298 reviews liked by mariowithagun
Super Mario 64 DS
2004
nintendo salvaging the american gaming market with the release of the NES was the modern inflection point for our industry, in some ways that are less obvious than others. the console enshrined gaming as a medium with legitimacy beyond the original fad-like relevance of the atari VCS, but the centralization of this success around nintendo gave the company an uncomfortable amount of leverage. this immediately portended poorly with the simultaneous release of the console's killer app: super mario bros., which gestured to a sinister rejection of the console's original intent. look to the japanese launch line-up and you'll see arcade staples such as donkey kong and popeye; games that lauded precise, restricted play with definitive rules and short runtimes. super mario bros. was a refutation of this design philosophy in favor of the loosey-goosey variable jump heights, frequent health restoration items, and long hallways of copy-paste content replacing the tightly paced experiences that defined the era before. the NES still featured arguably the greatest console expressions of the rigorous arcade action experiences that defined the '80s - castlevania, ninja gaiden, and the early mega mans all come to mind - but the seeds super mario bros. planted would presage a shift into more and more experiences that coddled the player rather than testing their fortitude. in some ways, super mario bros. lit the match that would leave our gaming landscape in the smoldering ruins of the AAA design philosophy.
the '90s only deepened nintendo's exploration of trends that would further attempt to curb the arcade philosophy, which still floated on thanks to the valiant efforts of their competitors at sega, capcom, konami, and others. super mario world kicked off nintendo's 16-bit era with an explicitly non-linear world map that favored the illusion of charting unknown lands over the concrete reality of learning play fundamentals, and its pseudo-sequel yoshi's island would further de-emphasize actual platforming chops by giving the player a generous hover and grading them on their ability to pixel hunt for collectables rather than play well, but the most stunning example of nintendo's decadence in this era is undoubtedly donkey kong '94. the original donkey kong had four levels tightly wound around a fixed jump arc and limited ability for mario to deal with obstacles; its ostensible "remake" shat all over its legacy by infusing mario's toolkit with such ridiculous pablum such as exaggerated flip jumps, handstands, and other such acrobatics. by this point nintendo was engaging in blatant historical revisionism, turning this cornerstone of the genre into a bug-eyed circus romp, stuffed with dozens of new puzzle-centric levels that completely jettisoned any semblance of toolkit-oriented level design from the original game. and yet, this was the final fissure before the dam fully burst in 1996.
with the release of the nintendo 64 came the death knell of the industry: the analog stick. nintendo's most cunning engineers and depraved designers had cooked up a new way to hand unprecedented control to the player and tear down all obstacles standing in the way of the paternalistic head-pat of a "job well done" that came with finishing a game. with it also came this demonic interloper's physical vessel, super mario 64; the refined, sneering coalescence of all of nintendo's design tendencies up to this point. see here a game with enormous, previously unfathomable player expression, with virtually every objective solvable in myriad different ways to accommodate those who refuse to engage with the essential challenges the game offers. too lazy to even attempt some challenges at all? feel free to skip over a third of the game's "star" objectives on your way to the final boss; you can almost see the designers snickering as they copy-pasted objectives left and right, knowing that the majority of their player base would never even catch them in the act due to their zombie-like waddle to the atrociously easy finish line. even as arcade games stood proud at the apex of the early 3D era, super mario 64 pulled the ground out underneath them, leaving millions of gamers flocking to similar experiences bereft of the true game design fundamentals that had existed since the origination of the medium.
this context is long but hopefully sobering to you, the reader, likely a gamer so inoculated by the drip-feed of modern AAA slop that you likely have regarded super mario 64 as a milestone in 3D design up to now. yet, it also serves as a stark contrast to super mario 64 ds, a revelation and admission of guilt by nintendo a decade after their donkey kong remake plunged modern platformers into oblivion.
the d-pad alone is cool water against the brow of one in the throes of a desert of permissive design techniques. tightening up the input space from the shallow dazzle of an analog surface to the limitations of eight directions instantly reframes the way one looks at the open environments of the original super mario 64. sure, there's a touch screen option, but the awkward translation of a stick to the literal flat surface of the screen seems to be intentionally hobbled in order to encourage use of the d-pad. while moving in a straight line may still be simple, any sort of other action now begets a pause for reflection over the exact way one should proceed. is the sharp 45 or 90 degree turn to one side "good enough", or will I need to make a camera adjustment in-place? for this bridge, what combination of angles should I concoct in order to work through this section? the removal of analog control also forces the addition of an extra button to differentiate between running and walking, slapping the player on the wrist if they try to gently segue between the two states as in the original. the precision rewards those who aim to learn their way around the rapid shifts in speed while punishing those who hope they can squeak by with the same sloppy handling that the original game allowed.
on its own this change is crucial, but it still doesn't cure the ills of the original's permissive objective structure. however, the remake wisely adds a new character selection system that subtly injects routing fundamentals into the game's core. for starters: each of the characters has a separate moveset, and while some characters such as yoshi and luigi regrettably have the floaty hover and scuttle that I disdained in yoshi's island, it's at least balanced here by removing other key aspects of their kit such as wall jumps and punches. the addition of wario gives the game a proper "hard mode," with wario's lumbering speed and poor jump characteristics putting much-needed limiters on the game's handling. for objectives that now explicitly require wario to complete, the game is effectively barring you from abusing the superior movement of the original game by forcing you into a much more limited toolkit with rigid d-pad controls, the kind of limitations this game absolutely needed in order to shine.
