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+--- Thread: Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) (/showthread.php?tid=4511)
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 29th March 2011
DS
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Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Miniland Mayhem (Normal difficulty 100% beaten, working on Plus mode now)
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 17th April 2011
DS - MvDK Miniland Mayhem - Beat the harder Plus mode 100% too now. The main
game is complete.
Game Gear
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Super Columns - Beat Flash mode. In this game Flash is a 10-stage game, with no saving so you need to play them all in one go. You do get infinite continues, though. There are no difficulty level or block height options like the original GG Columns game had in Flash mode (a mode where you win by destroying specific, flashing blocks in the field); instead, you just play through the ten stages in order, and it gets harder as it goes along. The first nine gradually get more difficult as you go along, but level 10 is significantly harder than any of the ones that came before it. I gave up in my first set of attempts at level 10, last week, before trying again from the start more recently... I managed to get to level 10 without too much trouble (found the first 9 much easier the second time than I had the first), and didn't get a game over until almost the end. However, level 10 was still really hard and I had to leave the system on for a day or two (plugged in via the power cord) until I could manage to finish it. I finally did that last night, and I've beaten it... awesome, that was hard. The final stages have walls of unbreakable blocks keeping you from directly accessing many of the flash blocks that you have to destroy, which means that your only option is to wait -- every 150 blocks you destroy a "destroy all of the color it hits" piece comes down, and you have to use those to clear the stages. This is hard when you have to survive for a long time in a very small amount of space, as most notably in stage 10. So yeah, it took some skill and some luck to beat, but I did it. :)
Super Columns is pretty cool. It's odd how a bunch of stuff Columns III had added isn't here (the powerups other than 'destroy all of this color', for instance, and the ability to attack the other player in versus mode as you build up blocks; instead in this one you just send unbreakables.), but other things are added, including the flash and endless modes (Columns III on Genesis is stripped down and has ONLY versus/vs. CPU modes, no solo), the ability to rotate the columns of blocks horizontally, instead of vertical only though they always start vertical (finally! Great feature...), and the aforementioned unbreakable blocks. Good game overall, nice version of Columns with some good new features (vs. CPU mode) as well as versions of the old modes.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 20th April 2011
GC
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Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 - Story mode, difficulty 2 (normal). Good game. I'd played the third and fourth games before (both were only released in Japan, but I knew some people at college who imported them); they're among the better licensed fighting games I've played. Very well designed series. We only got the first two here, but the second at least is pretty good... the first is just 1v1 only, which wouldn't be as good, but the second one at least does have four player. The game's kind of short, but it's a fighting game, so you expect that. Story mode does have 20 fights plus some unlockable bonus ones, and there's also a normal tournament mode, survival mode, and some other stuff. The bits of story between matches in story mode don't tell you most of what happens, so it does rely on some knowledge of the anime, but eh, it works well enough and more story wouldn't be better -- the gameplay's what's best about this anyway, not the story.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 2nd May 2011
PS2
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Tekken 5 - beat in Normal with two characters. It's not a very good game, like all of the Tekken games, I doubt very much I'll play this game much more. Way harder than Tekken 3 too, this one's pretty frustrating on Normal -- and definitely not worth the time to learn, it's both subpar and annoyingly difficult.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 30th May 2011
Sega Master System
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Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars - This is the second Alex Kidd game, and it's much less acclaimed than the first one. I can see why, honestly -- it's alright, but not great. THis is a pretty easy and short game. It's not exactly the best game, but it was fun anyway, in an easy and simplistic way. In this platformer, you walk to the right until you reach the end. Avoid the enemies and obstacles along the way, and don't run out of health/time. See, this game's unique feature is that you have a combo health/time bar, and when it runs out -- either from taking too long (this will not usually happen) or because you got hit/fell in pits too much, as you get docked time for each time these happen (and they will) -- you lose and get game over. The game is generous, though, and you have infinite continues from the beginning of the level you're on.
