Played on September 3rd, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 38/160)

This is really just more Road Rash with 5 more courses, an additional weapon being a chain, and access to a larger variety of bikes notably nitro, but I have no idea if it makes any difference despite having tested one of them out.

An improvement over the original is that you don't have to worry about players scolding you for hitting them earlier in a match, so you have less guilt in beating up your opponents.

There's not much else that I can say. Just remember that the usual advice applies here. Stay in your lane, spam courses for better bikes if needed, and don't get caught by the police.

Played on August 26th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge 37/160)

Note: This game is currently put on "shelved" because I haven't cleared the game completely, but I've come to grips on the mechanics to give an assessment of the game.

You ever get sick of all of those racers knocking you off of your bikes in motorcycle racing games? Well, I certainly have. Then this game might just be up to your speed because you're the one knocking off all those racers that's getting in your way. And I had a real blast with the game as the controls felt very good and knocking down nearby racers felt satisfying. Too bad you have to show restraint for a select few lest you want to scolded before the race begins.

Being a game where you can just punch, kick, and sometimes even club your opponents, the game's premise is an illegal racer and thus you will have to deal with not just your opponents, but dealing with traffic and even the police. You can still get knocked off which might not be so much of a big deal as long as it only happens once or twice, but it can still halt your progress immensely. But if it so happens that you are knocked off in front of a police bike, you get fined and the race ends for you. Same thing applies to your bike getting totaled, but that scenario is so rare that I haven't had that happen to me yet. The best of course of action to survive ongoing traffic is the simple rule of driving to always stay in your lane unless you are making a pass.

The music is great and the visuals are nice, but there are only five courses in the game and when you complete them all, you do them again, but the difference is that the course is longer, the racers are faster, and there are supposedly much more brutal traffic. You can remedy this by buying new bikes after a race, and on top of that, you can actually spam a course even after you've cleared it in order to farm money or just simply try as many times as you want to get that first place. I'm not sure how many waves there are, but apparently a longplay took 3 hours of the game and as fun as the game is, I doubt it's something I want to spend that much time all at once on.

Cleared on August 25th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 36/160)

This is my second rodeo in Sega Genesis racing and while I thought Super Hang On was ok, it was a game from 1987, Outrun 2019 is what I call a radical racing game. It's fast and frantic and the controls feel more fluent. It also allows you to automatically boost at a threshold instead of having to press it manually which allows you to focus on holding just one button although the option for manual is still in tact.

The visuals also looks so nice too, and I just love the music. You know, I know I said I never really called myself a racing game fan. It's a type of genre that never really grabbed my attention throughout the years or at least for a good while. But this game puts a bit of perspective as to why its an appealing genre. Yeah, racing cars is a fun sport for some people to watch as it is to play, but I think the appeal for me is just listening to awesome music while cruising along your epic rides, and this game understands just how important music is in the racing genre to add high stakes for players to race to the finish. Of course, the visuals also add onto that.

I also like the multi-routes they implemented, so if there's one route you think is giving you trouble like the ones with high roads that you could easily fall off of, just take another route and hopefully have an easier time. The CPUs are rather annoying as just bumping into them can disrupt your boost if you're already on one, or otherwise just really slow you down because you're on a time limit to get to the goal, and sometimes it feels deliberate as if they don't care about their own safety, they just want to make your life miserable. The good news is that bumping into side obstacles like signs or trees are not as consequential as you just spin around for a moment and get back on. It really pays to ride cars instead of motorcycles. That aside, if you hit an obstacle with enough force, you can still flip over, so watch out.

I don't have much else to say about this game. It's so short that I was able to sneak this game into my schedule before it's time for me to go to bed and you could knock it out in 30 minutes or so.

Cleared on August 24th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 35/160)

To tell you the truth, it's been a long time since I last saw Animaniacs. I haven't even seen the reboot yet since I wanted to get caught up with the original first, but I recall it being among my favorite cartoons of all time. And after playing this game, it makes me want to go ahead and marathon the series and remind myself why I love the series so much. Why I love the characters and the humor, how Rita and Runt single-handedly manage to get me the watch the show when I initially had no interest, and why Buttons and Mindy are the worst things to come out of the show. As for the Sega Genesis game, it's a decent effort to translate the series onto a 16 bit game.

The game stars Animaniacs leads Yakko, Wakko, and Dot who come up with the idea to make a Pop Culture Shop by going into different studios in order to claim props from the movie to put on display. The plot isn't even a strong point and while the humor does try to match what the show has, it isn't as funny since it doesn't have the legendary voice acting which to be fair, this is a Sega Genesis game, so that's going to be out of the question. The rest of the presentation does match the series perfectly in 16 bit, though with the Animaniacs looking exactly as they do and the music does have the soundtrack adapted which is really cool.

The gameplay is interesting. It reminds me of Sonic Heroes where you have three playable characters that you can switch to. Each of which having their own quirks in order to overcome obstacles. Yakko has the ability to push crates and use a slingshot which isn't always that useful, but it does have a niche of being able to nullify a few projectiles which may come in handy for the last two bosses in the game. Wakko has the ability to bonk things with a hammer which is the ability that gets used the most. This is useful to push buttons or destroy breakables. Dot has the ability to blow a kiss which is the ability that gets used the least, but it does have value at times to charm living beings into assisting you. This is actually an excellent way to translate Animaniacs... well, on paper, anyway. While it doesn't exactly function horribly, the one thing that bugs me is that the character rotation is in a set interval. So for example, if you were playing as Wakko, but now you need to get to Yakko, you need to switch to Dot, wait a brief window of time, and then you can switch to Yakko. This usually won't be a problem throughout the majority of the game since it acts as a puzzle platformer, anyway, but during boss fights is where it gets really obnoxious.

