eyezack
1988
1990
2006
decided to check this out to try out pyron, donovan, and huitzil and ended up beating the whole arcade mode instead. it's entirely understandable why vsav is played more frequently than this sequel with the removal of certain characters, tweaking of established game mechanics, etc.; though that doesn't mean i enjoyed playing it any less. huitzil and pyron feel fantastic and the combat flows just like vsav should.
this game feels absolutely insane to play. like i've gotta watch some professional matches of this because you can do incredibly cool stuff and rack up tons of damage by, seemingly, just mashing buttons and doing standard fgc inputs. it's absolutely wild and i've gotta bust this out sometime with friends. gonna be playing this one a whole lot more.
1992
you're gonna want to bust out the ol game genie for this one (SKVTTSVK for infinite lives lol) because it's reallll tough, which would typically not be my kinda jam. however, gimmick OWNS so hard that it was worth retrying parts of each level over and over again, seeing what little secrets i could find by bouncing the star off a wall and going wherever it takes me. gimmick's character and enemy designs are so darn cute and the level and backgrounds are ridiculously detailed, making this feel like it could've come out today. i loved this! im gonna have to smoke some more 8-bit games because i've been missing out (dragon quest 1 review soon....).
2022
1993
1991
a simple, fun beat em up with really heavy and satisfying combat —yet i felt the actual amount of damage done was a bit less than i’d like. this makes the (admittedly, disappointing) boss fights more difficult than they should be. there’s so much potential in this game, and i think that’s why it feels a bit more lacking than usual. i still recommend checking it out tho
1994