames to hit them without taking a hit yourself. If his body is too close to you and fires the flame knives... good luck. Also, in phase 2, he will float around and sometimes he won't be off the ground enough to be able to powerslide underneath him. Oh, and in the room where you actually have to fight him, there are no wand power-ups and only two attack range boosts and one attack speed boost which means that if you want to take him on with full health, first of all, you need to avoid the bats that try to wear you down. Lastly, you need to deal with the sluggish attack range build-up, and you have to play as Valis for this boss fight. And because your attack range build-up is connected to your powerslide, deciding which one to do in a heated moment can be difficult and because its so slow, assuming you lost a life due to being too low on health before getting here, you won't get to do it all that often. To top it all off, the boss fight doesn't even have its own theme, something that Rogles has... but Glames doesn't.
Anyway, so the game ends with Yuka sealing off Valis and Leethus to never be used again, putting an end to the series so it seems... see y'all in Valis IV.
For some odd reason, there's no Valis II on the Sega Genesis unless you count Syd of Valis, but I ain't touching that. However, I liked Valis I enough that I was willing to play through the game, and it was... good. It does some things better than its predecessor, but there are others that it does... really bad.
First of all, the big thing it does better is that it has much better dialogue. Some things from the plot still had to be cut, but never did I suspect something was off at the least although there were some funny grammatical errors like "take this swords" or "survivers". There were also text boxes within levels that make it hard to tell who's talking although you may be able to get an idea as to who is talking. Lastly, it's no longer called Fantasy World, it's now Dreamland... as it should be... which would now confuse players that played the original, but hey, I'm sure they'll like the new name just fine. Since there isn't really a Valis II on the system, the game gives you a recap on the story that happens for both Valis and Valis II which I suppose is nice to answer a few questions that I would've had otherwise. I also give it points for having the anime cutscenes feel more animated and while it doesn't compare to other versions of the game, it is a step-up from Valis I on the Genesis.
As far as gameplay goes, I like the addition of Cham and Valna as playable characters although this does come at some caveats. For one thing, you don't have a selection of spells like in the first game, and the spell you use depends on the wand that you picked up. One with the red orb, blue orb, or cyan orb. The good news is that each character has a spell that they can use, giving them three to work with. Also, I don't remember if this also applies to Valis I, but the camera when you're going up or left is atrocious. When you move left, it becomes difficult to see your foes coming because the camera is treated as though you are about to move right or rather that the level design was exclusively for you to go right.
Other than that, the usual gameplay applies. It's a 2D action game where you swing your weapon at foes, jump, high jump, and powerslide. The powerslide appears more responsive and works more the way I thought it should've in the original, but... there's an odd catch. It appears to be tied to the attack meter which determines how far your projectile will fire. Now in the original, if you collect the proper power-up, you can just press the button and fire projectiles which made the game one of the easier games on the system, but here, you have to wait a moment before you fire out a projectile and if you don't let it charge enough, it'll become too short. Perhaps this change was necessary for balancing purposes, but it kinda made combat feel odd as it would lead to some range scuff because you thought you waited enough and then it turned out you were just a second short. This is why I gravitate towards Cham and Valna because they don't have this issue at the least as Cham has a whip akin to Castlevania while Valna has projectiles that fire forward and another upward. Now you can remedy this issue with buffs that increase the range of your attack and the charge up speed which can make Yuka ok enough.
Strangely, this is another game that, despite being no shorter than a typical Genesis game, made me wish there was more to it. I know the PC Engine/TurboGrafx CD version has more stages and whatnot, but another major factor in why I felt disappointed... the final boss was so bad.
Rogles was a hard boss fight when I faced him, but with a great song and some build-up, it was a serviceable enough and in hindsight is probably one of the better bosses that I've fought on a Sega Genesis game so far.
Glames... more like, Gay and lame! AAAAAAA!!!! Dumb name aside, it was so disappointing that you have a solid build-up with the classic "good weapon vs bad weapon" where Yuka fights with Valis while Glames fights with Leethus... only for Glames to barely use Leethus and in the second phase proceeds to spam these insanely difficult to avoid flaming knives. You can hit them, but you might not have enough attack frames to hit them without taking a hit yourself. If his body is too close to you and fires the flame knives... good luck. Also, in phase 2, he will float around and sometimes he won't be off the ground enough to be able to powerslide underneath him. Oh, and in the room where you actually have to fight him, there are no wand power-ups and only two attack range boosts and one attack speed boost which means that if you want to take him on with full health, first of all, you need to avoid the bats that try to wear you down. Lastly, you need to deal with the sluggish attack range build-up, and you have to play as Valis for this boss fight. And because your attack range build-up is connected to your powerslide, deciding which one to do in a heated moment can be difficult and because its so slow, assuming you lost a life due to being too low on health before getting here, you won't get to do it all that often. To top it all off, the boss fight doesn't even have its own theme, something that Rogles has... but Glames doesn't.
Anyway, so the game ends with Yuka sealing off Valis and Leethus to never be used again, putting an end to the series so it seems... see y'all in Valis IV.
1992
Cleared on May 17th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 72/160)
With colorful graphics and a sexy looking magician with a monster accompanying her, the game makes a very good visual impression with some great music. That said, the game looks better than it plays. Not that the gameplay is terrible or anything, but there are some oddities in the gameplay.
One problem is that enemies will infinitely respawn at certain points and while you do have the tools to deal with multiple enemies at once, if you're hoping to clear them out and move along, more enemies will come in before you can even move, so you would need to brute force your way through.
Another problem is that dodging attacks is very difficult. It can be remedied through the fire spirit who is the only spirit that can actually absorb projectile damage without losing health as it has a built-in shield although at least the game has the courteousy to lay out health potions and give you a good amount of a health to withstand damage.
And there have been some clunk in the movement as there are sometimes where landing lag will happen and other times it won't which can make some sections that involve reactive jumping more difficult.
Lastly, bosses at the final 3 stages take a very long time to take down with the 6th stage boss being so bad. Oh my god. Diagonal terrain makes it hard enough to move around and avoid attacks as is, but when you combine that with a rapidly moving background, you can barely make out your surroundings or where the bullets are.
This game is flawed, but it's a weird case where I actually enjoyed it despite this. The game is a 2D action game where you traverse through lands to fight monsters and defeat some priest from awakening "his master". But you're not alone for you have a monster companion of your own.
Alisia on her own can unleash a lightning bolt that spreads onto multiple targets and deal decent damage, but her companions, DragonFyre can spew fireballs and at max level can fire three at a time. Good for open areas. Ball O'Fire which can damage foes on contact and shield you from projectiles. Very niche offensively to the point where I thought it was useless, but seeing it absorb projectiles in the 7th stage boss makes me think I may have underestimated it. Thunder Raven winds up an storm nuke that damages all foes on the screen. Easily my favorite and works in any scenario. Boomerang Lizard fires boomerangs at foes which makes it a decent alternative to the Dragon.
You get them all in the beginning of the game, but it is important to switch between them since they can take damage and even die. I haven't verified if they can be revived, but I imagine through finding meat with them active can maybe bring them to life.
I guess the coolness factor just elevates this game for me with being able to unleash lightning on your foes with pets to assist you. Sure the game does get tough, but with the potions and meat lying around, it can be bearable as long as you understand the game's workings, but at the same time, the difficulty and bad enemy placement does make it probably the weakest of all the 4 star games I have reviewed on the Sega Genesis thus far.
With colorful graphics and a sexy looking magician with a monster accompanying her, the game makes a very good visual impression with some great music. That said, the game looks better than it plays. Not that the gameplay is terrible or anything, but there are some oddities in the gameplay.
One problem is that enemies will infinitely respawn at certain points and while you do have the tools to deal with multiple enemies at once, if you're hoping to clear them out and move along, more enemies will come in before you can even move, so you would need to brute force your way through.
Another problem is that dodging attacks is very difficult. It can be remedied through the fire spirit who is the only spirit that can actually absorb projectile damage without losing health as it has a built-in shield although at least the game has the courteousy to lay out health potions and give you a good amount of a health to withstand damage.
And there have been some clunk in the movement as there are sometimes where landing lag will happen and other times it won't which can make some sections that involve reactive jumping more difficult.
Lastly, bosses at the final 3 stages take a very long time to take down with the 6th stage boss being so bad. Oh my god. Diagonal terrain makes it hard enough to move around and avoid attacks as is, but when you combine that with a rapidly moving background, you can barely make out your surroundings or where the bullets are.