that last point about objectives that specifically require a given character is key: the remake segments its objectives based on which characters are viable to use to complete them. however, while in some cases the game may telegraph which specific characters are required for a particular task, in many cases the "correct" solution is actually to bounce between the characters in real time. this is done by strategically placing hats for each of the characters throughout the map - some attached to enemies and some free-floating - which allow the player to switch on the fly. this adds new detours to the otherwise simple objectives that vastly increases their complexity: which toolkit is best suited for which part of each mission? how should my route be planned around the level to accommodate hats I need to pick up? will I be able to defeat an enemy that's guarding the hat if I had to? this decision-making fleshes out what was previously a mindless experience.
there's one additional element to this system that truly elevates it to something resembling the arcade experiences of yore. while you can enter a level as any character, entering as yoshi allows you to preemptively don the cap of any other character as you spawn in, preventing the player from having to back-track to switch characters. on the surface this seems like another ill-advised QoL feature, but some subtle features reveal something more fascinating. yoshi has no cap associated with him, so to play as him, one must enter the level with him. however, you often need to switch to another character in the middle of a level. how do you switch back? by taking damage. to solve the ridiculously overstuffed eight piece health bar of the original, this remake transforms it into a resource you expend in order to undergo transformation. sure, one could theoretically collect coins in order to replenish this resource, but this adds a new layer onto the routing that simply didn't exist in the original game, where there were so many ways to circumvent obstacles with the permissive controls that getting hit in the first place was often harder than completing the objective. by reframing the way that the player looks at their heath gauge, the game is calling to mind classic beat 'em ups, where the health gauge often doubled as a resource to expend for powerful AoE supers.
the game still suffers from much of the rotten design at the core of its forebear; these above changes are phenomenal additions, but they're grafted onto a framework that's crumbling as you delve into it. regardless, the effort is admirable. for a brief moment, nintendo offered an apology to all of those hurt by their curbstomping of the design philosophies that springboarded them into juggernaut status in the first place, and they revitalized classic design perspectives for many millions more who first entered the world of gaming after it had already been tainted by nintendo's misdeeds. the galaxy duology, released a few years after this game, attempted to rework the series from the ground up with a new appreciation for arcade design by limiting the bloated toolkit of previous games and linearizing levels, but the damage had already been done. the modern switch era has magnified nintendo's worst tendencies, putting proper execution and mechanical comprehension to the wayside as they accelerate the disturbing "the player is always right" principles that have infested their games since that original super mario bros. by looking at super mario 64 ds in this context, we at least get a glimpse of what a better world could have looked like had nintendo listened to their elders all along.
the '90s only deepened nintendo's exploration of trends that would further attempt to curb the arcade philosophy, which still floated on thanks to the valiant efforts of their competitors at sega, capcom, konami, and others. super mario world kicked off nintendo's 16-bit era with an explicitly non-linear world map that favored the illusion of charting unknown lands over the concrete reality of learning play fundamentals, and its pseudo-sequel yoshi's island would further de-emphasize actual platforming chops by giving the player a generous hover and grading them on their ability to pixel hunt for collectables rather than play well, but the most stunning example of nintendo's decadence in this era is undoubtedly donkey kong '94. the original donkey kong had four levels tightly wound around a fixed jump arc and limited ability for mario to deal with obstacles; its ostensible "remake" shat all over its legacy by infusing mario's toolkit with such ridiculous pablum such as exaggerated flip jumps, handstands, and other such acrobatics. by this point nintendo was engaging in blatant historical revisionism, turning this cornerstone of the genre into a bug-eyed circus romp, stuffed with dozens of new puzzle-centric levels that completely jettisoned any semblance of toolkit-oriented level design from the original game. and yet, this was the final fissure before the dam fully burst in 1996.
with the release of the nintendo 64 came the death knell of the industry: the analog stick. nintendo's most cunning engineers and depraved designers had cooked up a new way to hand unprecedented control to the player and tear down all obstacles standing in the way of the paternalistic head-pat of a "job well done" that came with finishing a game. with it also came this demonic interloper's physical vessel, super mario 64; the refined, sneering coalescence of all of nintendo's design tendencies up to this point. see here a game with enormous, previously unfathomable player expression, with virtually every objective solvable in myriad different ways to accommodate those who refuse to engage with the essential challenges the game offers. too lazy to even attempt some challenges at all? feel free to skip over a third of the game's "star" objectives on your way to the final boss; you can almost see the designers snickering as they copy-pasted objectives left and right, knowing that the majority of their player base would never even catch them in the act due to their zombie-like waddle to the atrociously easy finish line. even as arcade games stood proud at the apex of the early 3D era, super mario 64 pulled the ground out underneath them, leaving millions of gamers flocking to similar experiences bereft of the true game design fundamentals that had existed since the origination of the medium.
this context is long but hopefully sobering to you, the reader, likely a gamer so inoculated by the drip-feed of modern AAA slop that you likely have regarded super mario 64 as a milestone in 3D design up to now. yet, it also serves as a stark contrast to super mario 64 ds, a revelation and admission of guilt by nintendo a decade after their donkey kong remake plunged modern platformers into oblivion.