You have the standard jump and attack buttons, but you can only sometimes attack -- you can only attack when you have picked up a "S" powerup, which give you 15 shots per powerup. Also most enemies infinitely spawn, so getting past them without getting hit can be tricky. Fortunately you can take a good number of hits before running out of time.
As a result of those things, for a lot of this game you're just moving right, trying to avoid the enemies and make jumps. It's pretty basic stuff, this game is not deep. There are powerups -- the aforementioned one that gives you ammo, one that increases your time a bit, and one that increases your jumping -- but they don't add much. It's mostly just the simple but entertaining gameplay that holds this game at all. The problem there though is that once you beat it -- and it won't take too long -- there's not much left to do.
The graphics are good, though. This is a good looking mid-life SMS game, with nice, bright graphics and a good variety of settings. The enemies have nice variety as well. The music's simple but good enough.
Oh, there's one more problem -- the levels. While you play through 14 stages in the game, the second seven are simply the first seven again, but a bit harder -- the game makes you play two loops until you reach the end. There's very little payoff too, just a single screen of the balls doing whatever and then your average 8-bit "the end" screen at the end of the game. It actually shows that screen of the balls you collected at the end of stage 7 as well; the only difference I could see at the end is that "The End" screen afterwards. Maybe that's a spoiler, but when the ending is so lame I think it's a spoiler worth mentioning. So yeah, not that much level variety either.
Oh, and there are no bosses in this game. The final screen of each level is an obstacle you have to avoid before you can reach the end, and if you get hit on the final screen you'll respawn at the start instead of just taking damage as you do in the rest of each level, but these aren't really bosses and for the most part aren't very hard. Only a few challenged me at all, such as the stage 2/9 final screen and a few others on the second loop. Many you can just zip right past. And none involve fighting any real bosses, you just get past whatever it is and you're at the end.
Still though, the levels are fun enough to play through and look at. The game is lacking in many ways, but it is fun to play despite them and overall I'd say the game is okay, probably, while it lasts. It's seriously lacking in terms of depth, and has some questionable design issues, but at least while it lasts it entertained me in its simplistic way.
So, overall? Overall, Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars is okay. It's far too short, is easy thanks to the easy to moderate difficulty and infinite continues, and has some other design flaws as well, but it is kind of fun to run through the levels, dodging enemies as you go and jumping over the obstacles. The level designs are decently done, and it has a good variety of obstacles and challenges to get past. Overall, I'd probably give it a C; maybe I could convinced to go a little higher, but the flaws are just too big to go much above that. It's probably a C-grade game. And for people who don't like the platforming in the game as much as I did, I'd find it easy to understand giving it a lower grade than that.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 6th June 2011
N64
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Dr. Mario 64 - Story mode, Normal difficulty. Tough game, but great... this is a very good puzzle game with nice graphics.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 8th June 2011
Wii
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Mega Man 10 - This is one I've been playing a lot of for the last few days, and it paid off -- I finally managed to beat it today! Great, great game, as good as Mega Man 9 overall I'd say. I love NES-style Mega Man... I wish there was a MM11. :) Just bring back the charge shot and slide next time.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 14th June 2011
TurboGrafx-16
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Ninja Spirit (PC Engine mode) - This Irem classic is a good game, but it's also really short. I was stuck before on the gauntlet before the final boss, but with some help from the internet I figured out the trick to that area, so I was able to finish the game now. The final boss was pretty lame, barely put up a fight... oh well. Sure, the game's incredibly short (someone good at this game could probably beat it in fifteen minutes or something), with just seven medium-length levels, but still it's a good game. It's too much fun to play to dislike, short or no.
