As others have pointed out, this game is obnoxiously similar to SMB3 in terms of aesthetics- not that I think that's a bad thing at all. It's still a traditional 2D platformer, but it definitely plays quite differently.

The main gimmick here is that you can hold down the B button to rev your character up before letting go to have them zip across the screen. You're going to have to get used to this because some gaps and areas are simply impossible to get by without using this move. It's not a half bad idea and is somewhat similar to how the jetpack would be used in Rocket Knight Adventures a couple years later, but it could have been done better.

In addition, you can collect letters that will either turn you into a frog or summon this odd character that sometimes attacks bosses for you from what I remember. Nothing really important or special though.

There are a few cheap sections and a looping maze later on I didn't care for- but that's par for the course for a non Nintendo developed platformer from this time. Overall it's a decent time, but there are far better obscure platformers on the console you should check out first. Better than something like Widget, but definitely not in the same tier as Felix the Cat or Surprise at Dinosaur Peak.

Protip: Play using an English patch. The localized prototype has also been dumped and from what I recall worked perfectly fine start to finish on an emulator when I played it a couple years ago. Normally, it shouldn't matter in a game like this. But, you're rewarded with an adorably punny ending sequence that you won't want to miss if you're a fan of that kind of thing. (Like yours truly!)

Hands down my favorite shooter to star an actual character (as opposed to a ship) that isn't Air Zonk. Hardcore fans of the genre will probably roll their eyes at some of the "euro" aspects of the game's design, such as the inclusion of a health bar and shops in between levels, but the rest of us should have no problem enjoying the game.

One particularly interesting aspect behind the game (besides its unique theming and heavy metal soundtrack) is that you're allowed to pick which order you want to take the stages on in. I also really liked the idea of a melee-based attack on top of your regular projectiles. It works similarly to how it does in Metal Slug in that you'll whip out your sword and slash enemies if they're close enough in range. Sometimes, this attack deals even more damage than just firing away, and you can even use this to cheese some of the bosses if you so desire.

The only real disappointment here is that there are no officially licensed tracks. That's not to say what is present isn't amazing, because it is and suits the game really well. But, I am saying it would have been really cool to have some Metallica or Iron Maiden tracks in the western localization considering this was a CD-based game and (at the time) there was a big push to show off what the medium could do.

It still hurts that this was merely an extended tech demo, but I couldn't have picked a better way to kill time as I waited for Ratchet and Clank:Rift Apart to install. It's insanely charming, full of throwbacks without ever feeling like it was pandering and features a ton of unique ways to use the controller. I suppose it also helps that I was really invested in the little guy since I basically bought a PS VR set just to play Astro Bot Rescue Mission on the PS4.

Can't tell you how excited I am to play the upcoming game in this series- really. I've been wanting a full-fledged non VR game set in this universe for a while now.

The marketing is pretty pretentious ("huhr duhr remember when vidya was HARD?"...failing to realize that not every game made before 1998 was an exercise in frustration) and there are simply better games that accomplish what it set out to do.

Cursed Castilla came out a year prior, actually looked like an arcade or Genesis game and had far better level design based around strict jump arcs and the need to think one step ahead since you didn't have the free-flowing movement of something like Super Mario. If you need a more modern example, Curse of the Moon went for the same thing with great results. Neither game needed to tell you it was "so hard" or "so retro", either.

Seems like this has its fans though. To be fair, it did release before the whole retro revival really blew up...but it just didn't feel any better to play now than it did upon release for me.

I really want to like this game as I like the bright, cartoony art style that we just don't see often in the genre. I can also appreciate that it's trying to be more of a pre-Doom FPS, which again, isn't happening a lot in the indie space. Outside of Project Warlock, I'm failing to think of any.

That being said, I feel like Wizordum needs a lot of work before the early access period is up. For one thing, the maps are far bigger than they really need to be. Project Warlock worked as a sort of Wolf3D throwback because most of the levels were short and to the point. It just feels bloated as others have said on here.