This game is flawed, but it's a weird case where I actually enjoyed it despite this. The game is a 2D action game where you traverse through lands to fight monsters and defeat some priest from awakening "his master". But you're not alone for you have a monster companion of your own.
Alisia on her own can unleash a lightning bolt that spreads onto multiple targets and deal decent damage, but her companions, DragonFyre can spew fireballs and at max level can fire three at a time. Good for open areas. Ball O'Fire which can damage foes on contact and shield you from projectiles. Very niche offensively to the point where I thought it was useless, but seeing it absorb projectiles in the 7th stage boss makes me think I may have underestimated it. Thunder Raven winds up an storm nuke that damages all foes on the screen. Easily my favorite and works in any scenario. Boomerang Lizard fires boomerangs at foes which makes it a decent alternative to the Dragon.
You get them all in the beginning of the game, but it is important to switch between them since they can take damage and even die. I haven't verified if they can be revived, but I imagine through finding meat with them active can maybe bring them to life.
I guess the coolness factor just elevates this game for me with being able to unleash lightning on your foes with pets to assist you. Sure the game does get tough, but with the potions and meat lying around, it can be bearable as long as you understand the game's workings, but at the same time, the difficulty and bad enemy placement does make it probably the weakest of all the 4 star games I have reviewed on the Sega Genesis thus far.
1988
Cleared on May 17th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 71/160)
Insector X is another horizontal shoot em up on the Sega Genesis. I would say that this has gotten a bit out of hand, but it is my fault that I logged them in the first place. That aside, what does it bring to the table?
Well, there are bugs... and by "bugs", I mean insects and arachnids that you must fight, but you can also fire two different weapons and switch between two secondary weapons which instead of growing in power will drastically change how it functions based on level. You have the typical P and S icons for main weapon power and speed, but the secondary weapons will include a red gun which covers a horizontal area while the blue gun covers downward which may seem impractical until you realize that you kinda need them for a better shot at venturing through tight corridors since the enemy may be out of line of sight for your shots otherwise. Even though the functionalities are different, they still feel more powerful than the last and you can just spam both main and secondary weapons with two buttons at once.
For this reason, this is one of the easier shoot em ups as once you get maxed out, you can just breeze through the bosses, and even if you lose a life, big deal... just set the games stock count to 8 and you'll be alright. Well, until you get to the final levels where the game barrages you with these tiny bugs in tight corridors that can shoot at you. Then the game just goes wild with the enemies on-screen with projectiles. And if you think "Well, I've collected so many lives throughout the game, no big deal, I'll just waste away my lives just to brute force through the mob". Think again. This game has checkpoints where if you lose a life, you will be set back to a certain point and while it won't send you back to the beginning, good luck trying again with those sequences.
The boss battles aren't too difficult for this genres standards. I think the hardest one may have been either the 1st or 3rd boss, and the final boss is easy enough once you stay at a spot, occasionally move right or left to avoid the balls, and completely avoid the laser... close to its crotch. Am I crazy or is it a recurring theme to involve penis look-a-likes or "pissing" in shoot em ups? Also, the final boss does not have its own boss theme.
It's a good shooter all things considered. The slowdown that I've experienced is minor, and doesn't try to bullshit you up until the final level.
Insector X is another horizontal shoot em up on the Sega Genesis. I would say that this has gotten a bit out of hand, but it is my fault that I logged them in the first place. That aside, what does it bring to the table?
Well, there are bugs... and by "bugs", I mean insects and arachnids that you must fight, but you can also fire two different weapons and switch between two secondary weapons which instead of growing in power will drastically change how it functions based on level. You have the typical P and S icons for main weapon power and speed, but the secondary weapons will include a red gun which covers a horizontal area while the blue gun covers downward which may seem impractical until you realize that you kinda need them for a better shot at venturing through tight corridors since the enemy may be out of line of sight for your shots otherwise. Even though the functionalities are different, they still feel more powerful than the last and you can just spam both main and secondary weapons with two buttons at once.
For this reason, this is one of the easier shoot em ups as once you get maxed out, you can just breeze through the bosses, and even if you lose a life, big deal... just set the games stock count to 8 and you'll be alright. Well, until you get to the final levels where the game barrages you with these tiny bugs in tight corridors that can shoot at you. Then the game just goes wild with the enemies on-screen with projectiles. And if you think "Well, I've collected so many lives throughout the game, no big deal, I'll just waste away my lives just to brute force through the mob". Think again. This game has checkpoints where if you lose a life, you will be set back to a certain point and while it won't send you back to the beginning, good luck trying again with those sequences.
The boss battles aren't too difficult for this genres standards. I think the hardest one may have been either the 1st or 3rd boss, and the final boss is easy enough once you stay at a spot, occasionally move right or left to avoid the balls, and completely avoid the laser... close to its crotch. Am I crazy or is it a recurring theme to involve penis look-a-likes or "pissing" in shoot em ups? Also, the final boss does not have its own boss theme.
It's a good shooter all things considered. The slowdown that I've experienced is minor, and doesn't try to bullshit you up until the final level.
1992
Cleared on May 16th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 70/160)
Undead Line takes every possible way you can make a vertical shoot em up insanely difficult and just runs with it. Your character is on foot which makes it prone to hazards and collision, but its not like Twinkle Tale where you can move on your own accordance, but its an auto-scroller where you aim in one direction. Add that with a barrage of enemies and very tricky boss fights and that's Undead Line.
This is the kind of difficulty that could make me miserable, but I think what carries this game for me is the ghoulish atmosphere and the fun weaponry. You are playing as a warrior named Leon, who is on a quest to defeat Count Brahzen and his monster army. There you venture into the darkness where they await your demise. Fortunately for you, you have chests laying all around that can provide you with weaponry and buffs.
You have six possible weapons which consist of Throwing Knife. A standard rapid-fire projectile. I never bothered to upgrade it, so I don't know what it would accomplish. It's your standard weapon and presumably the worst. Energy Blast is a projectile that upon contact will create a blast that damages enemies nearby with the blast growing stronger as you upgrade. Fireball which creates fireball projectiles and upon upgrade will become a flamethrower, making it arguably the best for dealing with bosses. Axe returns like a boomerang with low range and pierces through enemies. I'm sure the damage is good, but it's probably one of the worst weapons in the game due to the nature of this game with enemies barraging you left and right and having a slow straight line projectile that you can only have 5 out at a time is kinda a liability. Boomerang is kinda the same idea, but it takes its own upgrade direction with going in different directions and at max level will turn into a homing shot that hits nearby enemies, making it probably the best for clearing enemies. Crossed Sword is another really good AoE weapon. Each of which (except for Throwing Knife) is tied to a stat which you can upgrade at the end of each level, provided that you collect fairies that spawn at each level with 3 per level which means you can gain a maximum of 18 throughout a run of the game. If I have to guess, not only does it give you a headstart in upgrade, but also boosts damage. So the most optimal strategy would be to max out the stat based on which weapon you want to use. You want to use Energy Blast? Pick MP which also comes with the added benefit of making your Spirit stronger which despite appearing in the weapon chest is more of a buff moreso than anything. You want to use Crossed Sword, stack up on Strength. You want to rotate between Flamethrower and Boomerang? Boost your Dexterity. There's also Agility which boosts your movement speed which can be nice to have.
In addition to your weapons, you have a shield which can block certain projectiles that shoot in front of you. You are going to need it because its the only way to deal with certain obstacles that seem otherwise improbable to avoid. You have three spike balls which will spin around you and protect you from projectiles and damage nearby foes, but you only get three per life, so use them wisely. You also have item chests that improve your survivability which include Blue Medicine which heals you by one point as well as Shield which protects you for 3 hits. You have dynamite for a screen nuke and an invincibility potion. Do be careful when shooting the chest since there are duds like the red potion which despite its red look will actually decrease your HP by 1, a black potion which will revert you to Level 1 Throwing Knife, and Lead Boots which will slow you.