The graphics are great and varied, first. Every stage looks great, and some look fantastic, like the one with the clouds, or the one with the giant moon. Really impressive stuff for an early TG16 game. The music is okay, but nothing too incredible. The action is varied, and all four weapons are useful at different times. It's great that you can just switch between them and don't have to choose. Enemies die with satisfying explosions, and there are a nice variety of types of them. It is frustrating that some enemies can kill you in one hit while others only take off one of your five hit points, but the game doesn't really tell you which is which until you get killed by some from the former group, but oh well, this is a game of memorization and that is just one more element of it.
Overall it's a good game for sure, yes it's very short but it's quite fun while it lasts and it's fun to play through, with its nice graphics and fun, action-packed gameplay. You can walk on ceilings, use multiple weapons, get clones that increase your firepower, and more. :)
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 6th July 2011
Neo Geo Pocket Color
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Samurai Shodown! 2 - Story mode, Normal, with Rimururu - Great game!
Fatal Fury First Contact - I'd heard this is one of the weaker NGPC fighting games, and it is. Fewer options than the others I have (there's arcade mode and nothing else), fewer characters, and simpler gameplay. It's an okay game, but compared to KOF or SS? Yeah, not so great.
Super Nintendo
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Super Turrican - Normal difficulty. I'd beaten this game before in emulation, but not on the actual cartridge... now I've beaten both. Super Turrican is a truly great game, and one I've written about before, but ... yeah, it's still amazing. The only real flaw is that it's a big short, and the third level in particular is really pretty disappointingly short and easy. There isn't even a boss in the third level! Levels 1, 2, and 4 have bosses, why doesn't 3? It's got shorter stages, almost no hidden areas with stuff in them (you'll get almost everything every time, unlike levels 1, 2, or 4 which have a bunch of hidden stuff), and more. It's disappointing. Now, the bosses in this game aren't that hard -- in fact, they're pretty easy -- but still, it's weird that level 3 doesn't have one at all. The first and second levels have several bosses or challenge areas. The third? One challenge area but no bosses.
I love the first level so much, it's long, has amazing music, lots of hidden areas, some alternate paths, great level designs, and more... but the rest of the game doesn't quite hold up to the greatness of the first level. I mean, the second and fourth levels are good, but not as good as the first one. They don't have multiple paths for instance.At least they do have plenty of hidden stuff to find. Level two is a machine level, like in a factory. It's my least favorite level to play -- it's full of moving platforms, tricky jumps, fire shooting out of the walls, and more. Kind of a pain. It's an okay level, but not as good as the first one. As for level three, despite my complaints above, I like the theme of the level -- it's the ice level, and has some nice graphics and good variety. It's just too short and easy and feels unfinished, particularly in the last, very short, almost enemy-free stage of the level. The "use the wind to go up higher" theme is cool, but there's so little to the stage... what happened? As for level 4, it's pretty good, it's the alien stage like one of the later stages in Mega Turrican and it's pretty cool, with several nice long levels and the highest challenge level of the game. The middle part is a quite difficult jumping puzzle stage on top of a long alien train. It's pretty tough, and is the main reason I haven't beaten the game more times, and barely finished it this time -- I often die at this one point late in the stage. I went through a good 7-8 lives there this time, only barely got past it.
Overall though, despite some issues with the level designs in the later three quarters of the game, it's a great, great game. A true classic really. It's great fun, actually possible to finish, has great music, some great level designs, variety, lots of hidden stuff to find, and more. Factor 5 did great work.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 11th July 2011
NGPC
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The Last Blade - Beaten with several characters so far. As I said in the NGPC thread, this is an outstanding game. They really managed to do a great job translating the Last Blade to the handheld, impressive job. And as The Last Blade 2 is one of my favorite fighting games ever (in fact, it's probably my overall favorite fighting game), that's a very, very good thing... good replay value too, with multiple modes and lots to buy in the shop with your winnings.
Metal Slug 1st Mission - Normal difficulty, 012356101215FM path, I think. Maybe also 9, I'm not sure. This is a fantastic, fantastic game, with multiple paths, hidden levels depending on which exit you take or how you do in the stage, great gameplay and level design, great graphics, and good music -- it's really got it all. Oh, and the animation is crazy for a handheld game! It looks amazing. There is some slowdown, but oh well, it's not too bothersome.