The boss fights in the game are the worst part, especially the ones that involve Ralph, who you might know is that fat police officer that chases the Animaniacs when they are up to no good, and oh boy, he really has it out for them. Even as an obstacle, he is really annoying. First level of the game has him in the way when you are going down the river and even now I can't figure out how to get through him without taking any damage. There is that one segment in the second level where he is able to climb ladders and you have to climb up the slow way and if he gets up close to you, he's going to be up in your face and deal damage to you at a fast rate. As for the bosses themselves. One boss fight has you using the boulders to fling upwards in order to hit him, but once he comes down, you better hurry over to the right side with your slow movements or he's gonna come rushing at you with his net to damage you. The second boss has you go through an obstacle course and you better hope you're at full health when you get to him or its gonna be unbearable. The third boss has you operate a train and you need to time a boulder to hit the hatch as it opens and closes which will speed up the train, but if you hit the boulder too soon or too late, it will bounce off the hatch and if you are inside the train, you take damage. Also Ralph can just get on the train which is very tiny and he has a very high chance of damaging you unless you can get a good attack frame on him and drive him off. Then when he is running to you on foot, you have to speed up your train all the way to the end which felt anti-climatic since I expected to have to hit him more times to defeat him, but no, I was doing it wrong the whole time. I would say it's the worst boss in the game, but I doubt it would be enough to make the cut for a Top 10 Worst Sega Genesis bosses since I found it hilarious to time the boulders to speed up the train so that when he jumps, you just go "nuh-uh".

The other boss fights after that are actually not that bad. The fourth boss is kinda easy once you understand what you need to do, but the final boss is surprisingly better than I expected it to be. Dare I say, compared to the majority of final bosses in the Sega Genesis line-up that I faced, it does make an actual effort to stand out. All three of the Animaniacs are actually important to the fight, and while it can be quite difficult to avoid attacks if you are caught in a bad position, it's not disgustingly unfair.

Of course, another reason why I'm ranking it so low is that some parts of the game can be really obnoxious like those damn hippos in the final level, but other than that, it's a harmless enough game that I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend to anyone, but if you're into Animaniacs and you wanted to see what the games are like, it's worth a shot. I don't know about the Super Nintendo game, though, but I will come back to review the SNES version when I inevitably get to my Super Nintendo challenge.

Cleared on August 14th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 34/160)

Damn, this game took quite awhile to get done, and a good while to get going because when I got started with the game, I was left confused, bored, and impatient with the mechanics. Does it ever get good? What do I need to do? What's the point of hiring mercenaries or doing the Matrix? But once you understand the mechanics of the game and decide to just use a walkthrough, the game actually gets good.

The game is based on the Shadowrun tabletop RPG and takes a page from the book to make an urban fantasy with a mix of gang violence, guns, demons, and magic. You take the role of Joshua, who had arrived at Seattle where his brother Michael was ambushed and killed along with his squad, and you must scour the world for clues for information about the one's behind it all and the rabbit hole gets quite deep.

At the start of the game, you really aren't in much position to do stronger jobs. You don't even have the money to collect Michael's things from the motel, and the most you can do is just act as mailman and escort going from point A to point B. However, you build up Karma from doing all of that which will let you upgrade a skill upon visiting a motel, and will make you stronger in a variety of things like strength, movement speed, gun specialty, and many more.

The gameplay isn't that special, though. It really amounts up to kiting and top down shooting or casting spells. You have three classes you can play as which are Samurai, Decker, and Shaman. Samurais specialize in taking damage and dealing damage back with guns, Deckers specialize in taking on Matrix runs (more on that later), and Shamans specialize in magic and is pretty much the only class that can even use it. Don't know what class you want? That's fine. Just hire a mercenary and you can control them to use their skills. In fact, later on in the game, you are going to find them especially valuable. If you aren't a magic user, you will find spells like Invisibility and Heal valuable for survivability and avoiding combat. If you are a magic user like me, you will find hiring a decker valuable for delving into the Matrix to hack the system and extract data for money.

The Matrix has a different gameplay style with an impressive for its time 3D perspective where you just attack or (preferably) deceive the nodes in order to bypass them. The details aren't that important, you just need to be wary of the CPU which is the brains that will reveal you all of the nodes but is usually the most dangerous of the nodes, and the DS which is the square that holds the data. The more secure it is, the more valuable they tend to be. The gameplay starts out rather tedious as you'll find yourself missing constantly, but there is a trick to bypass that, but we'll talk about that later.

As with most RPGs, the spotlight is on the worldbuilding and the story. It takes place in a fantasy rendition of Seattle and it is filled with criminals and people looking to screw with you, but it's not to say everyone is an enemy. You have "Johnson's" who act as a link for a client which they hire Shadowrunners to do the job who sometimes give out information some for worldbuilding purposes, some that can actually advance the main plot, and some contacts that can assist you to make things much easier for you. And of course, each of the mercenaries you hire have their own backstories although beyond that, they don't have that much character expression. Once they get hired, they don't really say anything and go along with anything you do. Just don't leave them to die or have a party wipe, and you should be good. Upon getting Michael's equipment from the motel, the world begins to open up and you can just go wherever for a cheap price. The only place that isn't cheap is the Salish-Shade island which will cost 500 nuyen (the game's credit) for a pass and another 100 for the cab itself. Other than that and the Council Islands, the rest of the locations tend to look pretty samey being within the cities. You have motels for resting, you have bars where Johnsons and mercenaries hang out looking for work, abandoned buildings where ghouls reside, and highly secure places which tend to be a point of interest for shadowrunners and criminals.