As stated before, this game can get very punishing under bad circumstances. There is no damage buffer to give you time to re-adapt, if you get barraged three times in less than 2 seconds, you lost all of that health. Checkpoints only exist after you defeat the mini-boss which some levels aren't guaranteed to have. And the bosses are a real bitch to fight. The Forest boss fight is ironically the worst despite being the one you will most likely fight first since you can tackle them in any order. It's massive, it has spinning boulders, and you need to utilize a very specific movement pattern, so its fat hitbox doesn't collide with yours while making sure the boulder doesn't hit you from behind. Other boss fights include an undead sorcerer that radiates dark auras that can harm you on contact which can be beaten back by simply attacking, but you also have rapid fire projectiles. Ruins I don't think is hard as long as you keep blocking. The fire boss is actually really easy once you figure out you can shoot its hand to block one of its projectiles, allowing you room to avoid only one fire wave. I think I had a better time with this fight due to using Crossed Sword. The dragon is a tanky one, and can damage you with a gust of wind and a flame breath. If there's one point I can say the agility stat would be the most optimal, this would be the fight. Drain has you deal with the slime boss which isn't too hard. The final boss, meanwhile, seems like it's unwinnable at first, but once can figure out you can get up close, and get into a rhythm of blocking its 2nd attack and dodge right for its lasers when it comes up while blocking, it's not that hard to deal with.
Undead Line did have some neat ideas, and I'm a sucker for a more gothic atmosphere in games, but the over the top difficulty really bogged this game down for me even on Easy mode. It really would've been right at home in America given how often they like to bullshit their game difficulty for international releases. Rental stores would've loved to have copies of this game lying around.
Undead Line takes every possible way you can make a vertical shoot em up insanely difficult and just runs with it. Your character is on foot which makes it prone to hazards and collision, but its not like Twinkle Tale where you can move on your own accordance, but its an auto-scroller where you aim in one direction. Add that with a barrage of enemies and very tricky boss fights and that's Undead Line.
This is the kind of difficulty that could make me miserable, but I think what carries this game for me is the ghoulish atmosphere and the fun weaponry. You are playing as a warrior named Leon, who is on a quest to defeat Count Brahzen and his monster army. There you venture into the darkness where they await your demise. Fortunately for you, you have chests laying all around that can provide you with weaponry and buffs.
You have six possible weapons which consist of Throwing Knife. A standard rapid-fire projectile. I never bothered to upgrade it, so I don't know what it would accomplish. It's your standard weapon and presumably the worst. Energy Blast is a projectile that upon contact will create a blast that damages enemies nearby with the blast growing stronger as you upgrade. Fireball which creates fireball projectiles and upon upgrade will become a flamethrower, making it arguably the best for dealing with bosses. Axe returns like a boomerang with low range and pierces through enemies. I'm sure the damage is good, but it's probably one of the worst weapons in the game due to the nature of this game with enemies barraging you left and right and having a slow straight line projectile that you can only have 5 out at a time is kinda a liability. Boomerang is kinda the same idea, but it takes its own upgrade direction with going in different directions and at max level will turn into a homing shot that hits nearby enemies, making it probably the best for clearing enemies. Crossed Sword is another really good AoE weapon. Each of which (except for Throwing Knife) is tied to a stat which you can upgrade at the end of each level, provided that you collect fairies that spawn at each level with 3 per level which means you can gain a maximum of 18 throughout a run of the game. If I have to guess, not only does it give you a headstart in upgrade, but also boosts damage. So the most optimal strategy would be to max out the stat based on which weapon you want to use. You want to use Energy Blast? Pick MP which also comes with the added benefit of making your Spirit stronger which despite appearing in the weapon chest is more of a buff moreso than anything. You want to use Crossed Sword, stack up on Strength. You want to rotate between Flamethrower and Boomerang? Boost your Dexterity. There's also Agility which boosts your movement speed which can be nice to have.
In addition to your weapons, you have a shield which can block certain projectiles that shoot in front of you. You are going to need it because its the only way to deal with certain obstacles that seem otherwise improbable to avoid. You have three spike balls which will spin around you and protect you from projectiles and damage nearby foes, but you only get three per life, so use them wisely. You also have item chests that improve your survivability which include Blue Medicine which heals you by one point as well as Shield which protects you for 3 hits. You have dynamite for a screen nuke and an invincibility potion. Do be careful when shooting the chest since there are duds like the red potion which despite its red look will actually decrease your HP by 1, a black potion which will revert you to Level 1 Throwing Knife, and Lead Boots which will slow you.
As stated before, this game can get very punishing under bad circumstances. There is no damage buffer to give you time to re-adapt, if you get barraged three times in less than 2 seconds, you lost all of that health. Checkpoints only exist after you defeat the mini-boss which some levels aren't guaranteed to have. And the bosses are a real bitch to fight. The Forest boss fight is ironically the worst despite being the one you will most likely fight first since you can tackle them in any order. It's massive, it has spinning boulders, and you need to utilize a very specific movement pattern, so its fat hitbox doesn't collide with yours while making sure the boulder doesn't hit you from behind. Other boss fights include an undead sorcerer that radiates dark auras that can harm you on contact which can be beaten back by simply attacking, but you also have rapid fire projectiles. Ruins I don't think is hard as long as you keep blocking. The fire boss is actually really easy once you figure out you can shoot its hand to block one of its projectiles, allowing you room to avoid only one fire wave. I think I had a better time with this fight due to using Crossed Sword. The dragon is a tanky one, and can damage you with a gust of wind and a flame breath. If there's one point I can say the agility stat would be the most optimal, this would be the fight. Drain has you deal with the slime boss which isn't too hard. The final boss, meanwhile, seems like it's unwinnable at first, but once can figure out you can get up close, and get into a rhythm of blocking its 2nd attack and dodge right for its lasers when it comes up while blocking, it's not that hard to deal with.
Undead Line did have some neat ideas, and I'm a sucker for a more gothic atmosphere in games, but the over the top difficulty really bogged this game down for me even on Easy mode. It really would've been right at home in America given how often they like to bullshit their game difficulty for international releases. Rental stores would've loved to have copies of this game lying around.
1994
Played on May 15th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 69/160)
Originally, this game was not on my Sega Genesis Challenge list, but after the terribly unfun time I had with Strider, I swapped out Strider's Return with this very interesting take on the typical sports game.
Now, I really don't care for the more "grounded in reality" sports games like Madden, FIFA, or NBA. They are insanely bloated in the mainstream marketing with their yearly releases, and I just think they are boring. It's when there's some kind of fantasy catch to it that makes it more exciting. Mutant League Hockey is one of those games where it takes the simple game of hockey and throws monsters into the ring with gore, hazards, and all kinds of dangerous plays.
So the game of hockey goes like this, you have a puck, you have to secure it and get it to the goal while maneuvering against your foe and bypassing the goalie. This is easier said than done when they can also punch you to the ground which you can to, but they can also intercept your shots.
What makes it stand out is more than just aesthetic, but also the arsenal you have on hand. You can call some nasty plays which include exploding pucks to blow up in the enemies face, you can waste the goalie to make it easier to make the shot, you can confuse the enemies, and much more depending on the team you have.
The team may seem cosmetic on the surface, but really, each of the players it houses have individual stats with some being better than others. Some of them are intentionally designed to be trash like the Mighty Weenies, but others are designed to be so good they can't even play in playoffs such as the All Stars. In a way, it's kinda like deciding what difficulty you want to play on.
The one thing that I'm unsure of about this game is playing with penalties on because while it does seem more balanced to prevent cheesy strategies, it's often difficult to determine what conditions cause penalties and in a game as rough as this, it kinda feels undermining of the whole point of the game. It does encourage you to utilize in special plays like bribing the referee or even outright killing him, but it actively discourages nasty plays because if you kill the goalie, the player that delivered the killing blow ends up penalized. You can also set how vulnerable to death each person is as Level 1 will ensure that almost everyone survives, but Level 5 will more likely cause a forfeit to decide a game.
Another thing I find odd is that the NPCs will never use any special plays themselves even with penalties off which seems to give you more of the upper hand against them. Not sure if I can say the same for the player enemies, and because it doesn't give any visual cues that the play was selected, it's hard to determine if they even picked something or if they're actually bluffing, and if they did pick something, which one?
So in case Hockey wasn't brutal enough as is, then throw in even more brutality, and now you're on thin ice. The one thing that is disappointing is that the game teased Mutant League Basketball in the intro credits, but it never happened.
Originally, this game was not on my Sega Genesis Challenge list, but after the terribly unfun time I had with Strider, I swapped out Strider's Return with this very interesting take on the typical sports game.
Now, I really don't care for the more "grounded in reality" sports games like Madden, FIFA, or NBA. They are insanely bloated in the mainstream marketing with their yearly releases, and I just think they are boring. It's when there's some kind of fantasy catch to it that makes it more exciting. Mutant League Hockey is one of those games where it takes the simple game of hockey and throws monsters into the ring with gore, hazards, and all kinds of dangerous plays.