It isn't as hard as a main-series Metal Slug game, but that's fine, it's got enough challenge to be fun even if I'm not dying constantly. There are five difficulty levels too, and you can choose how many continues you get per game between 0 and 9; I've played with 9 so far. And once you beat it, you can play again, try new routes and find new levels, as you continue to increase your character's rank (expands your health bar), and it unlocks a female character to play as too. Very cool, I'll be playing this one more for sure.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 22nd July 2011
PS2
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Samurai Shodown Anthology - Samurai Shodown IV (Rimururu, difficulty 4), Samurai Shodown 6 (Chamcham, difficulty 1). SamSho IV is my favorite game in the series, and the one I'm the best at by far; I'm really not that good at the other ones. There really are some significant differences from title to title in this series, being good at one doesn't mean you will be good at all of them. And indeed, after hours of trying I just wasn't able to beat the final boss of SS6 with Nakoruru at diff. 4, so I ended up giving up and playing on the easiest setting. At that difficulty, at least, the bosses are beatable. On 4, though... this game is just crazy hard! It's a very good game, better than SSV for sure (though not up to SSIV's level), but the bosses are absurdly hard on anything above the lowest settings. SSV is similar, if I remember right from the Xbox version. (And on that note there's not much reason to play SSV here, the XBox version has a bunch of added features, while SSI-V here are essentially just Neo-Geo romdumps with an added color edit function. SS6, though, is a new game.)
I then tried to play SSIII, but yeah, I'm terrible at that game too... it plays oddly, it's got some mechanics that aren't in the other titles. Of course, the same is true for V and 6. I'd just need to spend some time with SSIII in order to get good enough to actually compete against the difficulty-4 computer. maybe I will, we'll see... I do like this series quite a bit. The Last Blade is better, but SamSho's a great series even so.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 24th July 2011
Virtual Boy
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Mario's Tennis - Beat the doubles tournament on Easy. Of course the doubles tournament is only two matches, but still, I did win. Fun little game. :)
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 28th July 2011
PC
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VVVVVV - Completed the main game, with 15 of the shiny trinkets, in just under two hours (though I did play and get maybe halfway through a few days ago, this was a new file; still, it did help me get through the first part more quickly than the first time for sure). I'll probably go back later and try to get at least some of the remaining five, there's one more thing to unlock if I get 18... Overall, it's a good game. It's probably not a great game, but it is good at least...
I think my favorite thing about it though is the soundtrack, the gameplay's decently good but the music is just great. Even when I'm really frustrated at some challenge the great music helped me keep trying... I like the visuals too, really simplistic but it works well.
As for the gameplay though, it's a nonviolent platformer where your only power is to flip your personal gravity, making you attach to the floor or ceiling. Everything's jumping puzzles, and they get hard. I like platformers, but this is somewhat from the modern "retro-ish but super difficult and with lots of checkpoints" school of game design; this is no "I Want To Be The Guy", but still it's tough and frustrating. I did manage to beat it though, obviously; as with classic games, it's difficult but short. This style (IWTBTG, this, other stuff sort of like it) really isn't classic though, in some ways -- you have infinite lives, and there are constant checkpoints too! Real retro games have less frequent checkpoints (if there are any in the levels) and limited lives as keys to their difficulty, not just really difficult platforming and puzzles. I don;t mean that this style is worse, but that it's only seemingly retro -- it's actually a modern/retro hybrid concept.
Overall, okay game. It's worth playing.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 2nd August 2011
Sega CD
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Silpheed - (Normal) I got to the final boss, died there four times using up all of my remaining continues, and got game over... so instead of starting the whole game over, I used the level-select cheatcode to be able to try again from the boss level. It took like fifteen tries before I finally succeeded at it, so it was the right choice... very difficult level! I count this as beating it though, I beat all of the levels after all. :) Silpheed is a great game, one of the Sega CD's most visually impressive games and quite fun to play as well.