the d-pad alone is cool water against the brow of one in the throes of a desert of permissive design techniques. tightening up the input space from the shallow dazzle of an analog surface to the limitations of eight directions instantly reframes the way one looks at the open environments of the original super mario 64. sure, there's a touch screen option, but the awkward translation of a stick to the literal flat surface of the screen seems to be intentionally hobbled in order to encourage use of the d-pad. while moving in a straight line may still be simple, any sort of other action now begets a pause for reflection over the exact way one should proceed. is the sharp 45 or 90 degree turn to one side "good enough", or will I need to make a camera adjustment in-place? for this bridge, what combination of angles should I concoct in order to work through this section? the removal of analog control also forces the addition of an extra button to differentiate between running and walking, slapping the player on the wrist if they try to gently segue between the two states as in the original. the precision rewards those who aim to learn their way around the rapid shifts in speed while punishing those who hope they can squeak by with the same sloppy handling that the original game allowed.
on its own this change is crucial, but it still doesn't cure the ills of the original's permissive objective structure. however, the remake wisely adds a new character selection system that subtly injects routing fundamentals into the game's core. for starters: each of the characters has a separate moveset, and while some characters such as yoshi and luigi regrettably have the floaty hover and scuttle that I disdained in yoshi's island, it's at least balanced here by removing other key aspects of their kit such as wall jumps and punches. the addition of wario gives the game a proper "hard mode," with wario's lumbering speed and poor jump characteristics putting much-needed limiters on the game's handling. for objectives that now explicitly require wario to complete, the game is effectively barring you from abusing the superior movement of the original game by forcing you into a much more limited toolkit with rigid d-pad controls, the kind of limitations this game absolutely needed in order to shine.
that last point about objectives that specifically require a given character is key: the remake segments its objectives based on which characters are viable to use to complete them. however, while in some cases the game may telegraph which specific characters are required for a particular task, in many cases the "correct" solution is actually to bounce between the characters in real time. this is done by strategically placing hats for each of the characters throughout the map - some attached to enemies and some free-floating - which allow the player to switch on the fly. this adds new detours to the otherwise simple objectives that vastly increases their complexity: which toolkit is best suited for which part of each mission? how should my route be planned around the level to accommodate hats I need to pick up? will I be able to defeat an enemy that's guarding the hat if I had to? this decision-making fleshes out what was previously a mindless experience.
there's one additional element to this system that truly elevates it to something resembling the arcade experiences of yore. while you can enter a level as any character, entering as yoshi allows you to preemptively don the cap of any other character as you spawn in, preventing the player from having to back-track to switch characters. on the surface this seems like another ill-advised QoL feature, but some subtle features reveal something more fascinating. yoshi has no cap associated with him, so to play as him, one must enter the level with him. however, you often need to switch to another character in the middle of a level. how do you switch back? by taking damage. to solve the ridiculously overstuffed eight piece health bar of the original, this remake transforms it into a resource you expend in order to undergo transformation. sure, one could theoretically collect coins in order to replenish this resource, but this adds a new layer onto the routing that simply didn't exist in the original game, where there were so many ways to circumvent obstacles with the permissive controls that getting hit in the first place was often harder than completing the objective. by reframing the way that the player looks at their heath gauge, the game is calling to mind classic beat 'em ups, where the health gauge often doubled as a resource to expend for powerful AoE supers.
the game still suffers from much of the rotten design at the core of its forebear; these above changes are phenomenal additions, but they're grafted onto a framework that's crumbling as you delve into it. regardless, the effort is admirable. for a brief moment, nintendo offered an apology to all of those hurt by their curbstomping of the design philosophies that springboarded them into juggernaut status in the first place, and they revitalized classic design perspectives for many millions more who first entered the world of gaming after it had already been tainted by nintendo's misdeeds. the galaxy duology, released a few years after this game, attempted to rework the series from the ground up with a new appreciation for arcade design by limiting the bloated toolkit of previous games and linearizing levels, but the damage had already been done. the modern switch era has magnified nintendo's worst tendencies, putting proper execution and mechanical comprehension to the wayside as they accelerate the disturbing "the player is always right" principles that have infested their games since that original super mario bros. by looking at super mario 64 ds in this context, we at least get a glimpse of what a better world could have looked like had nintendo listened to their elders all along.
Super Mario Bros. 3
1988
An absolutely AMAZING platformer for the NES, which seems to have successfully set up 2D Mario platformers in a way that we still use its formatting to this very day. Absolutely insane progress from 1985 with Mario Bros 1, and even Doki Doki Panic/Super Mario Bros USA in 1987. So much creativity and fun in its world building, and how it mixes what we loved from the original Super Mario Bros, as well as parts from SMB2, like the vertical platforming and themed world environments.
Controls are beautiful, and felt great on the NES. Game is an easier platformer for the system, but in all ways that make sense, such as controls being so tight and continues being unlimited. It's easier than other platformers just because it's finally fair in all ways, with really no blame on the difficulty being from the game being unfair. Super Mario Bros. 3 is genuinely such a creative and fun experience, I completely understand how it took over the gaming world for a bit there...