It's a long game for what you'd expect out of the Sega Genesis, but the main story itself isn't that long as in theory I'd imagine you'd be able to get it done in maybe 5 hours or so, but the reason it takes so long is because you need to grind the hell out of karma, equipment, and money in order to get anywhere. You need reputation to get into high-end bars, you need money for a Level 5 Maglock Card, and you need equipment in order to stand your ground and especially against the final boss.

But when you aren't just grinding, the game is not too bad and I can definitely see why people hold it in high regards. At the same time, I'd understand someone dropping the game before they could even unlock the three main plotlines. If you want an easier time with the game, here are some tips and tricks to help you along.

1. Mercenaries in this game can be hired Short Term for a Shadowrun or Long Term. Long Term is very expensive, costing 10x the amount it would be for Short Term and thus, I would highly advise against it because you can actually keep the mercenaries around for a very long time as long as they don't die. You can have them as an ally for the main plot or just hire a decker (if you aren't one yourself) for going into the matrix to farm currency. If you need to get rid of them without worsening your reputation with them, just kill a few ghouls in Redmond Barrens and return to the Johnson there.
2. Believe it or not, doing delivery and escort runs for the Redmond Johnson is probably the fastest way of farming karma since each run gets you 1 karma and if you can hire allies, you can take them along and get them some karma for them as well, and best of all, these missions do not count towards a run. It's made even faster if running on emulation with the fast forward feature.
3. The best way to make money is to run the Matrix. Early game, as soon as you have the money and the means to travel, you can hire a guy named Phantom in Renraku to go into the Matrix as many times you like. Go to the computer near where you sell data to and just go at it.
4. When optimizing for the matrix, as soon as you are able to upgrade stats through getting a better deck, prioritize getting Evasion above all else because not only does it reduce your chances of getting hit, it actually increases your chance to hit which makes the sequence much less frustrating.
5. On the note of Matrix, make sure you save before actually going into any Matrix run because you have a small chance of running into a program that can fry your deck and force you to repair, or the tar pit which could remove one program that you used last and if it just so happens to be the Attack button, you'll be forced to Jack Out and buy the Attack equipment.
6. Early game, you are going to want to prioritize Quickness stat regardless of the class you started with because getting into an encounter with enemies will slow you down which could be really annoying and this will give you an easier time in order to kite them or just flee for any reason.
7. Usually, abandoned buildings contain ghouls which are points of interest for Shadowruns, but there are a select few buildings in the game that contain demons like hellhounds, Wendigos, of the like. Other than being a potential oversight, it could have its practical uses, namely allowing you to collect a hellhound pelt in order to advance a main plot quest without having to fork over so much money to return to Salish-Shade. Another potential use is waiting for someone to offer to take you to Salish-Shade while in the building since the encounters there are the same as those of the Salish-Shade caverns, but that's very RNG dependent and may be far too risky even mid-game.
8. Invisibility is a great means of infiltrating security and funny enough, if you are running with more than one person, you only need the one person you are controlling to be invisible as the game will treat as if your allies aren't there.
9. Set your allies to full defense if you do not want to engage in hostility which may be useful for conserving weapons, but if you need them to assist you in combat, set them to full offense.
10. While at Salish-Shade, go to Wilderness Area 3 where you will find a house with someone of high interest to Joshua. It will initiate a side-quest chain that upon success will net you what is quite possibly the best mercenary in the game and best of all, free of charge. From there, all you need is a magic caster like Freya, decent equipment, a lot of medkits, and you should be all set to take on the final boss of the game.

Cleared on July 18th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 33/160)

Valis: The Fantasm Soldier is the first of a series of 2D Action Adventure games that, I'm not sure how popular it was back in the day or if it's still popular at all, but it did sell pretty well and it ended up getting a port to the Nintendo Switch although in terms of visuals, music, and content and even dialogue, the version is much different, using the PC Engine version. I do intend to play the PC Engine version at a later date, but until then, I'll have to settle with the Sega Genesis version. But how is it?

I thought it was great. Now my only real gripe is that the dialogue in cutscenes is garbage, straight up. I looked at the dialogue in the PC Engine version to find it's not even that bad. At worst, it's kinda "Ehh...", but it never once made me cringe. I would say it's on the simple side and doesn't elaborate on details as well as you'd want it to, but it's not bad. The Sega Genesis version is a different breed of awful, and I'm not someone who has the best standards when it comes to writing. As someone who writes as a hobby and rarely shares their work (because that totally went well the last time I did), I know how difficult it can be to write good stories and sometimes good dialogue, so I generally tend to be forgiving towards stories that people deem as "mediocre" or sometimes even bad. So naturally it takes a lot for me to think a story is really bad and when even I think it's awful, there is something very wrong. Like did anyone adapting the dialogue in the Sega Genesis version think for one moment "I don't know, this doesn't feel right"?.