So the game of hockey goes like this, you have a puck, you have to secure it and get it to the goal while maneuvering against your foe and bypassing the goalie. This is easier said than done when they can also punch you to the ground which you can to, but they can also intercept your shots.
What makes it stand out is more than just aesthetic, but also the arsenal you have on hand. You can call some nasty plays which include exploding pucks to blow up in the enemies face, you can waste the goalie to make it easier to make the shot, you can confuse the enemies, and much more depending on the team you have.
The team may seem cosmetic on the surface, but really, each of the players it houses have individual stats with some being better than others. Some of them are intentionally designed to be trash like the Mighty Weenies, but others are designed to be so good they can't even play in playoffs such as the All Stars. In a way, it's kinda like deciding what difficulty you want to play on.
The one thing that I'm unsure of about this game is playing with penalties on because while it does seem more balanced to prevent cheesy strategies, it's often difficult to determine what conditions cause penalties and in a game as rough as this, it kinda feels undermining of the whole point of the game. It does encourage you to utilize in special plays like bribing the referee or even outright killing him, but it actively discourages nasty plays because if you kill the goalie, the player that delivered the killing blow ends up penalized. You can also set how vulnerable to death each person is as Level 1 will ensure that almost everyone survives, but Level 5 will more likely cause a forfeit to decide a game.
Another thing I find odd is that the NPCs will never use any special plays themselves even with penalties off which seems to give you more of the upper hand against them. Not sure if I can say the same for the player enemies, and because it doesn't give any visual cues that the play was selected, it's hard to determine if they even picked something or if they're actually bluffing, and if they did pick something, which one?
So in case Hockey wasn't brutal enough as is, then throw in even more brutality, and now you're on thin ice. The one thing that is disappointing is that the game teased Mutant League Basketball in the intro credits, but it never happened.
1989
Cleared on May 13th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 68/160)
Boy, I sure love it when programmers create movesets for characters only for their level design to actively work against it. This game will actively punish you for even the tiniest mistakes which requires ninja-like precision to avoid. In theory, this should be fitting since you are an acrobatic with the ability to leap around, powerslide, and repeatedly strike your foes by tapping the attack button. The problem is that these movements are so clunky that actually putting them to use is really difficult. I've had cases where I've grabbed onto ledges I didn't mean to grab or had no idea was even there, I've dealt with numerous uneven terrain, the enemy placement is bullshit and there are sometimes too many enemies on the screen. And in case you're wondering, the bosses are just as bad with the worst of them being the anti-gravity ball and the rematch with that mechanical dinosaur and yes, you have a boss rush in this game, and the final boss is actually lame as hell.
Top it all off with sprite flickering at points in the game, camera too zoomed in, slow down at points, and a mediocre soundtrack, and you have something really unfun and just mentally trying. If you're looking for something acrobatic, you're better off playing Shinobi III (which I recently updated my review on after replaying the game). You might even have better luck with the 2014 Strider game.
I actually had Strider Returns among the games to go through for the Sega Genesis Challenge, but knowing how bad it supposedly is, and playing through Strider 1989, I think I'll save that game for a bonus Sega Genesis challenge I'm thinking about doing called the "Bottom of the Barrel".
Boy, I sure love it when programmers create movesets for characters only for their level design to actively work against it. This game will actively punish you for even the tiniest mistakes which requires ninja-like precision to avoid. In theory, this should be fitting since you are an acrobatic with the ability to leap around, powerslide, and repeatedly strike your foes by tapping the attack button. The problem is that these movements are so clunky that actually putting them to use is really difficult. I've had cases where I've grabbed onto ledges I didn't mean to grab or had no idea was even there, I've dealt with numerous uneven terrain, the enemy placement is bullshit and there are sometimes too many enemies on the screen. And in case you're wondering, the bosses are just as bad with the worst of them being the anti-gravity ball and the rematch with that mechanical dinosaur and yes, you have a boss rush in this game, and the final boss is actually lame as hell.
Top it all off with sprite flickering at points in the game, camera too zoomed in, slow down at points, and a mediocre soundtrack, and you have something really unfun and just mentally trying. If you're looking for something acrobatic, you're better off playing Shinobi III (which I recently updated my review on after replaying the game). You might even have better luck with the 2014 Strider game.
I actually had Strider Returns among the games to go through for the Sega Genesis Challenge, but knowing how bad it supposedly is, and playing through Strider 1989, I think I'll save that game for a bonus Sega Genesis challenge I'm thinking about doing called the "Bottom of the Barrel".
1994
Cleared on May 10th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 67/160)
The best way I can describe this game is an indie game before they were cool. Fitting as this game was developed by a famous indie studio you might know as Game Freak which as of 2024 has about 212 people involved.
In all seriousness, this game has a lot of positive attributes of a game made with passion such as combining retro ideas (Megaman X and Rocket Knight Adventures), colorful pixelated graphics that are really well detailed with a good variety of scenery, level-based mechanics that challenge your adaptability, and even voice acting? In a Sega Genesis game?! Well, kinda... these voices are all pixelated as hell which isn't too uncommon since Outrun, Space Harrier II, and Altered Beast have proven it do-able even during the Genesis' infancy days, but Pulseman takes it a step further by incorporating a surprising amount of voice lines.
The graphics and artstyle is remarkable. Pulseman himself is such a well designed superhero with the colors matching quite nicely with each other, and his sprite is well detailed with a determined run animation and flashy lightning attacks. And the scenery ranges from cities to snowy fields, and there's plenty of cyberspace locations with have a unique look across different levels complimented with a futuristic soundtrack that works with the Genesis soundfont. That said, these cyberspace areas may be too colorful and not friendly for anyone with epilepsy, but even if that isn't an issue, there is one problem... it may have played a part in this game's biggest flaw, the slowdown. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen quite often and does slow down the gameplay which otherwise feels quite energetic and fast paced.
Pulseman is a 2D action platformer similar to the Megaman X games except you only have a few abilities to work with and don't gain any new abilities. You have a jump, an attack, and a shock burst that gives a window of invincibility. However, if you move or dash, you charge up electricity which causes your next attack to fire a ranged projectile while your next shock burst becomes Voltteccer which propels you upward diagonally either left or right which can bounce up walls to extend the time which allows you to reach great heights in narrow corridors. You're also invincible during this time. There's also a flip kick which you can pull off by pressing the attack button and the up arrow which would come in handy in some cases, but it ends up being situational that I keep forgetting to use it when it would be optimal. You have a very good run speed, and it builds up instead of staying on one speed, so you can take it slow for more precise platforming.
One of the game's weaknesses are the boss battles as I thought they were kinda lame to the point where the best boss in the game is a ball... a ball. The rest of the bosses have only two or three attacks and while some of them can be hard at first, they are able to be figured out. You can also criticize the level design of Level 6 and 7 in particular as well as the water mechanic that straight up prevents you from using your electric skills, but I really don't mind. I think it makes for a good challenge although I can see why the Level 6 during the falling section of the water level would be scary. Even I was surprised I got that section through on my first try. The auto-scroller is also difficult, but given how you have a power-up that lets you use empowered electric skills until you get to the end of a section at one point, not to mention the lives that you can easily pick up in the following sections, you'll have plenty of chances to get it down.
I was warned how hard it was, but compared to other Sega Genesis games that I played, this game was far more manageable than I was expecting. I still had to use save states since I have other games to go through, but this is definitely a game that I'll be coming back to in the near future for a "no save state" run.
The best way I can describe this game is an indie game before they were cool. Fitting as this game was developed by a famous indie studio you might know as Game Freak which as of 2024 has about 212 people involved.
In all seriousness, this game has a lot of positive attributes of a game made with passion such as combining retro ideas (Megaman X and Rocket Knight Adventures), colorful pixelated graphics that are really well detailed with a good variety of scenery, level-based mechanics that challenge your adaptability, and even voice acting? In a Sega Genesis game?! Well, kinda... these voices are all pixelated as hell which isn't too uncommon since Outrun, Space Harrier II, and Altered Beast have proven it do-able even during the Genesis' infancy days, but Pulseman takes it a step further by incorporating a surprising amount of voice lines.