The one thing that keeps me from rating this masterpiece a complete 5/5 is SPECIFICALLY the first fortress in World 7. It's completely mandatory (unless you found the warp whistles, I guess) but it's entire level is based around needing to know the secrets like it's some extra bonus area you unlock from reading Nintendo Power. Look at this. I ran around completely confused out of my mind not understanding at ALL what I was doing wrong, and the level itself seems infamous to those who grew up with it, a lot of people just... dropped the game because they couldn't figure out that you're supposed to FLY TO THE GODDAMN CEILING OF COURSE!! I honestly would have probably been in the same scenario if not for us now living in internet-land. This is totally another Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake/original Legend of Zelda moment, where I WOULD rate this game 5/5 easily, if not for ONE part that absolutely blows my gasket off on how annoying/cruel it is. But in the end, that's just how I rate!
This was my first time beating Super Mario Bros. 3, and my first time playing it physically on the NES! I had a really, really great time overall, and absolutely feel myself morphing into one of those annoying SMB3 fanboys...fan..girls? Eh, whatever. Play this game if you haven't, either for the historical influence or just because it's really fucking good. If you go in with the mindset that you're playing a NES platformer from 1988, you'll have a fucking blast, I guarantee it.
4.5/5
Controls are beautiful, and felt great on the NES. Game is an easier platformer for the system, but in all ways that make sense, such as controls being so tight and continues being unlimited. It's easier than other platformers just because it's finally fair in all ways, with really no blame on the difficulty being from the game being unfair. Super Mario Bros. 3 is genuinely such a creative and fun experience, I completely understand how it took over the gaming world for a bit there...
The one thing that keeps me from rating this masterpiece a complete 5/5 is SPECIFICALLY the first fortress in World 7. It's completely mandatory (unless you found the warp whistles, I guess) but it's entire level is based around needing to know the secrets like it's some extra bonus area you unlock from reading Nintendo Power. Look at this. I ran around completely confused out of my mind not understanding at ALL what I was doing wrong, and the level itself seems infamous to those who grew up with it, a lot of people just... dropped the game because they couldn't figure out that you're supposed to FLY TO THE GODDAMN CEILING OF COURSE!! I honestly would have probably been in the same scenario if not for us now living in internet-land. This is totally another Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake/original Legend of Zelda moment, where I WOULD rate this game 5/5 easily, if not for ONE part that absolutely blows my gasket off on how annoying/cruel it is. But in the end, that's just how I rate!
This was my first time beating Super Mario Bros. 3, and my first time playing it physically on the NES! I had a really, really great time overall, and absolutely feel myself morphing into one of those annoying SMB3 fanboys...fan..girls? Eh, whatever. Play this game if you haven't, either for the historical influence or just because it's really fucking good. If you go in with the mindset that you're playing a NES platformer from 1988, you'll have a fucking blast, I guarantee it.
4.5/5
Disney's DuckTales
1989
moon theme
Golden Axe Warrior
1991
The existence of this obscure Master System title seems to raise some very interesting questions in regards to general gaming discourse. Those questions being:
What constitutes a ripoff? Is a derivative title able to stand on its own? Is mimicry really the highest form of flattery?
Ultimately I dislike drawing comparisons when it comes to different titles from different series by different developers but in this instance I seem to struggle in not doing so, mainly because for better or worse this game is blatantly aping on the formula established by The Legend of Zelda half a decade prior. For the most part.
Golden Axe Warrior is a semi-open ended exploration focused adventure game made by Sega for the Master System. A system that holds very little weight outside of South America due to a variety of factors I don't want to go into for fear of taking focus away from this particular title.
So when it comes to gameplay I must ask:
Have you played The Legend of Zelda? Particularly the NES game? If so you have a good idea how this game functions with a few differences. The game starts with you not only having 3 hearts but 3 magic bottles as well. You are able to use magic in this game for combat, exploration and healing.
There is Lightning for damaging a singular enemy, earth for revealing secrets and stunning enemies, fire for screen wide damage and water for healing. Having these spells in lieu of tools like bombs or arrows creates a different feeling of resource management since they share the same Magic meter. Healing can cripple your ability to explore dungeons unless you get magic bottle drops as an example. This layer of strategy you have adds a fun layer that separates itself from its clear inspiration.
It's a shame combat in this game is suffering at times. Enemies come in droves and they can be ruthless. Mix that in with a constantly escalating power level of your opponents can leave the player in a daze. Exploring is key to find upgrades. You also have two weapons. Your sword and axe. Both get upgraded including to the mythical Golden Axe itself. Both weapons have their unique uses in combat as well. Your sword attacking in a straight line in the four directions while the axe swings in front of you in an arc.
Dungeons are rather simple as well. One thing to note is that the player cannot push blocks rather you can push candles instead. Took me some time to figure that one out. I was shocked at how small and simple the final dungeon actually was as well. Same with the overworld as well. The game pens you in at the start giving you a small chunk of the world to explore and with upgrades and items you open more of the world piece by piece.
Ultimately how I can encapsulate the playing experience through the lens of Zelda is this: Combat is more difficult while exploration is more limited and focused. Now that should give you a decent idea on whether or not you will enjoy this game.