Let me give you an example. When Yuko is summoned to Dreamland by Varia, Varia tells her that she is the chosen warrior to defeat the forces of darkness and its king, Rogles. In the PC Engine version, Yuko claimed this was too much to ask for her and that makes sense. Yuko is merely just an ordinary high school girl with no prior fighting skills and to put the fate of the world in her hands would be scary to anyone. In the Genesis version? Yuko calls Varia selfish for asking for her help... wut? At that moment, I knew something wasn't right. There was no way this was the original dialogue and whaddya know, I was right. Also, in the Genesis version it's not called Dreamland; it's called "Fantasy World". Nice name. On top of that, in the Genesis version, the dialogue and cutscenes move so slow that one of the last cutscenes in the game before the final level lasted, I'm not even joking, 9 minutes. The same cutscene in the PC Engine version? 5 minutes. Also, some scenes got left out in the Genesis version from the PC Engine version. It includes Yuko's daily routine before the literal storm, an introduction of the villain himself, and some pre-text dialogue before each boss fight as well as cutscenes upon defeating them. If the Sega Genesis version is the "quality" I'm to expect for Valis III when I eventually get around to that game then spirits have mercy on me for what's coming.

But other than that, everything else about the game was pretty good. The game is one of the easier Genesis games that I've played although there are some parts that can be quite difficult like the last three bosses of the game, but the rest of the game is actually on the easy side. It's a 2D Action game where you swing a sword at enemies. It starts with really poor range, but once you pick up your first upgrade, it gets a projectile and from there on, the game just becomes a cakewalk at least up until the bosses. You also get a powerslide and some magic which can be activated by holding Up + Attack. This could be awkward at times, though, since you might mean to use Up + Jump for a high jump and then follow up with an attack, so if you're not careful, you'll accidentally use up some magic. And really, another problem with the game and this is another aspect of the game that keeps it from getting a higher score for the Sega Genesis version, it's that the controls doesn't seem to respond sometimes. Like you might mean to powerslide, but there is a delay when you've already performed an action and that may include ducking, I think. The thing is, you actually don't need to duck to use it. Just press the A Button and that's it, but my mind seems to think that's what you need to do sometimes and it kinda creates a delay instead of being instant. Perhaps the issue might be corrected in the PC Engine version, but we'll see about that.

The presentation is also really good too. While the animation and expressions during the cutscenes feel static on the Genesis, it does have to adhere to the limitations of the system, so I'll let it slide. The in-game art is quite good for the system and so is the music of the game, it's really good and enhances the experience of the game.

It's just a blast to play, and I'm excited to revisit this game on the PC Engine version and maybe then I'll give a second review of the game. It might just be a 4.5 stars or even a 5.

Cleared on July 18th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 32/160)

If you've been keeping tabs on my SEGA Genesis Challenge series, you likely know that I did not enjoy Castle of Illusion for the Genesis. It had some really obnoxious enemy placements, the obstacles and level design can feel really cheap, and the movement did not feel great.
This part of the review is now outdated due to having played Normal mode, refer to the updated Castle of Illusion review for more info.

I also really do not like how saccharine Mickey looked in that game. So when looking at World of Illusion, it already corrected that one issue, making Mickey actually look quite good in that game, but now he has a new companion, Donald Duck who also looks great in 16 bit form.

And it does manage to maintain the environments and the colors of its predecessor which really add to the vibrant magic aesthetic the game was going with as Mickey and Donald were trying to prepare for a magic act before getting whisked into a world of illusions created by a mysterious dark magician that dares them to challenge him to find their way out.

The 2D platformer gameplay is rather different in how you approach the enemies. Instead of being able to jump on them which you cannot do at all, you hit them with a magic cape which is odd. but it functions and fits with the magician theme these two have. The difficulty is manageable although the water level was obnoxious with how it handles its traps not to mention the tedious bubble sequence. The general movement speed remains the same as it did in Castle of Illusion, but the game improves it by letting you press the run button. While it unfortunately doesn't give you extra monument in your jump, I'd say it's still a step up, so that says something. Also, you can play as Mickey or Donald in this game, but they are merely cosmetic and have no gameplay differences, so it's a matter of who you like the most. I picked Donald.
Update: I was tipped off there was a difference in the routes you take although I have yet to verify that for myself. I will update when I replay the game.

The one thing that I felt World of Illusions was a let down compared to Castle of Illusions is the soundtrack which while not bad, isn't that memorable either. It's still leagues better than Fantasia, though, lol. The final boss theme is pretty good; too bad you either die to him too fast or you defeat him too fast to fully appreciate it.

It's a decent game. I wouldn't say it's remarkable; I was debating if this should be a 3 stars or a 2.5, but looking over the list of 5/10s that I have, I realized that I would rather play this game than any of them, so that's not bad.

Cleared on July 17th, 2023, exactly at midnight (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 31/160)

This game is just Contra at home. A 2D Platformer/Shooter hybrid where you fight your way through a horde of enemies, but has no grip on what makes the series so good. This could've maybe been forgiven until you realize this is a game that came out in 1995 and beforehand, we've had Gunstar Heroes 2 years prior and Contra: Hard Corps. Heck, I've heard even the NES Contra games were at least fluent albeit brutal. Judging the game on its own merits, it's just really mediocre.

The game has you play as one of two characters being Mitch or Max, each of which having different weapons. I picked Max since I thought he looked cooler, but ended up finding myself annoyed with his grunts since it sounds like an angsty teenager, lol. Anyway, Mitch has a rapid fire cannon while Max has dual pistols and I'm guessing Mitch has higher attack speed while Max has greater damage. At least I think that's the idea.