Genesis
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Fire Shark - Easy, loop 1 only. This game has like ten loops, each a bit more difficult than the last, but I hadn't even managed to beat the first loop on Easy before I believe... well, now I have. Good game, though the graphics are fairly average. It's certainly better than prior Toaplan shmups Tiger-Heli, Sky Shark, and Twin Cobra, at least (Fire Shark is Sky Shark's sequel, like how Twin Cobra is Tiger-Heli's). I might play this one more.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 13th August 2011
SNES
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Pinocchio - It's a platformer. It's kind of short and easy too; though not the shortest game around, this won't exactly take very long. There are only nine levels, and many aren't too long. At least there's some variety, though, as many of the levels have unique gameplay mechanics -- one's an annoying Simon minigame, one a single-screen battle, several are 'explore a large level and find stuff', one's undersea with an interesting gravity-flip mechanic (you don't swim, you stick to either the floor or ceiling), one a challenging chase, one a sort of minigame-like chase, one a more straightforward platformer level... decent game, apart from how short it is. The graphics are quite nice, and the animation is really good. It's a good looking game for sure, though as a 1996 release you'd hope it'd look nicer than early titles.
Some things are odd about it, though... some things I'd think would be levels aren't, and instead are just in the text cutscenes between levels; there are no real bosses (unless you count that chase at the end as one); and you play as Pinocchio in eight levels and Jiminy Cricket in just one... and that's the single-screen-ish fight stage. And yet he has a floating mechanic with his umbrella. Um, why? He doesn't go anywhere. I assume that originally there were going to be more stage(s) with him, but something was cut... Anyway though, decent little game, though certainly short. I wish there was more to it and a password system. Oh, and more Jiminy Cricket stages. And no annoying Simon-esque "press the right buttons in the right order on cue" stage, that one's a real pain. But still, decent overall.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 14th August 2011
PS2
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Super Bust-A-Move - beat puzzle mode on normal difficulty. This is a good BAM game, done in the style of BAM2 but with a different art style. It doesn't have the numerous modes BAM3/99 have, but it does have the basic Puzzle (in the BAM2 branching-tree style) and Vs. CPU modes, as well as a 2p mode. The graphics are nice, the music okay, the character designs okay (though I like BAM3/99's better)... it's all well done. I do still like BAM3 more -- it's just got so much more content -- but this is a good, solid BAM game, and I like the new bubble types. The uniquely shaped stages, the odd stage borders, the bounce blocks, etc... all add some interesting new twists to the gameplay. Good stuff, I'll play this more.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 24th August 2011
Dreamcast
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The King of Fighters Evolution (KOF 99) - Beat with one team on default difficulty. This is a great port of KOF'99 and has a bunch of added stuff, including 3d environments (replacing the 2d ones of the Neo-Geo original and the PSX port), CD audio, a bunch of added, unlockable Extra Strikers, and a bit more. It's got very quick load times too, a big improvement from the PSX version. Great fun game!
Project Justice - beat on normal difficulty with two different teams. This 3d fighting game is pretty solid, actually -- it's a huge improvement from Rival Schools. I didn't like the first one all that much, but this one has better graphics, better gameplay, more story, and more... good stuff. The game is somewhat slow, though -- it takes a lot of hits to drain a health bar, so matches are not short, and the game is best of three as well. The pace could stand to be sped up a bit, somehow... I very rarely complain about fights taking too long in a fighting game, usually I'm complaining about fights that are too short (like Tekken, etc.), but this edges on too long. Still though, the game system does have good depth, and it's mostly well thought out. The 3d move function could be better -- it's an archaic, one-button, "press to move into the screen, press + down to move towards" system -- but at least it's there, putting this game a good step above all of those "3d" fighting games that are in effect 2.5d.