Another factor is a degree of references to the main series of games. Not only do you meet the playable characters from Golden Axe, they also teach your their magic. That and Death Adder being the obvious villain makes this atleast feel like a Golden Axe adventure game. This level of fanservice feels a little more niche in the current year where Golden Axe sits in a sphere of antiquity but those of us who are nostalgic will enjoy the small nods.
Musically things are simplistic but hey I appreciate the remix of the theme to the first level of the original game. The rest of the OST is rather small though. I was surprised when there was no final dungeon or final boss theme, something I feel was standard for 1991.
A key note I should mention is that this game was made for English speakers and that is a big deal for one primary reason: The dialogue won't be garbage. Typically in 8-bit games there is a layer of lost in translation that is missing here. NPCs in towns talk in a very nature way that doesn't feel alien and doesn't lack in punch. Hints are blunt, clear and to the point. No real guesswork in that regard.
The NPCs do make the world feel lived in. You feel a certain level of fear and uncertainty in the population with Death Adder throwing the world into disarray and the game isn't afraid to show this to you. People are melancholic and destroyed architecture houses cold corpses. The story isn't filled with nail biting anticipation or anything. Instead things just feel, to a degree, authentic in a way.
Ultimately though in the end this game sits slightly above the middle in my eyes. I had plenty of fun with this title but it really isn't for everyone. The 8-bit crust is there with its rather annoying at times combat and rather obtuse progression. Your mileage may vary but fans of the original Zelda game will feel at home here. To those who are fans of that style of game I can recommend this to you but to others I can ensure you that you aren't missing out on some underrated masterpiece.
What constitutes a ripoff? Is a derivative title able to stand on its own? Is mimicry really the highest form of flattery?
Ultimately I dislike drawing comparisons when it comes to different titles from different series by different developers but in this instance I seem to struggle in not doing so, mainly because for better or worse this game is blatantly aping on the formula established by The Legend of Zelda half a decade prior. For the most part.
Golden Axe Warrior is a semi-open ended exploration focused adventure game made by Sega for the Master System. A system that holds very little weight outside of South America due to a variety of factors I don't want to go into for fear of taking focus away from this particular title.
So when it comes to gameplay I must ask:
Have you played The Legend of Zelda? Particularly the NES game? If so you have a good idea how this game functions with a few differences. The game starts with you not only having 3 hearts but 3 magic bottles as well. You are able to use magic in this game for combat, exploration and healing.
There is Lightning for damaging a singular enemy, earth for revealing secrets and stunning enemies, fire for screen wide damage and water for healing. Having these spells in lieu of tools like bombs or arrows creates a different feeling of resource management since they share the same Magic meter. Healing can cripple your ability to explore dungeons unless you get magic bottle drops as an example. This layer of strategy you have adds a fun layer that separates itself from its clear inspiration.
It's a shame combat in this game is suffering at times. Enemies come in droves and they can be ruthless. Mix that in with a constantly escalating power level of your opponents can leave the player in a daze. Exploring is key to find upgrades. You also have two weapons. Your sword and axe. Both get upgraded including to the mythical Golden Axe itself. Both weapons have their unique uses in combat as well. Your sword attacking in a straight line in the four directions while the axe swings in front of you in an arc.
Dungeons are rather simple as well. One thing to note is that the player cannot push blocks rather you can push candles instead. Took me some time to figure that one out. I was shocked at how small and simple the final dungeon actually was as well. Same with the overworld as well. The game pens you in at the start giving you a small chunk of the world to explore and with upgrades and items you open more of the world piece by piece.
Ultimately how I can encapsulate the playing experience through the lens of Zelda is this: Combat is more difficult while exploration is more limited and focused. Now that should give you a decent idea on whether or not you will enjoy this game.
Another factor is a degree of references to the main series of games. Not only do you meet the playable characters from Golden Axe, they also teach your their magic. That and Death Adder being the obvious villain makes this atleast feel like a Golden Axe adventure game. This level of fanservice feels a little more niche in the current year where Golden Axe sits in a sphere of antiquity but those of us who are nostalgic will enjoy the small nods.
Musically things are simplistic but hey I appreciate the remix of the theme to the first level of the original game. The rest of the OST is rather small though. I was surprised when there was no final dungeon or final boss theme, something I feel was standard for 1991.
A key note I should mention is that this game was made for English speakers and that is a big deal for one primary reason: The dialogue won't be garbage. Typically in 8-bit games there is a layer of lost in translation that is missing here. NPCs in towns talk in a very nature way that doesn't feel alien and doesn't lack in punch. Hints are blunt, clear and to the point. No real guesswork in that regard.
The NPCs do make the world feel lived in. You feel a certain level of fear and uncertainty in the population with Death Adder throwing the world into disarray and the game isn't afraid to show this to you. People are melancholic and destroyed architecture houses cold corpses. The story isn't filled with nail biting anticipation or anything. Instead things just feel, to a degree, authentic in a way.