Then you are hurled into a zone that looks like it was ripped out of Donkey Kong Country, and right away, one of the problems I have with the game is the movement. While I generally prefer games with faster movement speed, this is a special case where faster is not exactly better because the rest of the movement feels very clunky including the jumping and just the precision of your movement is difficult to narrow down and makes trying to avoid attacks rather awkward. It does have health bars to compensate and you can heal, but it suffers from obnoxious enemy placement particularly during the later levels.

Oh and the level layouts are not good. Pluto Act 1 is a nightmare to deal with because it has gravity that sends you flying in a specific spots and they'll try to pull you towards spikes and there is one particular spot where there is a narrow descent with spikes and gravity will pull you towards it. It might not sound like it makes sense, but when you play the game, you'll see what I'm talking about. And even if you manage to get past that, you have a grenadier awaiting to blow you up and if you manage to survive that, you have to deal with a falling glacier. It is maniacal. Oh and this game has a odd habit of forcing you to grab ledges that you don't to grab and sometimes you won't connect with the ledges that you do want to connect which can make both falling down and getting up a genuine struggle.

You also have to deal with uneven terrain in Venus Act 2, Mercury Act 1, and Nero Act 1 which does not compliment the movement of your character or the placement of the enemies. Oh and the grenadiers are just obnoxious because they deal so much damage, are difficult to avoid, and once you manage to get one half of their bodies out, they get a smaller hitbox and will still attack you although they can't move because their lower body is gone. They appear throughout the majority of the game past Venus. In fact, the enemies that you will see are shooters, bladesman (also obnoxious because they are fast and deal a lot of damage), and... that's really it. You do have bosses and they are... ok. The 2nd boss was rather confusing to figure out how to defeat, but they aren't offensively difficult or anything. I still don't like how the final boss doesn't get its own theme.

Now I'm not really sure how the Super Nintendo version stacks up, but from what I can tell looking at the footage, it might have a different feel with having slower movement speed. Maybe I'll revisit it for my inevitable Super Nintendo challenge, but after that, I doubt I'll be thinking much about this game beyond just another dull game that I played.

Cleared on July 16th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 30/160)

The Immortal is a game that I've heard from through the Angry Video Game Nerd's review although other than how impressive the review was for being done in one take, I didn't really think much of the game. Then when I started to catalog Sega Genesis games for the challenge, I had the strange idea to add it onto the list. Apparently as it turned out, The Sega Genesis version (and really just about every other version that isn't the NES) is considered the superior version of the game. It's at least a good impression that the game doesn't have that trap that ambushed you the moment you walked out the first door, but does that mean the game is any good?

Well, I can't verify the differences, so I won't do much comparing here, but the game is... ok. Graphically, it's not too bad although I don't really like the sprite of the main character having this strange mix of white beard with brownish red hair. It just doesn't mesh well together. The music is also ok, but I find it bizarre that the music will force itself to the beginning when you walk to a specific point like a friendly NPC or a haystack where you go to regenerate health.

As for the gameplay, though, I have very mixed feelings on it. The thing is, I don't think of it as an Action RPG as the combat pretty much amounts up to dodging the enemy side to side until their time in-between attacks increases which gives you an opportunity to wail at them. Instead I think of it as more of Dungeon Crawler Puzzle game because there is quite a lot of puzzle-solving and thinking you need to do in order to advance with the game. The problem is that the complications of the puzzles are all over the place. Some make sense enough that you can figure it out even without a walkthrough, but others make no sense. Like how do you expect to figure out that an amulet that you get early on is needed to be used at a very specific spot, not to mention that it could genuinely kill you if you read the runes which leaves people thinking they should not use it under any circumstances, and how was I supposed to know that I'm supposed to use that same amulet after the final boss is immobilized? Like I understand that some things are cryptic, but still have subtle clues that it makes sense in retrospective, but there are points where it feels like there's no indication on what you're supposed to do.

If you killed the goblin king because you didn't give him water that you likely already used because you needed healing, did you actually think he was going to come back to life and steal one of your lives?

Did you actually think that by hurling a fireball at a troll that a Goblin is fighting that it would be the only way to unlock a door through the Goblin retreating and unlocking said door?

Did you actually think that you can not only stand in a circle spewing fire after it changes into a purple mist, but you have to use a gem in order to teleport yourself in order progress with the game.

There are also a bunch of death traps which is probably the most infamous aspect of the game although for the most part they should be avoidable if you have got attention to detail. Like if it asks you if you want to "investigate", it could be worded in a way that makes it so that "No, I don't want to investigate". Worst case scenario, you do have the password system, so you aren't forced to start from the very beginning.

There are points where I do feel the game is clever with its puzzles, though. During the final boss, once you figure out you're supposed to use Blink to evade its first 6 fires, you notice that it's about to fire its flames when its eyes give a glow, a "blink" if you will. I see what you did there.

It's a better game than I expected it to be. I didn't find myself raging or clamoring for it to end. Heck, I even found a few unexpected deaths to be kinda hilarious like how I tried to use a goblin disguise to bypass the Goblin King when he was pissed with me and he sent me down, anyway. In the end, however, I don't really think it's that great of a game. I liked some of its ideas, but the execution isn't perfect. But given what I've heard, if you're ever going to play the game, this is one of the better versions of the game.

