It's definitely the oddball of the Wonder Boy franchise, but interestingly enough, the overall game design is what the dev actually had in mind for the original Wonder Boy before it became the game we know today. It's a shooter/platformer hybrid, and one of very few. At the time of writing, Atomic Runner (which is definitely not very good) and Son Son (which I honestly don't remember enough of to really comment on) are the only other games I can think of off the top of my head that play similarly.

As some here have said, this looks more like something on the Sega Master System and that isn't necessarily a negative to me. It is after all an early Genesis game and the cute character designs the series is known for are still here- I especially enjoyed the bosses.

The main things that really dragged the experience a bit for me were the abrupt difficulty spikes and rather crappy power-up system. The desert stage is absolutely terrible and is probably one of the main reasons why I will never bother trying to 1CC this game on subsequent playthroughs.

Then there's the awkward springs a couple stages later on. There's this weird mechanic where, if you push up on the control pad, you can descend slowly. It's never explained anywhere in the game (of course), and it can help with the springs a bit, but it still felt inconsistent even after finishing the game twice.

On its own, it's a decent enough game that's somewhat carried by its aesthetic. Just don't go in expecting the same level of quality (or the same kind of gameplay) as the other Wonder Boy games.

I did not get the appeal of this game when it came out, and I do not get the appeal of it now(or the many clones it inspired such as Celeste, which I actually finished without the assist stuff...but that's another review for another time).

Remember I Want To Be The Guy? This is literally that same game with a somewhat bigger budget and you have to pay for it. The design philosophy here is that lives and continues are no longer part of the equation, but in exchange for that, every screen will demand you attempt it dozens upon dozens of times until you do something slightly different and squeak on through.

There are plenty of "hard" games I enjoy. Ghouls n Ghosts, Comix Zone, Alex Kidd...but at least in those games you're not robbed of your senses by making you look at the same screen over and over again. You'll actually get somewhere before you hit a wall.

Not to mention, those games are far easier on the eyes. Super Meat Boy was among the first of the "low effort pixel art" games crapped out onto the market, and I think it may have even started the trend. I absolutely love indie games that get the aesthetic right (Freedom Planet, Sonic Mania, anything made by LocoMalito, Donut Dodo) but this ain't it. It's that "haha so retro" MSPaint breed of crap.

I definitely wish I could see why this game won awards or why it's so beloved. I've tried to get into it time and time again, and I just can't.

Peak Adventure Island. The NES game is known for being difficult to the point of being absolutely fucking broken by the time you reach its eighth world. I should know because I actually beat the stupid thing as a teenager before shelving it and never touching it again.

This game is basically what the NES original should've been. It's easy on the eyes (you even get to see Master Higgins make an ass of himself in little intermission cutscenes after finishing a world), has decent music and manages to be tough-but-fair instead of a tedious trial and error gauntlet. It's very doable on one continue, but it's worth noting that you get infinite credits. (No need to be aware of a stupid ass cheat that demands a prerequisite item to even work- Hudson really learned their lesson)

The controls still feel a little bit off, and that's really my only gripe. Higgins can still slip and slide on most terrain, but I will say the skateboard feels infinitely better to control than it did in any of the other games. Getting to the end of the stage with it also grants a big points bonus (which matters when it comes to racking up extends), and you will feel like a badass for doing so.

If you're going to play any Adventure Island, this is the one to go with. Super Adventure Island comes as a close second.

As far as licensed games go, this might be one of the best on the Genesis. This plays very similarly to the NES Flintstones games (also made by Taito), but is considerably more forgiving. There's a lot of variety in the (admittedly) low number of stages- you could be whacking snakes and using them as platforms in one moment and be driving the Flintstones "car" across the desert in the next. I do think the fact that you respawn immediately Turrican style during all of the bosses (except the final one) makes the game a bit too easy, though.

It's choppy and very rough to play until you get used to the piss poor frame rate, but I still found some fun in completing it. The original Space Harrier was always off putting to me because of its insane difficulty, and for being a console only sequel, Space Harrier 2 does a good job of alleviating this by being more forgiving with extends as well as allowing you to pick any stage you'd like to start with. If it weren't for the fact that it runs at like 15 frames per second, this would have a much higher score. There is apparently a version of the game on the Sega Genesis Mini 2 that fixes the frame rate, but I doubt it'll ever get ported onto modern consoles or even dumped by hackers as the scene is having trouble with the copy protection on the unit atm.

Having played a ton of Shadow Dancer and Shinobi III...this one is just okay in comparison. Yes, it was arguably one of the best games to come from the pre-Sonic lineup especially when comparing it to Space Harrier 2 and Altered Beast, but it still has a lot of problems.

For one, the double jump. It's been mentioned a million times already, but even on original hardware with a CRT (which is how I decided to revisit the game after my half sister got me one as an early christmas present) it can feel finnicky. It's not a sKiLL iSsUe thing for me either...I've finished this game a few times and Shinobi 3 numerous times even on the hardest setting because of how great that one is. It's also how you jump in and out of the background on certain stages, which is pretty much mandatory.