Ultimately though in the end this game sits slightly above the middle in my eyes. I had plenty of fun with this title but it really isn't for everyone. The 8-bit crust is there with its rather annoying at times combat and rather obtuse progression. Your mileage may vary but fans of the original Zelda game will feel at home here. To those who are fans of that style of game I can recommend this to you but to others I can ensure you that you aren't missing out on some underrated masterpiece.
where is mario's moustache
New Adventure Island
1992
Have you ever had a moment where you fuck up royally at something, and you just wish that you could go back and do it over again so that it turns into a positive memory of your life? I’m sure we have all had those instances of memories we wish we could forget, as I definitely wish I could forget about a lot of the fuck ups I made in the past, or to go back and remedy those situations. Unfortunately, unless we ever invent time travel, that will most likely never happen. With video games and other forms of media, though, that is a different story. You could release something that many consider pretty lackluster, bad, or just flat out god-awful, and the people that worked on it could live in shame for the rest of their lives because of it, or, on the other hand, you could go back to what you had before, change some things up or rebuild it entirely from scratch, and you could redeem said product by making it much better in the public’s eyes. One such instance of this happening would be with the dated title known as New Adventure Island.
So, technically, this game is not a remake of the original Adventure Island, and it is instead just another game that was made in the Adventure Island series, but from what I have played here, it may as well be a remake. It shares a lot of very similar elements with the original game, from the levels to the things that you fight, even down to the bosses, which could be seen as a bad thing right out of the gate. I have mentioned plenty of times in the past that I think that the original Adventure Island, and the original Wonder Boy to an extent, are bad games, being extremely repetitive, way too difficult, and just not fun to play through after a while. Thankfully though, this game pretty much takes a lot of the problems that the original game had and fixes it, making a pretty good game out of it. I wouldn’t say it fixed all my major gripes with that original game, but it does make things a lot more fun to play, while also being charming and fast at the same time.
The story is all too familiar for every game in this series, where Master Higgins gets married to Tina in a glorious ceremony at the church, but all of a sudden, the evil Baron Bronsky comes down and not only kidnaps Tina, but also the many island children that have come to enjoy the ceremony, so in a fit of rage, Master Higgins then sets out to once again save Tina, all of the island children, and defeat the Baron once and for all, which is about as generic as a story for this series gets, and it does nothing more then continuing to make me feel bad for Higgins, as the guy just can’t have a relationship without someone kidnapping his girl. The graphics are fantastic, having a wonderful art style that I don’t want to stop looking at, even if the animations for the enemies and bosses leave a lot to be desired, the music is pretty good, having plenty of energetic and cheery tunes, along with some more menacing ones that were also nice to hear, and the control/gameplay is… well, it is an Adventure Island game, so you should know by now what to expect.
The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Master Higgins yet again, go through six different worlds, each with four levels a piece, along with a seventh final stage, dodge plenty of enemies along the way or defeat them using whatever weapons that you may find on your journey, gather plenty of weapons, extra lives, and food items to keep your hunger bar from depleting completely, and take on several fun, albeit very similar bosses that will take some time to take down if you aren’t too careful. For those who have played any other Adventure Island game, especially the original game, then a lot of this will feel very familiar to you, but it does still manage to be very fun most of the time, and it does feel a lot better to play than the original game.
Like I mentioned before, the game is very similar to that of the original game, having very similar level structures, level themes, and the same type of bosses, but thankfully, this game manages to fix all of that by adding in a wonderful little spice of life known as variety. While the level layouts don’t change all too much, all the environments, hazards, and the types of enemies you can encounter change throughout the game, making things visually distinct and interesting for most of the journey and fun to play through, even if it isn’t as interesting as other games. Not to mention, while most of the bosses are the same dude with the head of a different creature, each one has a different attack, such as one that creates a wall of ice spikes to send shooting at you, or one which sends a wave of fire arching towards you. Each one is defeated the same way, but the way that you approach these fights is slightly altered each time, which does make things a lot more fun and engaging, which I really appreciate.
In addition, some elements that were brought into the series in previous sequels are also brought into this title as well. You now have multiple weapons that you can find throughout the land, such as spears, boomerangs, and fireballs, and while most of them work the exact same way, some end up doing more damage than others, making it so that you wanna stick with one weapon for as long as you can for the most effect. And finally, I know I already brought this up earlier, but I absolutely love the visuals in this game, and they help make me want to play more of it so that I can enjoy every second of this. It’s just such a cute art style, and it really shines in instances such as whenever you beat a world, and before the next one, you are greeted with a cutscene that has Master Higgins dancing in some way with some other island creatures, with me having a huge grin on my face the entire time whenever any of these popped up.
However, if none of that sounds all too enticing for you, then at the end of the day, this is just another Adventure Island game. You run around throw things, eat things, and die to that octopus that you didn’t see coming until it is too late. You know how it goes at this point, and this game really doesn’t do anything new or original when compared to every other game before it. That doesn’t necessarily make the game bad at all, but at this point, we are four games in, and the lack of any prominent new features does kinda suck, and it does make it to where I can’t say this game is any better than that of Adventure Island II or even Super Adventure Island. A cute art style can only do so much for something like this before you start asking where all the new, cool shit is.