Cleared on July 15th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 29/160)

You have no idea how close I was to giving this game a 1 star. The fact that I considered it perhaps even more so than I did with Fantasia is an indicator for my deep hatred for the game, but after composing myself and looking at the game in the grand scheme of things, I felt as if it might not be the right choice. After all, for a game to truly acquire a 1 star rating or below in my eyes, it needs to not only be incompetently made, but also have many of its bad game design decisions feel deliberate. As much as I hate this game, I know some people do like it and to them have far more value to them than I perceive it. That said, this game enraged me on a spiritual level. I don't care if its an unpopular opinion or even a skill issue; I'm fighting back!

Now I will say that I think the game's presentation is really well-done. The chibi style is perhaps seen as cutesy, but I can tell that's the vibe they were going with. The spritework for the friendly NPCs, monsters, and bosses are also quite good. It's cartoony and colorful, and the environment really compliments it. The music also adds to the atmosphere and it's not too bad to listen to. I don't recall there being a song I found grating.

The story for an RPG is rather lame. "Monsters are invading monster world". Wut? I mean, this is 1991, so that's just whatever. I've put up with RPGs having underwhelming stories before. What really gets me is the gameplay and some of the decisions surrounding it.

The game is a 2D side scroller action adventure game that is structured like a Metroidvania where you explore a large interconnected map. Now I've played my share of Metroidvania games, Dust: An Elysian Tail and Shantae are games that stick out to me in that regard, but the gameplay just doesn't really vibe with me. It starts out very slow, and I tend to really despise slow movements in my games, but to its credit, the difficulty seems manageable enough and the game actually does give you better movement speed when you get better boots. You also get physically tougher through armor and stronger through new weapons. However, after awhile, the game not only starts to feel boring, but also really frustrating.

My first problem is the knockback which I find obnoxious enough as is, but if an enemy is charging towards you, you cannot move in front of them. This has actually led to a few scenarios where I got stunlocked because they would push me into a wall and knock me around, giving me little chance to strike back. Even wielding the shield, you still get knocked back when it connects which can be aggrevating.

The attack range feels rather scuffed at times and while this could be remedied through the spear, you don't really get a lot of opportunities to use it and in the late game, the Best in Slot happens to be a Sword. On top of that, this is probably just a me thing, but the controls feel oddly sensitive. There are times where I'll think I'm about to strike right, but end up striking left. I thought maybe this was a control issue since I recall having a similar problem with Twinkle Tale, but I was playing on an official Microsoft Xbox One controller, and I checked other games to find I don't have that jittery issue there.

But the thing that really killed the game for me are the boss fights. The first boss is difficult to avoid, but with the right equipment, you can down it fast before it takes you down. The second boss is also a challenge, but once you figure out the pattern, it's manageable. The third boss is just a quiz show... but then there's the fourth boss, the snow boss. Picture this, you are about to face a boss in an icy castle. You have slippery floors which is already seen as an annoyance, but maybe you'll get use to it as long as you understand the terrain around you. Except for the fact that it's an auto-scroller with changing scenery and the weak spot of the boss is on the head which requires you to get on the top platform which is actually rather difficult when you are already wrestling with ice physics, but then you have to deal with the enemy barraging you with projectiles that come in fast and at a rapid pace. And taking a good amount of hits, you need to get lucky in order to defeat it. Somehow this fight was so bad that I was ready to call it the worst Sega Genesis boss that I've fought and I've fought some really obnoxious fights such as Sol-Deace's penultimate boss, the final boss of Gain Ground, and the snow boss in Hook. But would it surprise you to know that the game's penultimate and final boss are even worse?!

The Penultimate boss is a multi-phase fight where you already have to deal with it stunlocking you by pushing you into a wall with its massive body and having difficulties hitting its head to get it to back off. But once you get one of its head down, it forms a new one and uses its previous one for new attacks which is straight up difficult to avoid and for the record, I had best in slot by this point which means all of the legendary equipment. So I had to brute force my way through that fight with the Power spell which increases attack damage and somehow, after a few tries, I manage to down it.

But let me assure you, no amount of bullshit that this game throws at you could ever prepare you for the game's final boss which combines a barrage of things I absolutely hate.

Cramped space leaving little room for maneuver because the room is actually smaller than all of the bosses you've fought up to this point.
Doesn't have its own boss theme for some reason, I think using an earlier boss theme in the game.
Loss of movement control which is especially apparent during the 2nd phase because of conveyer belts moving from one side to the next which makes approaching the boss already difficult enough without accidentally bumping into it and taking damage.
If that's not enough, you have to deal with two lasers guns that are destructible after two hits (one with the Power spell) during the 2nd phase in contrast to the manageable just one. And then the game has the balls to throw in a huge sawblade on the conveyer that is not only difficult to avoid, but because of how the knockback works in the game, if you get knocked back because the conveyer bumped you into the boss or if the laser guns hit you, the sawblades will just knock you to the back of the room.

This is quite possibly among the most bloated boss I have ever faced in all of my years of gaming. When even using rewinds and save states, in the middle of the fight, still doesn't make it any easier, there is something very wrong. Like with the penultimate boss, I relied on luck and brute force my way which isn't even the intended strategy (not to mention using rewind), but because the game is so willing to pull this, I just about had it.

If or when I eventually get around to Dragon's Trap and Asha in Monster World, I am praying that at least one of them doesn't turn out anywhere near this frustrating or boring, especially when I already bought them both on Steam, but I'm going to clear my mind before playing both games and focus on my Sega Genesis games list.