The worst problem, however, is just how often monsters come out of nowhere and get these ghetto shots on you from behind. Yes, this kind of thing could happen in the classics, but it was never anywhere near as obnoxious as it is from stage 4 onward in this game.

Last, but not least, I ran into a lot of performance problems at least on my PC. The game absolutely chugged on map 4 and even after fiddling with some of the settings it still continued to drop frames in the most critical of moments (such as fending off a wave of skeleton warriors).

Hopefully these issues get fixed later- as mentioned the game is in early access and I probably would have refunded if it weren't for the fact I got it during a sale. For the rest of you...there's just far better games in this genre worth getting in the middle of this 90s FPS boom.

The game plays like a cross between Mappy and the original Mario Bros and sees the player taking on 50 screens of single screen platforming action with some very light puzzle elements sprinkled in towards the back half.

While serviceable, I don't feel like it has quite the level of polish found in other games Flynn's Arcade has published (which includes the phenomenal Galacticon and Donut Dodo). For one thing, the overall presentation is kind of generic compared to the adherence to detail found in the aforementioned games. Goliath Depot has more of that mobile "so retro" aesthetic and some of the sound effects (which I do think are an important and underlooked aspect when it comes to neo-retro games) definitely had to come from some kind of royalty free library.

To be fair, the game does try to provide more replayability than some of the publisher's other games. There are a ton of in-game achievements to unlock as well as hard mode variants of each of the four worlds. There is also an arcade mode that should take you about 30 minutes to complete and has you playing all the stages back to back- but this is curiously locked behind beating the main game once. Last but not least, there is a randomizer mode for those into that sort of thing.

I think it's absolutely worth playing on account of its low price, but fans of single screen arcade games would do well to check out the aforementioned games first as I feel they better stick with tradition and are around the same pricepoint.

I got this game around Christmas of 2003 when I was 7 years old and just discovering sega's back catalog of games. I'd already played ristar on the Genesis and adored it to no end. I even remember an older cousin and I popping in the boss rush code from gamefaqs printout I had prior to even having the Genesis game and him just annihilating everything up to kaiser greedy without much experience with the game otherwise. That's how special the game is to me, lol.

As for this 8 bit version, it follows the same philosophy as Sonic 1 8 bit in that it has the same general structure but a handful of different mechanics and levels. Ristar GG features an exclusive pirate ship stage and two exclusive bosses. The snow stages also revolve around picking up bombs and hauling ass to various checkpoints before they explode....not to mention this weird time rabbit boss that is able to freeze time and bounce about while you're stunned.

What makes this version particularly impressive is how much it was able to keep in tact from the 16 bit version compared Sonic's GG outings. Swinging poles were pretty much Ristar's equivalent of the loop-de-loops of Sonic, and they weren't sacrificed in this port. There's plenty of opportunities to swing about and launch yourself at high speeds despite the limited hardware- even in the aforementioned exclusive stage.

Again, I can't say in good spirit that it's the better game over its 16 bit counterpart, but it's still worth a run if you enjoy the source material.

The master system truly was this odd but wonderful system for me as a child. I was lucky enough to get one at a yard sale in the summer of 2003 when I was 7 years old and at the peak of my sonic obsession. Sadly, the lot we got did not include this game but it did include a lot of other games such as Alex kidd and Ghostbusters.

I didn't get to play this until I unlocked the gamegear version on sonic adventure dx around the same age. At that time, I'm pretty sure I got to the jungle zone and gave up at the boss.

As an adult, I've probably finished this version about a dozen times and still enjoy coming back to it. Design wise, I always liked how the emeralds were found within the levels instead of an awkward special stage that feels more like a tech demo than anything (a recurring theme with the mainline genesis installments imo). I also like its arcade approach to scoring...it's really nice to hear that counter ticking down at the end when you manage to finish the game with all the emeralds and 20+ extra lives remaining.