Overall, despite a major lack of change, and while it isn’t technically a remake at all, New Adventure Island manages to take most of what was wrong with the original game in this series and fixes it to where I ended up having a really great time with it, having the same basic, yet really fun gameplay at a reasonable length, coupled with an amount of charm that made this really enjoyable to admire as I was going along. I would definitely recommend it for those who fans of the previous games in the series, as well as those who didn’t like the original game like me, because while I can’t say for sure that you will like this one much more, you can definitely appreciate the effort put into making this into what is essentially a much better version of that original title. It’s also too bad that this was only released on the TurboGrafx 16, because I would kill to be able to play this game on modern platforms. Yeah, it did get re-released for the Virtual Console and PSN a while back… you know, before those services got shut down……… I hate video game companies so much.
Game #539
So, technically, this game is not a remake of the original Adventure Island, and it is instead just another game that was made in the Adventure Island series, but from what I have played here, it may as well be a remake. It shares a lot of very similar elements with the original game, from the levels to the things that you fight, even down to the bosses, which could be seen as a bad thing right out of the gate. I have mentioned plenty of times in the past that I think that the original Adventure Island, and the original Wonder Boy to an extent, are bad games, being extremely repetitive, way too difficult, and just not fun to play through after a while. Thankfully though, this game pretty much takes a lot of the problems that the original game had and fixes it, making a pretty good game out of it. I wouldn’t say it fixed all my major gripes with that original game, but it does make things a lot more fun to play, while also being charming and fast at the same time.
The story is all too familiar for every game in this series, where Master Higgins gets married to Tina in a glorious ceremony at the church, but all of a sudden, the evil Baron Bronsky comes down and not only kidnaps Tina, but also the many island children that have come to enjoy the ceremony, so in a fit of rage, Master Higgins then sets out to once again save Tina, all of the island children, and defeat the Baron once and for all, which is about as generic as a story for this series gets, and it does nothing more then continuing to make me feel bad for Higgins, as the guy just can’t have a relationship without someone kidnapping his girl. The graphics are fantastic, having a wonderful art style that I don’t want to stop looking at, even if the animations for the enemies and bosses leave a lot to be desired, the music is pretty good, having plenty of energetic and cheery tunes, along with some more menacing ones that were also nice to hear, and the control/gameplay is… well, it is an Adventure Island game, so you should know by now what to expect.
The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Master Higgins yet again, go through six different worlds, each with four levels a piece, along with a seventh final stage, dodge plenty of enemies along the way or defeat them using whatever weapons that you may find on your journey, gather plenty of weapons, extra lives, and food items to keep your hunger bar from depleting completely, and take on several fun, albeit very similar bosses that will take some time to take down if you aren’t too careful. For those who have played any other Adventure Island game, especially the original game, then a lot of this will feel very familiar to you, but it does still manage to be very fun most of the time, and it does feel a lot better to play than the original game.
Like I mentioned before, the game is very similar to that of the original game, having very similar level structures, level themes, and the same type of bosses, but thankfully, this game manages to fix all of that by adding in a wonderful little spice of life known as variety. While the level layouts don’t change all too much, all the environments, hazards, and the types of enemies you can encounter change throughout the game, making things visually distinct and interesting for most of the journey and fun to play through, even if it isn’t as interesting as other games. Not to mention, while most of the bosses are the same dude with the head of a different creature, each one has a different attack, such as one that creates a wall of ice spikes to send shooting at you, or one which sends a wave of fire arching towards you. Each one is defeated the same way, but the way that you approach these fights is slightly altered each time, which does make things a lot more fun and engaging, which I really appreciate.
In addition, some elements that were brought into the series in previous sequels are also brought into this title as well. You now have multiple weapons that you can find throughout the land, such as spears, boomerangs, and fireballs, and while most of them work the exact same way, some end up doing more damage than others, making it so that you wanna stick with one weapon for as long as you can for the most effect. And finally, I know I already brought this up earlier, but I absolutely love the visuals in this game, and they help make me want to play more of it so that I can enjoy every second of this. It’s just such a cute art style, and it really shines in instances such as whenever you beat a world, and before the next one, you are greeted with a cutscene that has Master Higgins dancing in some way with some other island creatures, with me having a huge grin on my face the entire time whenever any of these popped up.
However, if none of that sounds all too enticing for you, then at the end of the day, this is just another Adventure Island game. You run around throw things, eat things, and die to that octopus that you didn’t see coming until it is too late. You know how it goes at this point, and this game really doesn’t do anything new or original when compared to every other game before it. That doesn’t necessarily make the game bad at all, but at this point, we are four games in, and the lack of any prominent new features does kinda suck, and it does make it to where I can’t say this game is any better than that of Adventure Island II or even Super Adventure Island. A cute art style can only do so much for something like this before you start asking where all the new, cool shit is.
Overall, despite a major lack of change, and while it isn’t technically a remake at all, New Adventure Island manages to take most of what was wrong with the original game in this series and fixes it to where I ended up having a really great time with it, having the same basic, yet really fun gameplay at a reasonable length, coupled with an amount of charm that made this really enjoyable to admire as I was going along. I would definitely recommend it for those who fans of the previous games in the series, as well as those who didn’t like the original game like me, because while I can’t say for sure that you will like this one much more, you can definitely appreciate the effort put into making this into what is essentially a much better version of that original title. It’s also too bad that this was only released on the TurboGrafx 16, because I would kill to be able to play this game on modern platforms. Yeah, it did get re-released for the Virtual Console and PSN a while back… you know, before those services got shut down……… I hate video game companies so much.