Cleared on July 13th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 28/160)

Admittedly when I logged this game I did not expect it to be an auto-scroller shooter because I'm aware of the series being a 2D action adventure where you go exploring, but I didn't think I was going to be playing yet another one of those games except this time I'm on the ground until I get to the "monster's lair" where I ride some strange pink dino bird. Thrown off expectations aside, how is the game?

It's good. During the first half it seems like a pretty easy game for this genre's standards. There is some platforming involved which is different from all those auto-scroller arcade shooters, but nothing impossible. Along the way you get an array of weapons each of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. You have the standard shot which is infinite in ammo, but you can pick up a drill that pierces enemies, a twin-shot that can hit enemies from front and back, a spread shot that gets wider as it travels along, a short ranged star that circles around you (probably the weakest weapon in the game tbh), a missile that travels until you release the fire button, and an AoE fireball that circles around you and spreads in radius as it travels. Those weapons are limited in resources which often means that you won't be using them much in boss fights, but that doesn't matter since most of them are on the easy side.

But that doesn't mean the game itself is easy because two levels in particular can be a real pain. The Desert level is quite a difficulty spike compared to the ice level that came beforehand because you are dealing with these wave of birds that aim for where you stand and you have other ground enemies you need to worry about too. The boss itself is quite a challenge too. But then it goes back to being manageable during the town and 2nd beach level sequences, but then it cranks up the bull in the UFO level because there are these wave of enemies that if you miss the middle one when there's no platform to jump off of or on, you lose a life and you have very little time to react. Oh, and you decay your health overtime unless you get fruit although that decay pauses during the pink dino bird segments. When you get hit with projectiles, you lose that health and become stunned, but when you touch enemies, you get OHKO'd.

Some unfairness aside. I thought it was a fine game. The music was actually not too bad for a Sega Genesis game and it does look nice visually although the Arcade version did look better. That said, from what I can tell, it's different from other games in the series, but I am curious to know what the series is like, so I decided to buy the remakes for Wonder Boy III: Dragon's Trap and Wonder Boy IV (Asha in Monster World). I also plan to tackle Wonder Boy in Monster World for my next Sega Genesis review as soon as I clear the game.

Cleared on July 12th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 27/160)

Can't say I enjoyed the game, to be honest. My biggest culprit is just the sluggish movement which makes it difficult to avoid attacks. Perhaps it's by design to add to the difficulty, but I've used the rewind feature, and I can feel the hitbox to be off, and sometimes it's not "almost impossible" to avoid, it is just straight up impossible to avoid and some characters are even slower than others.

So you have an array of characters to rescue and choose from. You start with three unnamed heroes. Dude with a gun, girl with a gun, and dude with a spear. Along the way you rescue a couple of heroes each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some will be slow with having excellent range while others are about as fast as the game will let it be but at the cost of being unable to hit airborne enemies. When the hero you choose is unable to clear out any enemies, they can head for the "exit" and you can tag in another hero. Supposedly they act like lives which means you will need to conserve them in order to have an easy time. You either need at least one hero at the exit or to clear out every enemy in the room to advance to the next level.

There are a few good characters, some mediocre, and some too situational. There is this one guy who's special only hits enemies on high ground which is great if that's all that's left, but for ground enemies, yeah he can hit them with his normal attacks, but he is super slow. There's another guy that's similar, but only hits low ground enemies. And just the act of picking the wrong hero in the wrong level can be enough to ensure their defeat. Personally, I think the best character in the game is the gold beard viking with the bow and arrow. He has good range, he has decent damage and movement speed, and just really consistent. The only real case where I'd say he's not that good is the final boss, and to be fair, it's an extremely miserable fight with missiles that just home in on you, but you can barely dodge it because you're turbo slow as hell.

Like all Arcade games, it is designed to just frustrate you and suck away at your coins. Well, it might not have got any of that out of me, but it sure did suck away my brain cells from boredom.

Cleared on July 12th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 26/160)

Hook is a 2D Adventure game where you play as Peter Pan to get back his kids... wait, Peter Pan has kids?

Yeah, so this game was based on a movie of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg about a workaholic named Peter Bannings who ends up having his past caught up with him when his old nemesis, Captain Hook, hunts him down to kidnap his children and must recall his origins and embrace the inner child that he lost a long time ago. Before playing this game, I never even watched the movie. I've heard about it and people say great things about it despite the critic reviews. I'm not really a "movie" person. I haven't kept up the latest cinema releases, and it's not always the most ideal format for story-telling as it could feel too condensed. But since I have to keep integrity when reviewing a game, I decided to watch the movie, and I won't lie, it's already become one of my favorite movies of all time. Like if I gave it a rating, it would be a 5 stars. It has such a fascinating premise with great acting from Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams, the music was really good, and it's just a really funny movie that left me smiling at the end. The game, on the other hand, is... uhh... it's ok I guess.

The adaptation of the movie feels very condensed. They had it so that Peter transforms into Pan at the very beginning instead of taking an hour to do so, but this is to be expected for an adaptation of the 90s, so I'll let it slide. The game does look nice with a background that does speak to me that this is a movie adaptation with new locations like temples and snow since the movie didn't have a lot to work with. Some of the character sprites don't really register to me as "Hook" though. You could tell it is a Peter Pan game at the least, but I suppose its stylized and looks a lot better than trying to make something realistic in 16 bit. The music depends on the version you're playing. I've ran a comparison and honestly, playing the Sega Genesis version makes me ashamed that I didn't wait until I did the Super Nintendo challenge before doing this because the music in the Super Nintendo version sounds so much better. It even looks better with weather effects too. The Sega CD outright uses the songs from the movie which gives it an orchestral feel too it. The Genesis version is ok, but I wouldn't recommend it since they didn't even try to give the final boss its own theme.