Speaking of that mechanic, it's really hard to tell what's part of the foreground and background in round 3. Even after a few playthroughs I still got thrown off by this personally.

Then there's the knockback. You thought it was bad in Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania? Revenge of Shinobi is like "hold my beer". Fortunately, you have access to some pretty nifty magical powers including a shield that will circumvent this for a few hits. It's almost mandatory when traversing round 8-1 on account of how much enemy and projectile spam there is.

Even if it does play like a B tier NES action platformer, it does have its moments. The music, of course, is peak Sega and the one thing just about everyone brings up when talking about this game. It's for good reason. Secondly, the first half of the game is pretty strong despite the gross knockback mechanic and janky double jump. The bosses, while not difficult, are also pretty amusing. I especially liked how there was a sense of urgency with the final boss as you see a wall of cement slowly closing in on your girlfriend in the background. It reminds me a lot of the setup for Comix Zone's finale, which is a game I love.

Sega fans in their 40s will tell you this is peak Shinobi, and although I can admit this was a historically important game and has its moments, it's definitely aged a bit. It walked so Shinobi 3 could run full speed ahead and become one of the best games on the console.

Mostly enjoyable with a few caveats. I love how the six stages (mostly) take you across locations you don't always see in shmups and the fire golem boss is rather memorable. I can also appreciate how, unlike most Konami shmups, you don't just lose everything on death.

That being said...it's rather difficult to determine whether or not something is an insta-kill or not. In this game, you can generally take a hit and just lose one of your firing options. At least, that applies to most projectiles with surfaces always resulting in insta-death. However, some things such as little chunks of rocks or a tiny fireball spewing out of a pipe in the fire stage will result in death no matter what. You're not going to know until if/when it happens, and that's sort of bad design.

Speaking of design, I felt the game provides a tough-but-fair challenge up until stage six when forgiving the above (which is easy enough to do considering most shmups just kill you in one hit regardless, plus it's plenty generous with extends on normal). Stage six, however, is just bullshit central with a bunch of traps that you simply need to have prior knowledge of before you can adequately route. This stage was almost enough to make me drop the game entirely after beating it, but I did manage to get a 1CC after a few attempts.

Overall I definitely had more fun with it than Gradius and Life Force, but as far as SNES shmups go, Space Megaforce still has yet to be beat.

Surprisingly better than both Aero games that this was intended to be a spin-off of. Zero has a lot of interesting movement tech, and for the first three worlds, the level design really complimented it. Plenty of secrets to find and overall a nice pace. The quality does drop a bit once you get past the caverns, as the levels become a mix of linear sections and some pretty bland vehicle romps. Definitely seems like the game was on a tight deadline which is a shame because there's glimmers of something that could've been far more. Still, it's a good way to kill an hour or two.

I actually completed this on the NES/Famicom, but there appears to be no option for it here.

The Famicom port is a simple, breezy cute 'em up that non hardcore shmup players can appreciate. It does use a Gradius style checkpoint system (yuck) but the game doesn't really suffer from Gradius syndome even towards the very end. It's very easy to become overpowered and just wreck everything before it even has a chance to fire, and there's even a "PP" (insert beavis and butthead laugh here) icon that will allow you to save all of your hard-earned powerups upon death, although normally you lose everything just like that highly overrated Konami space shooter.

The bosses, while having simple patterns, are probably the highlight of the game. They're big, cartoony and all based around various insects such as spiders and moths. Upon beating them, you'll see them all bruised up and waving a white flag and this is honestly pretty charming.

Besides being insanely short (like sub 20 minutes if you know what you're doing), the only other major flaw this game has is its soundtrack. As much as I don't like Gradius, one thing I'll give it credit for is having amazing music. Sadly, what's here is only marginally better than the garbage you'd find in Action52.

As for the Genesis version, I didn't beat it but found it to play worse than the Famicom version despite appearing to be just an edgier reskin.

I hate giving this a low score because I have a huge, huge sense of nostalgia for it being the game I'd frequently rent from our local grocery store when I was 6 or 7 (yes that was a thing). As an adult, though, it's impossible to look past the jank and (clearly) rushed development. About half of the game is simple, solid action platforming that borrows heavily from the likes of Crash Bandicoot. Then you get to Blin-cough-Clyde in the Caldera and the game goes downhill from there. You're faced with a badly designed boss (protip- get the greatest hits version if you're gonna play as there are more 1-ups) followed by three incredibly drawn out underwater stages. The game goes back to being semi-decent once you reach Spooky's turf, but it never quite hits the sweet spot that the first half did.

World 1 holds up significantly better, and Re-Pac improved upon that installment heavily. I would love to see a remake of this game that makes the second half better. Heck, you can swap out the swimming and submarine levels for the gameplay style that this actually does well enough and nothing of value would be lost.