The graphics and artstyle is remarkable. Pulseman himself is such a well designed superhero with the colors matching quite nicely with each other, and his sprite is well detailed with a determined run animation and flashy lightning attacks. And the scenery ranges from cities to snowy fields, and there's plenty of cyberspace locations with have a unique look across different levels complimented with a futuristic soundtrack that works with the Genesis soundfont. That said, these cyberspace areas may be too colorful and not friendly for anyone with epilepsy, but even if that isn't an issue, there is one problem... it may have played a part in this game's biggest flaw, the slowdown. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen quite often and does slow down the gameplay which otherwise feels quite energetic and fast paced.
Pulseman is a 2D action platformer similar to the Megaman X games except you only have a few abilities to work with and don't gain any new abilities. You have a jump, an attack, and a shock burst that gives a window of invincibility. However, if you move or dash, you charge up electricity which causes your next attack to fire a ranged projectile while your next shock burst becomes Voltteccer which propels you upward diagonally either left or right which can bounce up walls to extend the time which allows you to reach great heights in narrow corridors. You're also invincible during this time. There's also a flip kick which you can pull off by pressing the attack button and the up arrow which would come in handy in some cases, but it ends up being situational that I keep forgetting to use it when it would be optimal. You have a very good run speed, and it builds up instead of staying on one speed, so you can take it slow for more precise platforming.
One of the game's weaknesses are the boss battles as I thought they were kinda lame to the point where the best boss in the game is a ball... a ball. The rest of the bosses have only two or three attacks and while some of them can be hard at first, they are able to be figured out. You can also criticize the level design of Level 6 and 7 in particular as well as the water mechanic that straight up prevents you from using your electric skills, but I really don't mind. I think it makes for a good challenge although I can see why the Level 6 during the falling section of the water level would be scary. Even I was surprised I got that section through on my first try. The auto-scroller is also difficult, but given how you have a power-up that lets you use empowered electric skills until you get to the end of a section at one point, not to mention the lives that you can easily pick up in the following sections, you'll have plenty of chances to get it down.
I was warned how hard it was, but compared to other Sega Genesis games that I played, this game was far more manageable than I was expecting. I still had to use save states since I have other games to go through, but this is definitely a game that I'll be coming back to in the near future for a "no save state" run.
1989
Cleared on May 10th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 66/160)
The Sega Genesis is a system that boldly claimed itself in 1991 to have "blast processing". Sadly, this game was made in 1989.
At a glance, you might think its just another horizontal shoot em up, and if this were your first, you might not suspect anything out of the ordinary, but if you've played a good chunk of them on the system, something doesn't feel right. The frame rate feels off and this isn't something that I usually take offense to since after awhile, I can adapt to games with suboptimal frame rate, and I've definitively played worse in that regard.
That said, a more pressing matter is when you combine frame rate with the amount of shit that goes on on-screen. There are so many enemies, so many shots, and there's just an unusual amount going on at a time. That does not feel fun. The obstacles can also feel narrow with Stage 1 having trees that are unclear that you need to dodge because of how seamless it blends with scenery. It wasn't until I caught on to the shot collision when I realized you have to go above the tree. Stage 4 has these meteors that feel like a speed check as if you don't have enough speed icons, you will not be able to get by without foresight. Also, Stage 5 is indoors which is to say that tight corridors are plentiful.
Here's a list of even more inconveniences.
-The third boss having a very specific tiny spot that is blocked by its neck
-Losing all of your power-ups when you lose a life. Your missiles, your drones, and your weapons along with its upgrades.
-Stage 5 specifically forcing you to the very beginning of the level if you lose a life which really feels like padding to conceal just how short the game actually is.
Mechanically, it's about what you'd expect a shoot em up to play. There are weapons you can collect, power ups, speed boosts, and all that stuff. You do have a shield meter, so smaller attacks won't just OHKO you which I think is reasonable although some bigger attacks can chunk a good amount of health or even still take you down in one hit. There are also these E icons that do refill your shield meter as well.
Honestly, Curse is just really forgettable. It'll leave your mind faster than you cleared the game, and you'll wonder if you did anything interesting in the past hour after the fact.
The Sega Genesis is a system that boldly claimed itself in 1991 to have "blast processing". Sadly, this game was made in 1989.
At a glance, you might think its just another horizontal shoot em up, and if this were your first, you might not suspect anything out of the ordinary, but if you've played a good chunk of them on the system, something doesn't feel right. The frame rate feels off and this isn't something that I usually take offense to since after awhile, I can adapt to games with suboptimal frame rate, and I've definitively played worse in that regard.
That said, a more pressing matter is when you combine frame rate with the amount of shit that goes on on-screen. There are so many enemies, so many shots, and there's just an unusual amount going on at a time. That does not feel fun. The obstacles can also feel narrow with Stage 1 having trees that are unclear that you need to dodge because of how seamless it blends with scenery. It wasn't until I caught on to the shot collision when I realized you have to go above the tree. Stage 4 has these meteors that feel like a speed check as if you don't have enough speed icons, you will not be able to get by without foresight. Also, Stage 5 is indoors which is to say that tight corridors are plentiful.
Here's a list of even more inconveniences.
-The third boss having a very specific tiny spot that is blocked by its neck
-Losing all of your power-ups when you lose a life. Your missiles, your drones, and your weapons along with its upgrades.
-Stage 5 specifically forcing you to the very beginning of the level if you lose a life which really feels like padding to conceal just how short the game actually is.
Mechanically, it's about what you'd expect a shoot em up to play. There are weapons you can collect, power ups, speed boosts, and all that stuff. You do have a shield meter, so smaller attacks won't just OHKO you which I think is reasonable although some bigger attacks can chunk a good amount of health or even still take you down in one hit. There are also these E icons that do refill your shield meter as well.
Honestly, Curse is just really forgettable. It'll leave your mind faster than you cleared the game, and you'll wonder if you did anything interesting in the past hour after the fact.
1993
Cleared on May 9th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 65/160)
Mechanically, this might be my favorite shoot em up out of what I've played so far, but holy shit is it hard. And not always in a good way even with the tools that this game gives me.
What Eliminate Down proposes for its gameplay style is that you already have all of your weapons by default that you can switch to at anytime instead of having to collect a power-up and then stick to it until you can find another. You have a forward shot, missiles that cover both up and down direction at the same time, and a backward shot. This is actually really cool, and I didn't need to stress over figuring out what this weapon does or picking the wrong weapon at the wrong time. The only minor problem is that they have two buttons for weapon swap and you mean to tell me I have to cycle through the missiles before I can cycle to the backshot? Well, at least you can tap the weapon swap button twice, and you can get it. Another cool thing they did is the same idea that Whip Rush brought with being able to control speed, but you do that via pause menu. This gives you more time to plan your next move. If there's a series of tight corridors coming up, just switch to slower speeds. When you got a bunch of enemies to barrage, just switch to faster speeds. The caveat is that there are no bombs or ultimate attacks, but you do acquire shields to withstand a few hits and power-ups that empower your weapons, and it doesn't take long to get to Level 3 and good news is that you only lose one level when you lose a life and it keeps all the power points you've collected, so if you collected 4 P at Level 3, then lose a life, then just collect one P and you're back at Level 3.
All that aside, this game can still seriously bullshit you in the worst ways and that gets especially apparent during the game's second half. There are points in the game where I got ambushed by traps or unexpected shots that gave me almost no time to react not to mention just straight up difficult shots to avoid in general as well as unfair enemy placement like at the start of Stage 7. The bosses are also difficult, but you can figure them out.
The presentation for the game is really good. I think the soundtrack is great, and the grotesque alien aesthetic is well done. The fourth mini-boss was fucking weird with its penis attack... so that's why it never got localized in the first place. Also, this game actually has a dedicated final boss theme, and that always excites me since there are usually no guarantees that a Sega Genesis game will even have one.
Eliminate Down in a way represents some of the best and worst of the schmup genre. It's weapon swapping and speed shifting helps to give this game some variety as well as overcome situations in front of you, but those situations in question have reached points of being really unfair. Thankfully, the fun factor kept me from being bored or driving me mad. Is it a game that I'll come back to for another round? Maybe. If nothing else, there's a fun little minigame in the options.
Mechanically, this might be my favorite shoot em up out of what I've played so far, but holy shit is it hard. And not always in a good way even with the tools that this game gives me.