Would I say it's better than the Genesis game? Not really. It suffers a lot due to the slowdown in Labyrinth zone. So much so that I'm such my everdrive didn't just snap in half. Why they chose to recreate this zone in the first place kind of boggles my mind when marble zone would've been a better candidate considering the difference of pace in this version. Sonic 1 8 bit is far more platforming heavy to be sure, and marble garden would've made more sense but oh well.

As it stands, it's well worth checking out and I'd say it's my favorite master system platformer besides the original Alex Kidd.

Haven't messed with the builder portion much, but I've already played some really impressive levels such as Whomp's Graveyard. I also like how star collecting handles like it does in Odyssey- you don't get booted out of the stage at any point for collecting them. It's also a plus that you don't have to deal with slightly altered physics- that was something that always bothered me about mario maker. I just wish the process to download levels was a bit less tedious. For now, you have to go to level share square and manually download them+ drag and drop them into a virtual SD card to get them to load. (It's still worth it tho don't get me wrong!)

I have been playing a lot of Bandicoot's hacks lately after being completely amazed by SMW: The Crown Tale (well, despite the overly silly plot but that's not really an issue considering these are unofficial mario games). While not nearly as good as that one, Classic Mario World still offers a solid traditional experience with the difficulty (for the most part) being just a notch or two above the vanilla game. Secret exits were perhaps a little too easy to pick up on and the custom bosses kind of sucked (Bowser Jr especially), but it's worth looking past and is completely do-able without save states unlike a lot of SMW hacks. It also helps that the game actually saves your lives even after shutting off the console- this is something that the source material was sorely lacking and is an excellent QOL update. (Other hackers should really take notice of this for those of us who try to play on the real deal when possible!)

Played through on official hardware with a Super Everdrive X3 and did not encounter any major issues.

There have been some pretty intense events in my personal life lately. The reality of it is that I have a chronic illness that doctors say will potentially take my life within the next two years. That being said, there are a handful of games I grew up with that I really wanted to make sure I revisited before the grim reaper comes knocking, and I couldn't think of a better way to start things off following this news than a Castlevania game. You do, after all, fight Death. (chuckle)


I'm still not 100 percent sure which Castlevania game I truly played first. It was either the original game on NES or this one, but either way, an impact was made on my eight year old self and I still enjoy both even if I didn't really click with the fan favorite (Dracula's Curse) or the later metroidvania installments.

Like with Doom 64, I think Super Castlevania IV sticks out to me due to its atmosphere. This game was an early SNES title and, as such, you can really tell they wanted to show off what the new hardware can do. Mist in the foreground of some scenes, the spinning and rotating chambers early on and (my personal favorite) the oversized chandeliers at the start of Dracula's castle are some nice examples.

The soundtrack isn't as tense as the NES games and could be seen as inferior to some, but I think it gets the job done well enough. The theme for the treasury is probably my favorite- it's surprisingly upbeat compared to the tone of the rest of the game's music.

Contrary to what those involved in the internet e-peen measuring wars want to claim, I also don't think the game really skimps out on challenge all that much. No matter how many times I've dealt with the medusa heads in the spinning/spike filled chamber or raced across a row of crumbling platforms with bats threatening to knock me back at every chance, there's always a sense of tension. I feel Konami wanted to introduce a more gradual difficulty curve with this game and ease the player in, which isn't a bad thing considering how well known the other Classicvanias are for being brutally hard. The "real" Castlevania difficulty really doesn't set in until you reach the cellar (Frankenstein's level), which gives most enough time to really understand the mechanics.

So many people also point out to the more organic jumping mechanics and multi-directional whip when calling this a "baby game" in some circles. Sure, the jump is a little easier to handle and you have more control over where your attacks land, but the design often accounts for it. Neither of those things are going to help out in a situation where a skeleton warrior is positioned right after a platforming section (like at the beginning of the castle). If you weren't paying attention to how he attacks, you are getting knocked back and losing a life. I think I could better understand the "too easy" argument if Konami decided to remove that age-old and incredibly punishing mechanic on top of the tweaks to the jump and whip.