Game #539
Dr. Mario
1990
I don't believe that man has ever been to medical school!
Castlevania
1986
Castlevania has to be the most aesthetically accomplished series on the NES. It probably would still be if the first game somehow never got popular enough to spawn its many sequels. The confidence in its audiovisual presentation is evident on every screen, which is even more remarkable considering it was released at a time where most developers were still struggling to create clearly recognizable, let alone coherent, sprite work for their games. There certainly wasn’t much holding together the visuals of jumping plumbers, question mark blocks, walking mushrooms, green pipes, fire flowers and turtle kings in 1985, except that each of them clearly communicated their in-game function to the player. Jump forward only one year and here is a game whose imagery is so tightly interwoven that even the background sprites follow a distinct dramaturgy throughout the adventure. For example, the tower where the final showdown with Dracula takes place already appears for the first time at the very start of the game as a looming silhouette on top of the distant castle behind the entrance gate of his estate. It then repeatedly returns as a mysterious destination on the map screen between each level, seemingly suspended in thin air, only to resurface in the background of the third level as you reach the roof of the castle, its shape now slightly closer and partly illuminated by the moonlight. Moonlight from the same crescent moon that was also already shining in the first screen and becomes visible again at the very end in the sky during your final ascend to Dracula’s chamber. Every game that came out today would be praised for this level of detail.
There obviously was a lot of talent involved in the making of this game, but I think the main reason why Castlevania succeeds so well aesthetically has to do with where the team took their visual inspiration from. Konami had to work with the same technical limitations as everybody else at the time, but they chose a frame of reference that arguably translated the best into 8-bit graphics: Gothic horror, or, more precisely, Gothic horror as envisioned by the Universal Monster Films of the 1930s. These films already translated the classic literary works of gothic fiction into a highly codified visual language that was instantly recognizable for a mass audience. In fact, these filmic adaptations where so successful that they were quickly serialized into what one could now call the first Cinematic Universe, including everything like crossovers, cameos, or parodies. Looking back, it seems almost absurd that in the opening credits of Frankenstein from 1931, the name of the actor who plays The Monster was explicitly not revealed because ever since the release of the film, our cultural imagination of this creature has become pretty much inseparable from the face of Boris Karloff. You might have never seen the original Frankenstein, Dracula, or The Mummy, yet your idea of what these characters look, sound, or move like is still almost certainly shaped by these films. They definitely were the basis of the virtual counterparts that you encounter in the game.
Castlevania never tries to hide its cinematic influences. If anything, the game makes them overtly apparent, from the title screen that is designed like a film strip, to the pun names of real filmmakers and actors in the end credits. It gladly uses every single monster or character that already has a strong enough cultural representation to ensure that their sprites are instantly recognizable. As a game based on trial and error, memorization, and repetition there is almost no sense of horror of the unknown here. Castlevania offers plenty of surprises, but it always ensures that you know the evils you are facing off against, since this knowledge is ultimately your best weapon to defeat them. It is as much a celebration of every popular form of horror fiction that came before it as it is an exciting experiment in what that tradition can become when translated into a new medium.
__________________
More NES reviews
Double Dragon
The Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros.
There obviously was a lot of talent involved in the making of this game, but I think the main reason why Castlevania succeeds so well aesthetically has to do with where the team took their visual inspiration from. Konami had to work with the same technical limitations as everybody else at the time, but they chose a frame of reference that arguably translated the best into 8-bit graphics: Gothic horror, or, more precisely, Gothic horror as envisioned by the Universal Monster Films of the 1930s. These films already translated the classic literary works of gothic fiction into a highly codified visual language that was instantly recognizable for a mass audience. In fact, these filmic adaptations where so successful that they were quickly serialized into what one could now call the first Cinematic Universe, including everything like crossovers, cameos, or parodies. Looking back, it seems almost absurd that in the opening credits of Frankenstein from 1931, the name of the actor who plays The Monster was explicitly not revealed because ever since the release of the film, our cultural imagination of this creature has become pretty much inseparable from the face of Boris Karloff. You might have never seen the original Frankenstein, Dracula, or The Mummy, yet your idea of what these characters look, sound, or move like is still almost certainly shaped by these films. They definitely were the basis of the virtual counterparts that you encounter in the game.
Castlevania never tries to hide its cinematic influences. If anything, the game makes them overtly apparent, from the title screen that is designed like a film strip, to the pun names of real filmmakers and actors in the end credits. It gladly uses every single monster or character that already has a strong enough cultural representation to ensure that their sprites are instantly recognizable. As a game based on trial and error, memorization, and repetition there is almost no sense of horror of the unknown here. Castlevania offers plenty of surprises, but it always ensures that you know the evils you are facing off against, since this knowledge is ultimately your best weapon to defeat them. It is as much a celebration of every popular form of horror fiction that came before it as it is an exciting experiment in what that tradition can become when translated into a new medium.
__________________
More NES reviews
Double Dragon
The Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros.
Banjo-Kazooie
1998
psy gangnam style hd download shit ass little fucking penis
Spyro the Dragon
1998
The gems in Spyro are like, the most appealing collectable of all time. Something about the sound, shape, and color just fires up all the good parts of my brain.