However, the game doesn't really seem any more or less different from how it plays. The game has this sluggish movement that resembles Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusions, a game that I did not enjoy. To its credit, it does feel like its designed with the movement speed in mind and the jump actually feels alright. The game also has a Sprint feature which I unfortunately didn't realize until I got to the pirate town and by that point, I didn't get an opportunity to use it much. Did they honestly expect me to figure out there is a sprint button by holding down the Attack button while moving? I will say that I like the game's approach to water controls better than Mario where it feels like you are playing Flappy Bird. Instead holding the jump button holds you in place and you can move any direction you desire and when you release, you sink. The same controls apply when you are flying which is achieved through the assistance of Tinker Bell who appears throughout the level. You also get a dagger which has a decent range and made even better if you pick up Pan's Sword which gives you a projectile, but you better make the best of it while you can because if you get hit, you lose the power and it may be some time before you get a chance to get it back.

The worst part of this game for me is just the enemy placement and how some of them just come out of nowhere like those air balloons that fire projectiles at high speed. There are projectile enemies during the final two levels that feel almost impossible to avoid and you need to take them down before they take you down, and somehow they are even harder than the final boss which is just... whatever I guess. Also, shout out to the Snow level boss for being a candidate for one of the worst boss battles I've encountered in a Sega Genesis game. So you need to hit bombs on balloons to have it drop on him in the center, but the problem is that the center platform is so narrow with the area in-between that and the two edge platforms are spikes and doing air turn attack (or in Smash Bros terms, the back air) is really difficult to pull off. Thank god it only goes down in three hits.

There's a chance I'll revisit this game on the Super Nintendo and determine where I truly stand, but in the meantime, the game just doesn't really excite me. The movie was great, though.

Cleared on July 9th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 25/160)

This game never released outside of Japan and physical copies were even known to be extremely rare these days. Fortunately, a translation patch exist for this game and luckily I don't have to go through elaborate means of getting it to work. Though with a game this rare and elusive, you'd probably wonder if this game is even worth it? Well, I can say that while no game is worth forking over $300 unless you happen to be Youtuber who collects physical copies of video games, I can very well assure that the gem shines as bright as it is hidden.

Twinkle Tale acts as a top down shooter, but instead of being an auto-scroller, you're on the ground which gives you a lot more control to avoid attacks although it's still not that easy since it still goes off the classic "3 hits and you're out" although as you progress in the game, you can get up to 7 health which makes things manageable and you're going to need it since the game gets gradually harder.

As for your weapons. You have three basic weapons which you can upgrade up to Level 3 for maximum effect. The Shooting Star fires stars that spread out going farther distance the higher the level. The Diamond Arrow which fires arrows in a straight line, but deals the highest damage out of the weapons. Finally, the Silver Comet which fires a homing comet that damages enemies nearby although it has the lowest damage of the weapons. And luckily, the power that you lose from taking damage isn't as severe and power-ups are usually given out generously throughout the levels. You also get "Magic Bombs" which come in two variants. A giant comet that homes in on enemies and a Dragonflame which damages the whole screen. They're pretty similar and the differences are minimal.

I just really love the game's wizardry aesthetic, shooting enemies with powerful magic. It's traditional fantasy with forests, castles, and mountains; but it still adds a mystical charm that I think works for the game, and the music is amazing. It gives an adventurous and sometimes triumphant feel to it.

The game's difficulty is definitely hard, but it should be manageable enough. You do have control although some of the enemy placements can get rather rough although the good news is that healing potions aren't too sparse, so even if you get hit, you can get some of your health back with no worries. The bosses aren't too bad either... with one exception.

With how much fun I had with the game, I was gunning for it to be a 4.5 stars, but there's a few qualms that I have with the game that holds it back. For starters, I don't like how there's no means of strafing until you get to the bosses which are forced to do which is fine, bosses are designed this way. But you are unable to strafe until then which can make aiming a bit rough and sometimes the movement can be jittery when trying to aim at a specific direction. The game's frame rate also takes a drop at points and it's not that unbearable; I've seen much worse on that front, but any frame rate drops is never a good sign.

But then there's my biggest problem with the game, the penultimate level. So even though the game mostly takes place on the ground, the developers have the idea to make it a traditional sky top down shooter for this one level using the Wind Robe. It's an auto-scroller, you shoot enemies, and it plays how you'd expect it to. It's not that bad on its own, it gets frustrating with enemy placements and trying to dodge obstacles, but its manageable... until you get to the boss. It doesn't seem bad at first when you figure its attacks and know where to position yourself, but once you knock the rider out, you better hope you saved up those two magic bombs and you're at full health, or I can assure you that you're going to be in for a bad time, but staying at full health is tricky because there's only two health potions throughout the entire level, and you have to deal with projectiles that will very likely hit you because you're in an auto-scroller which I assume you aren't quite used to facing by this point.

But regardless, I still had a great time with this game. I'm sure you've played this game if you're a die hard Sega Genesis fan, but if you love the system and haven't heard of this game by some chance until now, you should definitely give it a go. You could clear it in maybe an hour if you play well enough.