What Eliminate Down proposes for its gameplay style is that you already have all of your weapons by default that you can switch to at anytime instead of having to collect a power-up and then stick to it until you can find another. You have a forward shot, missiles that cover both up and down direction at the same time, and a backward shot. This is actually really cool, and I didn't need to stress over figuring out what this weapon does or picking the wrong weapon at the wrong time. The only minor problem is that they have two buttons for weapon swap and you mean to tell me I have to cycle through the missiles before I can cycle to the backshot? Well, at least you can tap the weapon swap button twice, and you can get it. Another cool thing they did is the same idea that Whip Rush brought with being able to control speed, but you do that via pause menu. This gives you more time to plan your next move. If there's a series of tight corridors coming up, just switch to slower speeds. When you got a bunch of enemies to barrage, just switch to faster speeds. The caveat is that there are no bombs or ultimate attacks, but you do acquire shields to withstand a few hits and power-ups that empower your weapons, and it doesn't take long to get to Level 3 and good news is that you only lose one level when you lose a life and it keeps all the power points you've collected, so if you collected 4 P at Level 3, then lose a life, then just collect one P and you're back at Level 3.
All that aside, this game can still seriously bullshit you in the worst ways and that gets especially apparent during the game's second half. There are points in the game where I got ambushed by traps or unexpected shots that gave me almost no time to react not to mention just straight up difficult shots to avoid in general as well as unfair enemy placement like at the start of Stage 7. The bosses are also difficult, but you can figure them out.
The presentation for the game is really good. I think the soundtrack is great, and the grotesque alien aesthetic is well done. The fourth mini-boss was fucking weird with its penis attack... so that's why it never got localized in the first place. Also, this game actually has a dedicated final boss theme, and that always excites me since there are usually no guarantees that a Sega Genesis game will even have one.
Eliminate Down in a way represents some of the best and worst of the schmup genre. It's weapon swapping and speed shifting helps to give this game some variety as well as overcome situations in front of you, but those situations in question have reached points of being really unfair. Thankfully, the fun factor kept me from being bored or driving me mad. Is it a game that I'll come back to for another round? Maybe. If nothing else, there's a fun little minigame in the options.
1991
Cleared on May 7th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 64/160)
You know, having gone through a good chunk of the Sega Genesis library, I've reviewed shoot em ups that go horizontal, 3D, ones that have you go on foot, and even one that goes diagonal, but barring that one level in Twinkle Tale, this is the first vertical shoot em up that I've reviewed, despite the system having so many that I haven't even catalogued them all. Raiden Trad is... ok, I guess. It's nothing special and it gets really really hard.
The first two levels start out easy enough. You still die in one hit, but if you're familiar with the gameplay style, you should be able to manage and if you do well enough, you can get some really beefed up weaponry. You can equip both a missile and a gun at the same time for massive damage output, but the bad news is that there are only two of each type and one is more favorable than the other. For the missiles, you have one that fires a barrage of missiles in a straight line for massive damage which isn't too bad if you end up getting it for boss battles, but the homing missile will fire rapidly and shoot down nearby enemies and the more you collect, the more missiles you fire. As for the gun, you have either a spread shot or a laser. The laser can be good for damage, but when it comes to dealing with enemies, it requires you to move around which may put you in a bad position if you're not careful which is why spread shot is more preferably as at max rank, it can cover almost the entire area which gives you more leeway to focus more on positioning. Much like with the shoot em ups, if you lose a life, you lose all of your powers, but the game does have a bit of a mercy aspect with a fairy that will drop off a few items that you can pick up to barely get back in power. One time when I was down to one life, it just gave me a max power of both the missile and gun which I suppose is supposed to be a last ditch effort. That's a cool touch if that's the case.
Of course, the game demands great precision with your dodges which becomes especially apparent during the 2nd half of the game and even beforehand, Boss 3 and 4 are arguably harder than even the final boss (well, the one before the credits, anyway). Boss 3 in particular is batshit insane with how it just barrages you as soon as you down its weapons in addition to the enemies assisting it. At least to the game's credit, you can utilize bombs to nuke all foes on screen. Oh, and if you aren't using save states, you don't just lose a life and then pick up where you left off, you gotta start back at a checkpoint which I suspect will be a huge annoyance when you think you're so close.
But one thing that stood out to me is that this is probably the first case that I've ran into on the Sega Genesis where it has a post game level that you can go through once the credits finish rolling, and it's fucking brutal even on easy difficulty. Enemies come in fast, enemies shoot fast, high in numbers, harder to take down, and there are points where its down right impossible to get through without your bombs and if you lose a life, you're shit out of luck because weapon upgrades are more scarce then ever before. Not only did I have to save scum to stand a chance, I came up with a new strategy called pause scumming where as soon as the foe shoots, you pause, then you analyze where you can dodge and just go there. It is a useful tactic if you're playing on original hardware. In fact, you're going to need it especially even if you can get to the superboss by some miracle. It's projectiles are already one of the more difficult to avoid, but it takes so much damage and the more damage it takes, the more aggressive its attacks get shooting more space trash at you and just shooting from its mouth and whatever turrets it has left.
The game also gets negative points for having only two level tracks that rotate between 8 levels, the special level doesn't get its own track, and neither the final boss nor the superboss gets its own boss theme either. It's just the normal boss theme.
Overall, it's just a run of the mill vertical shooter. I imagine there are better ones out there in the Genesis line-up.
You know, having gone through a good chunk of the Sega Genesis library, I've reviewed shoot em ups that go horizontal, 3D, ones that have you go on foot, and even one that goes diagonal, but barring that one level in Twinkle Tale, this is the first vertical shoot em up that I've reviewed, despite the system having so many that I haven't even catalogued them all. Raiden Trad is... ok, I guess. It's nothing special and it gets really really hard.
The first two levels start out easy enough. You still die in one hit, but if you're familiar with the gameplay style, you should be able to manage and if you do well enough, you can get some really beefed up weaponry. You can equip both a missile and a gun at the same time for massive damage output, but the bad news is that there are only two of each type and one is more favorable than the other. For the missiles, you have one that fires a barrage of missiles in a straight line for massive damage which isn't too bad if you end up getting it for boss battles, but the homing missile will fire rapidly and shoot down nearby enemies and the more you collect, the more missiles you fire. As for the gun, you have either a spread shot or a laser. The laser can be good for damage, but when it comes to dealing with enemies, it requires you to move around which may put you in a bad position if you're not careful which is why spread shot is more preferably as at max rank, it can cover almost the entire area which gives you more leeway to focus more on positioning. Much like with the shoot em ups, if you lose a life, you lose all of your powers, but the game does have a bit of a mercy aspect with a fairy that will drop off a few items that you can pick up to barely get back in power. One time when I was down to one life, it just gave me a max power of both the missile and gun which I suppose is supposed to be a last ditch effort. That's a cool touch if that's the case.
Of course, the game demands great precision with your dodges which becomes especially apparent during the 2nd half of the game and even beforehand, Boss 3 and 4 are arguably harder than even the final boss (well, the one before the credits, anyway). Boss 3 in particular is batshit insane with how it just barrages you as soon as you down its weapons in addition to the enemies assisting it. At least to the game's credit, you can utilize bombs to nuke all foes on screen. Oh, and if you aren't using save states, you don't just lose a life and then pick up where you left off, you gotta start back at a checkpoint which I suspect will be a huge annoyance when you think you're so close.
But one thing that stood out to me is that this is probably the first case that I've ran into on the Sega Genesis where it has a post game level that you can go through once the credits finish rolling, and it's fucking brutal even on easy difficulty. Enemies come in fast, enemies shoot fast, high in numbers, harder to take down, and there are points where its down right impossible to get through without your bombs and if you lose a life, you're shit out of luck because weapon upgrades are more scarce then ever before. Not only did I have to save scum to stand a chance, I came up with a new strategy called pause scumming where as soon as the foe shoots, you pause, then you analyze where you can dodge and just go there. It is a useful tactic if you're playing on original hardware. In fact, you're going to need it especially even if you can get to the superboss by some miracle. It's projectiles are already one of the more difficult to avoid, but it takes so much damage and the more damage it takes, the more aggressive its attacks get shooting more space trash at you and just shooting from its mouth and whatever turrets it has left.
The game also gets negative points for having only two level tracks that rotate between 8 levels, the special level doesn't get its own track, and neither the final boss nor the superboss gets its own boss theme either. It's just the normal boss theme.
Overall, it's just a run of the mill vertical shooter. I imagine there are better ones out there in the Genesis line-up.