I do have one significant complaint about this game, though -- the difficulty curve. See, each Story Mode game has six matches. The first four aren't too hard, and in both of these playthroughs I got through them quickly; the second time I didn't lose at all in the first four in fact. But then, round 5... MAN is round 5 hard! It's just got a crazy, crazy huge difficulty spike, and it's really annoying. I'd rather see the difficulty go up steadily, on a curve, instead of staying low through the regular matches and then spiking up through the skies once you get to the bosses... Capcom likes that latter style too much. Ugh. (Even SNK, which does that too, is better on it than Capcom is, overall, I think...) So yeah, both times I had fun for four rounds, then had a complete pain of a time struggling with loss after loss for the last two. Though, ironically, the final round is actually probably easier than the fifth one.. it's by no means easy, but I do think both times round 5 took longer than round 6.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 14th September 2011
Saturn
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Street Fighter: The Movie - Movie mode, Normal difficulty. Surprisingly, despite its horrible reputation, this game isn't really that bad... I mean, it's not as good as SFII or III or something, but it's not completely horrible. The graphics are decent enough, with digitized-actor characters on photo (I think) backdrops, and look good for 1995. The movie clips are full screen and decent quality, also good. The game plays okay, with SFII-inspired game design. My main complaint probably would be that it seemed really hard to get the moves off right -- even when I seemed to be doing just the right thing, more of then than not it wouldn't work. This is frustrating and caused me to mostly not try to use the special moves, much less the supers. Also, sure, it's not quite as good as SFII. This certainly isn't one of the worst fighting games ever or something, though.
Oh, Movie mode is kind of interesting. In it, you play as Guile only, sort of following the story of the film, but you actually can choose your path -- at each point, until the final boss that is, you can choose to go to one of two places. This means that there are multiple routes through the game, which is cool. There's also a normal arcade-style mode, and a trial mode. The game does save arcade, trial, and versus mode data, but not anything from movie mode.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 16th September 2011
Game Boy Advance
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Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - arcade mode, normal difficulty. They did what they could with this port, but because of the hardware it just isn't as good as the other versions... graphics, sound, and visibility aren't equal to the others. Oh well. It is still Puzzle Fighter, one of the best puzzle games ever, but it's also probably the worst version of it.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 19th September 2011
DS
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Space Invaders Revolution - This was the first DS Space Invaders game, and it really isn't revolutionary. Actually, it's a throwback to the original game, just with an added new mode with interesting enemy patterns and unlockable powerups. The game's good, but not great. The graphics are basic 2d, it looks fine enough. There are these "launch" animations before stages (in New mode) that are done in 3d, which is kind of odd because otherwise the game is entirely 2d.
As for the gameplay, classic mode is, well, Space Invaders. It's got a black backdrop and colored invaders (no color options unfortunately). You can turn UFOs on and off, though, and there are touchscreen controls too if you really want to use them. I use the buttons. You have to play Classic mode in order to unlock the special abilities in New mode, which is kind of odd; I've beaten New mode, but have only managed to unlock the first two of the six powerups. Classic mode's tough. :) As for the New mode though, there are twenty stages, and each of the twenty has three waves. You've got three lives to try to get through the three waves, but if an invader reaches the bottom you lose and have to start the stage over.
The stages all involve basic Space Invaders gameplay in some ways -- you move left and right, and shoot up. The invaders are the same three shapes seen in the original game, and they move back and forth. There are shields at the bottom. However, each of the stages has a unique gimmick. For instance, in one style you have to hit the invaders in the correct order. Hit the wrong one and you'll lose instantly (the one(s) to hit are colored, the ones to not hit are white). In another one the invaders are really small, and there are a lot of them. Other variations include one with a very narrow field, one where they shoot a lot more than normal, one with giant invaders, and more. The nice variety of stage types is fun, and helps add something to this otherwise short and repetitive game.