My main gripe with the game has to be the length of the levels. One reason I prefer the original is that the pacing was, at least to me, just right in this regard. In the beginning of the game, it's not infrequent to go through several scenes/midboss/end of level boss before moving on to the next stage. Brevity is not always a bad thing, but again, this could have been a matter of wanting to show that the Super Nintendo could do and be more than an 8 bit game.

Still, even if it's a little drawn out, I've enjoyed replaying Super Castlevania IV a lot more than I thought I would.

Another game I grew up with yet somehow never finished entirely- until now that is. (I'll chalk that up to hating Big's sections. )

Sonic's gameplay is very strong and still holds up despite some jank during the air base and lost world missions. Whenever I (and I bet most people) reminsince about this game, this is what I tend to think about.

Tails plays fine enough since the overall loop is similar to Sonic's, but there's a lot of repeated content starting at this point and that's one thing that I think really drags the overall experience down a bit.

Knuckles' gameplay is pretty inoffensive. While flying around and scaling previously visited action stages with him is fun, there wasn't much challenge when it came to hunting down the shards. Maybe I just got lucky but they were all in mostly predictable places.

Gamma had a unique lock-on gimmick that reminds me a lot of rail STGs such as After Burner and (to pull a more modern example) Missile Dancer 2. This could have made for an exciting campaign, but his levels are all piss easy. Still an enjoyable character to play as and just annihilate everything with, but I wish his campaign was more challenging.

Amy's campaign is super short and pretty underwhelming. She plays like a slower Sonic and while I didn't hate her campaign I would say it really didn't add much.

Big the Cat's story is mercifully short but also the worst. The fishing mechanics felt incredibly janky and it sometimes felt like dumb like when I'd get froggy to finally latch on to the bait. This really shouldn't have been required to get the real ending.

Super Sonic's bit impressed me a lot more when I was a kid and watched my (at the time) best friend play it some 20 years ago. Just a shame ultimate chaos was so easy- I beat him on my first go and didn't come close to running out of rings either. The true final boss lacks the tension that doomsday from sonic 3 had, but the setup was at least pretty rad.

Overall, I'm glad I got around to this but I doubt I could be bothered to do all the stories again in the future. (Also...why the fuck can't the credits be skipped after beating the game once as Sonic?)

This is essentially Eurostyle Ghouls n Ghosts, although it's a bit more forgiving than the infamous Capcom title and has a bit more nuance in how upgrades and power-ups work. I highly advise tracking down a PDF of the game's manual unless you want to be frustrated senseless, but I'll explain some of the quirks here.

You need to hit down in order to pick up the silver coins (described as armor links in the manual). At certain increments, your armor will increase and at around 70 you'll get golden armor. The wonderful thing about it is that you're basically invincible as long as you keep your chain link count up. But, taking damage in this game works a little bit like sonic (for whatever reason) and you'll drop armor links and possibly downgrade. Curiously, pits won't kill you but you'll drop an assload of links as a punishment.

Weapons themselves have compile shmup logic. That is, you'll power up a weapon by picking up multiples of it. It is very important to stick with one weapon for the most part, as it is virtually impossible to destroy some of the bosses without running out the timer with a level 1 weapon.

There are a dozen stages here (including bosses) and no, you don't have to do the game twice. Unlike most euro style games, the levels are super linear and only require that you free all of the monks from the statues to make the exit appear at the end. The moment to moment action is enjoyable enough once you grasp how the game works (again...this is one you really should read the manual for) and plowing through everything with golden armor and a level three flame wheel is a real power trip.

That being said, I definitely don't care for how rigid the jumping is and found it especially annoying that holding down the button commences this weird sort of bunny hop.

There are also these gatekeepers that will require you to play a game of Simon says to pass by. They start out innocently enough but become incredibly annoying and lengthy by stage 10. I always found these kinds of puzzles in action oriented games to be lame distractions and the same applies here. I am willing to admit that it may just be a me thing here as well- my short term memory is absolute horse shit so this may not be a problem for others.

All in all, it's a short and (mostly) inoffensive action platforming romp that's worth playing through at least once after studying the manual.