1991
Cleared on May 5th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 63/160)
Streets of Rage is an arcade style beat em up that is not a port of an arcade game to the Genesis, but instead made with that system in mind. It takes liberties to capture the feeling of going to an arcade machine and just fighting bad guys except once you pay a hefty fee (apparently $49.99 + $179.99 was a lot of money back then), it is yours to try as many times as you want without paying a quarter to continue. It might have sounded dumb since nowadays you can get the game on Steam for a dollar (maybe even less on sale), but back then, the idea of having an arcade game all to yourself without paying to continue or taking up so much space in your house was awesome. That being said, you're going to need all the chances you can get because one of this game's liberties they took from arcade beat em ups is being really difficult... and not always in a good way.
The game has three buttons which are jump, attack, and special. Yeah, I hope you like pressing the same button to attack over and over, but actually, they made even that more fun as not only can you perform a good variety of moves like grapples, throws, back kicks, air kicks and suplexs, you can also pick up weapons to give you an advantage. Knives will increase the damage you deal although it will get thrown after a bit. Glass bottles also increase damage, but the range isn't as good nor is the damage, but it lasts as long as you don't get hit. The pipe and bat are really fun to use since they got not only damage, but range. The problem is that they don't have a dedicated combo as you can only swing once before given a window of vulnerability. There's also the smoke bomb which is uncommon, but when used can immobilize enemies for a brief moment.
There are few enemy variants. You have the basic enemies which might not seem special at a glance until you realize they are the only enemies in the game that hold weapons and besides the glass bottle which are found in crates, are the only way to actually get weapons. There are grapplers that will throw you if you get too close to them and sometimes will slide kick you. You have whip girls with long range, these martial art dudes with flips and kicks that can be difficult to avoid, and jugglers that throw projectiles at you. Due to this game's perception, avoiding these guys is actually a bitch. The good news is that if you can hold your ground long enough, you can acquire health pick ups to heal and if you get enough points, you can get additional lives which may actually be a boon if you can survive the bosses to use your special on and then again when you lose a life.
The bosses are... not very fun. Not only do they hit for a lot of damage, they feel very fast too. I've fiddled around the rewind feature on Sega Genesis Classics collection on Steam to verify that the simple act of making the wrong move can put you in a position where you literally cannot avoid an attack. Heck, there are times where no matter what move you make, you will get hit for a lot of damage. And god forbid if you choose Adam among the cast because his movement speed is so shit and avoiding attacks takes a fuckton of foresight. Axel and Blaze aren't actually much better, but you can at least position yourself faster with these two. Another weird quirk to these bosses is that they can easily be cheesed just by just barely surviving, then as soon as they come out, use your special attack to have the police back-up nuke them for massive damage, then once you lose a life, you can use your special attack again and really chunk their health. From there, brute force your way against the bosses and you win. Also, there are two levels in the game where you can actually have an additional special meter, so you can use it up to 3 times.
The bad news is that I think even the developers know about this, and have it so that the special is outright disabled in the final level and forces you through a boss rush where you have to fight all of them properly. The worst ones are the wolverine wanna be and those ninja twins. At least with the ninja twins, as long as you keep your back turned, you can trick them into thinking they can easily grab you and follow up with a back kick by pressing the Jump + Attack button at the same time. The final boss, though, is a testament to how this game does not want you to win. He's already fast as fuck for a fatass in a tuxedo, but he has two minions aiding him that will keep respawning throughout the fight and he has a gun which isn't as bad as it sounds. In fact, it will often hit his own men more than it will hit you, but then he dashes around and unless you can time your jump kick perfectly, you will take a massive hit from his melee attacks.
I don't know how this game compares to the later games in the series since at the time of reviewing, I don't know what they are like, but even I can tell that it has the issues that first games usually have with clunky control quirks such as how you can't jump around in any other direction besides left or right. I don't know if this is ever addressed in the sequels, maybe in Streets in Rage 4 with how modern it is, but it was something I found annoying. It's still worth a playthrough because the combat is satisfying enough and the music and atmosphere are really good. Just don't ever pick Adam like I did the first time since he has the worst movement speed in the game. Axel will give you the same power at the cost of having a weak jump which seems quite miniscule with how it works here while Blaze, despite having lower power, can still deal good damage with weapons and throws.
Streets of Rage is an arcade style beat em up that is not a port of an arcade game to the Genesis, but instead made with that system in mind. It takes liberties to capture the feeling of going to an arcade machine and just fighting bad guys except once you pay a hefty fee (apparently $49.99 + $179.99 was a lot of money back then), it is yours to try as many times as you want without paying a quarter to continue. It might have sounded dumb since nowadays you can get the game on Steam for a dollar (maybe even less on sale), but back then, the idea of having an arcade game all to yourself without paying to continue or taking up so much space in your house was awesome. That being said, you're going to need all the chances you can get because one of this game's liberties they took from arcade beat em ups is being really difficult... and not always in a good way.
The game has three buttons which are jump, attack, and special. Yeah, I hope you like pressing the same button to attack over and over, but actually, they made even that more fun as not only can you perform a good variety of moves like grapples, throws, back kicks, air kicks and suplexs, you can also pick up weapons to give you an advantage. Knives will increase the damage you deal although it will get thrown after a bit. Glass bottles also increase damage, but the range isn't as good nor is the damage, but it lasts as long as you don't get hit. The pipe and bat are really fun to use since they got not only damage, but range. The problem is that they don't have a dedicated combo as you can only swing once before given a window of vulnerability. There's also the smoke bomb which is uncommon, but when used can immobilize enemies for a brief moment.
There are few enemy variants. You have the basic enemies which might not seem special at a glance until you realize they are the only enemies in the game that hold weapons and besides the glass bottle which are found in crates, are the only way to actually get weapons. There are grapplers that will throw you if you get too close to them and sometimes will slide kick you. You have whip girls with long range, these martial art dudes with flips and kicks that can be difficult to avoid, and jugglers that throw projectiles at you. Due to this game's perception, avoiding these guys is actually a bitch. The good news is that if you can hold your ground long enough, you can acquire health pick ups to heal and if you get enough points, you can get additional lives which may actually be a boon if you can survive the bosses to use your special on and then again when you lose a life.
The bosses are... not very fun. Not only do they hit for a lot of damage, they feel very fast too. I've fiddled around the rewind feature on Sega Genesis Classics collection on Steam to verify that the simple act of making the wrong move can put you in a position where you literally cannot avoid an attack. Heck, there are times where no matter what move you make, you will get hit for a lot of damage. And god forbid if you choose Adam among the cast because his movement speed is so shit and avoiding attacks takes a fuckton of foresight. Axel and Blaze aren't actually much better, but you can at least position yourself faster with these two. Another weird quirk to these bosses is that they can easily be cheesed just by just barely surviving, then as soon as they come out, use your special attack to have the police back-up nuke them for massive damage, then once you lose a life, you can use your special attack again and really chunk their health. From there, brute force your way against the bosses and you win. Also, there are two levels in the game where you can actually have an additional special meter, so you can use it up to 3 times.
The bad news is that I think even the developers know about this, and have it so that the special is outright disabled in the final level and forces you through a boss rush where you have to fight all of them properly. The worst ones are the wolverine wanna be and those ninja twins. At least with the ninja twins, as long as you keep your back turned, you can trick them into thinking they can easily grab you and follow up with a back kick by pressing the Jump + Attack button at the same time. The final boss, though, is a testament to how this game does not want you to win. He's already fast as fuck for a fatass in a tuxedo, but he has two minions aiding him that will keep respawning throughout the fight and he has a gun which isn't as bad as it sounds. In fact, it will often hit his own men more than it will hit you, but then he dashes around and unless you can time your jump kick perfectly, you will take a massive hit from his melee attacks.
I don't know how this game compares to the later games in the series since at the time of reviewing, I don't know what they are like, but even I can tell that it has the issues that first games usually have with clunky control quirks such as how you can't jump around in any other direction besides left or right. I don't know if this is ever addressed in the sequels, maybe in Streets in Rage 4 with how modern it is, but it was something I found annoying. It's still worth a playthrough because the combat is satisfying enough and the music and atmosphere are really good. Just don't ever pick Adam like I did the first time since he has the worst movement speed in the game. Axel will give you the same power at the cost of having a weak jump which seems quite miniscule with how it works here while Blaze, despite having lower power, can still deal good damage with weapons and throws.
1995
Cleared on May 5th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 62/160)
Vectorman is a game that I’ve always had access to through Sonic Genesis Collection, but I thought it was so hard that I could never get past the first level at the time, but now that I have had more experience with the run and gun genre, I can say that the game… is still really hard, but with enough patience, it is somewhat more manageable.
The plot is that robots are in charge of helping to clean up toxic waste that polluted earth in the year 2049 while the humans fled to space, but one of them known as Warhead went rogue and started a robot revolution. Vectorman, having come back from his routine of dumping the sludge in the sun, discovers the revolution and through his immunity to mind control, was able to challenge the revolution and set forth on a mission to take down Warhead.
The game is divided into multiple levels that you must clear within a time limit. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this style of gameplay as B.O.B. has that same structure, but Vectorman works so much better in practically every single way. The controls are fluent, there’s no fall damage or stuns from falling, you can double jump without it being tied to a gadget, you can aim diagonal upward and diagonal downward in the air, and you can aim straight down while in the air. On top of that, the ammo is unlimited, so you can freely shoot and not be as worried about enemies that you can’t see coming because the camera doesn’t cover a lot of area at a time.
The levels are appropriately designed with their length in mind and they carry a sort of labyrinth feel to it, but really, it’s not so much of an issue of getting lost. As long as you move right, you should be fine. At least until you get to Level 15, and that’s where you’re going to find yourself confused, and I think I was only able to beat it with less than 30 seconds left on the clock.
You have 3-5 health points depending on your difficulty of choice, but health point drops come fairly easily not just from the enemies in your way, but also from TVs which will net you other benefits such as score multiplier, a weapon upgrade, or some crazy power-up known as morphs. This allows you some leeway to rushdown the levels which may help you to save time, and the weapon upgrades you get are very powerful. You have spread shot, you have homing shot, you have shots that spin around you, and you have a shot that acts something like a flail. As for the morphs, they are odd power-ups that are activated as soon as you acquire them, which is admittedly one of its only real disadvantages over B.O.B. as you may not get to use it to its fullest and instead make you feel awkward for even acquiring it. You can acquire Bomb Morph when there’s no enemies nearby, Drill Morph or Buggy Morph when you are trying to go up, or Parachute Morph when you are trying to go down. The Missile Morph was practical for ascending in Absolute Zero given its level layout, and Jet Morph let you fly in Superstructure. Those two were the best power-ups, but they only appeared for those respective levels since morphs are tied to specific stages or we’d be acting like fish in the air.
The game is, as I’ve said, really hard. As I’ve said, enemies can come from you out of the screen to ambush you if you keep moving, but even from a positioning standpoint, there are enemies that can hit you from above diagonally, notably the turrets that show up in just about every level. Also, you cannot hit foes off-screen, so don’t think you can pull some sniper shenanigans which makes dealing with the enemies much harder. Oh and because your default shot is in a straight line, there may come points where hitting the enemy is actually difficult and this especially becomes apparent with the bosses, and they are the hardest parts of the game. The first boss has you avoid the boulders hanging on the wings and avoiding any bomb barrages while hitting the jet. The second boss is actually one of the worst bosses in the game because the perspective is trippy, you can only shoot in 3 directions, you have those flying robots shooting you from the side, and you gotta jump over them all while shooting the boss in front of you. The third boss is easily cheesed. The fourth boss is really frustrating with how difficult it is to avoid their shots just by trying to jump over them, but if you manage to keep shooting downward diagonally from above, you should get it down. The three phase penultimate boss does take up a bit of your time and the Piranha is the worst of the three since if you shoot it at the wrong time, it will move fast and trying to jump over it will be impossible without taking a hit. The final boss is a DPS race where you need to down it in 1 minute and 30 seconds as soon as you get up the tornado, but trying to aim for him is difficult due to its hitbox being conveniently below your highest jump point and above ground level. This makes it really frustrating to hit, and you need to worry about dodging him if he gets too close and if you damage him enough, he’ll just unleash shots that you also need to avoid. You can go under him through a moving platform, but only if you’re on the left as you will need to jump over him if you are right.
But if you can get past its difficulty, it’s a good game with some genuinely impressive 3D style visuals and a boppin soundtrack that fits the futuristic atmosphere the game has. It’s also quite flashy with so many enemies to shoot and in turn, so many explosions on screen.
Vectorman is a game that I’ve always had access to through Sonic Genesis Collection, but I thought it was so hard that I could never get past the first level at the time, but now that I have had more experience with the run and gun genre, I can say that the game… is still really hard, but with enough patience, it is somewhat more manageable.
The plot is that robots are in charge of helping to clean up toxic waste that polluted earth in the year 2049 while the humans fled to space, but one of them known as Warhead went rogue and started a robot revolution. Vectorman, having come back from his routine of dumping the sludge in the sun, discovers the revolution and through his immunity to mind control, was able to challenge the revolution and set forth on a mission to take down Warhead.
The game is divided into multiple levels that you must clear within a time limit. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this style of gameplay as B.O.B. has that same structure, but Vectorman works so much better in practically every single way. The controls are fluent, there’s no fall damage or stuns from falling, you can double jump without it being tied to a gadget, you can aim diagonal upward and diagonal downward in the air, and you can aim straight down while in the air. On top of that, the ammo is unlimited, so you can freely shoot and not be as worried about enemies that you can’t see coming because the camera doesn’t cover a lot of area at a time.
The levels are appropriately designed with their length in mind and they carry a sort of labyrinth feel to it, but really, it’s not so much of an issue of getting lost. As long as you move right, you should be fine. At least until you get to Level 15, and that’s where you’re going to find yourself confused, and I think I was only able to beat it with less than 30 seconds left on the clock.
You have 3-5 health points depending on your difficulty of choice, but health point drops come fairly easily not just from the enemies in your way, but also from TVs which will net you other benefits such as score multiplier, a weapon upgrade, or some crazy power-up known as morphs. This allows you some leeway to rushdown the levels which may help you to save time, and the weapon upgrades you get are very powerful. You have spread shot, you have homing shot, you have shots that spin around you, and you have a shot that acts something like a flail. As for the morphs, they are odd power-ups that are activated as soon as you acquire them, which is admittedly one of its only real disadvantages over B.O.B. as you may not get to use it to its fullest and instead make you feel awkward for even acquiring it. You can acquire Bomb Morph when there’s no enemies nearby, Drill Morph or Buggy Morph when you are trying to go up, or Parachute Morph when you are trying to go down. The Missile Morph was practical for ascending in Absolute Zero given its level layout, and Jet Morph let you fly in Superstructure. Those two were the best power-ups, but they only appeared for those respective levels since morphs are tied to specific stages or we’d be acting like fish in the air.
The game is, as I’ve said, really hard. As I’ve said, enemies can come from you out of the screen to ambush you if you keep moving, but even from a positioning standpoint, there are enemies that can hit you from above diagonally, notably the turrets that show up in just about every level. Also, you cannot hit foes off-screen, so don’t think you can pull some sniper shenanigans which makes dealing with the enemies much harder. Oh and because your default shot is in a straight line, there may come points where hitting the enemy is actually difficult and this especially becomes apparent with the bosses, and they are the hardest parts of the game. The first boss has you avoid the boulders hanging on the wings and avoiding any bomb barrages while hitting the jet. The second boss is actually one of the worst bosses in the game because the perspective is trippy, you can only shoot in 3 directions, you have those flying robots shooting you from the side, and you gotta jump over them all while shooting the boss in front of you. The third boss is easily cheesed. The fourth boss is really frustrating with how difficult it is to avoid their shots just by trying to jump over them, but if you manage to keep shooting downward diagonally from above, you should get it down. The three phase penultimate boss does take up a bit of your time and the Piranha is the worst of the three since if you shoot it at the wrong time, it will move fast and trying to jump over it will be impossible without taking a hit. The final boss is a DPS race where you need to down it in 1 minute and 30 seconds as soon as you get up the tornado, but trying to aim for him is difficult due to its hitbox being conveniently below your highest jump point and above ground level. This makes it really frustrating to hit, and you need to worry about dodging him if he gets too close and if you damage him enough, he’ll just unleash shots that you also need to avoid. You can go under him through a moving platform, but only if you’re on the left as you will need to jump over him if you are right.
But if you can get past its difficulty, it’s a good game with some genuinely impressive 3D style visuals and a boppin soundtrack that fits the futuristic atmosphere the game has. It’s also quite flashy with so many enemies to shoot and in turn, so many explosions on screen.