Even so though, this is classic Space Invaders stuff, and that's both a good and bad thing. Unless you've unlocked the Rapid Fire powerup, for instance, you can only have one shot on screen at a time. You move slowly, too. And powerup use is limited -- even after you've unlocked them (in the Classic mode, as I said; they don't tell you this ingame though), there's a meter on the right side of the lower screen that drains while a powerup (or powerups) is active. It only recovers after you beat a wave. The powerups are important, though; I wouldn't have beaten the game without the two powerups I have unlocked.
So yeah, overall, it's an okay game. It's a bit short, and the gameplay is quite straightforward (not everyone will like this), but I do like the variety of stages, and if simple the game is fun to play.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 3rd November 2011
DS
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Planet Puzzle League - I've gotten the credits in several modes in this game, including the main challenge mode, and several others as well. It's a great game of course, even without any character themes. It's a perfect game for vertical-orientation DS play.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 4th November 2011
Game Gear
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Sonic: Triple Trouble - beat with Sonic, bad ending (didn't get all the crystals). Decent game, but the bosses are pretty easy and like all of the 8-bit Sonic games, it doesn't have the variety of the Genesis games. Not counting the quite different Tails Adventure, the five GG Sonic games are all pretty similar in a lot of ways, and just never develop like the Genesis ones did... they've just got the crystals hidden in the levels, instead of in bonus stages, the bonus stages that do exist are just sidescrolling areas full of rings to collect for extra lives, there are always three stages per world, with the last one being a short area followed by a boss, etc. None have three playable characters, either; the first two are Sonic only, the second two Sonic or Tails, the last Sonic or Knuckles. And of course, none have saving. Blah. (Tails Adventure has saving, via ... passwords. Sega, you cheapskates...) Still, Triple Trouble, which actually is the fourth GG Sonic game and not the third, was fun if unoriginal. Even though the bosses were disappointing and far too easy, the levels were fun, and they had some neat designs. I died a fair number of times on some stages, but because the game is quite generous in awarding you continues (I still had four more at the end; you just get them based on points, which are easy to accumulate), beating the game was just a matter of time. Eventually I got through it. The last world was my favorite, it's full of these tubes, and four-way switch tings where you can choose which direction to get thrown in, and the mazes were fun to go through. This game definitely is much more like Sonic Chaos in terms of challenge than Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 for the GG... those first two are pretty hard, 2 particularly, but Chaos and TT aren't so much at all. The main challenge would be trying to find all of the Chaos Emeralds, I think. So, yeah. The game's unoriginal, it slows down too much a lot of the time (as is also true with some other GG Sonic games), the bosses are really easy, and it has almost no new ideas -- those tubes in the last world, and the breakable blocks of terrain that are all over the place throughout the game, aren't really new ideas -- but it does have some decent level designs and was mostly fun, so I'd say it's a fun game overall. Like all 8-bit Sonic games though, it's no competition for the Genesis games.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 6th November 2011
Wii
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Octomania - Beat on Easy, Normal, and Normal X2 (that's a 2-on-1 mode, where you're the 1) modes. I don't think I will try it on Hard; while Easy was quite easy, Normal and even more so Normal X2 were REALLY hard. This is a puzzle game, and it gets hard fast... really hard. And frustrating. There are some random elements in the design here, so you can't always plan everything ahead of time and can fail for reasons that aren't your fault. My biggest complaint is how spiky drops sent to your side, or occasionally new octopi appearing. can overwrite your own octopi that were already there. That is, you can't set up big combos and leave them for later, when you desperately might need one to keep going; try that, and more likely than not several key pieces will be gone by the time you need them. It's so frustrating. Still though, as an intense, challenging, and somewhat unique puzzle game with cute anime-style graphics, this game is well worth at try. It's got a good number of modes and options too, and even online play (though I doubt anyone's still playing), and unlockables too.
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution - Beat the Story mode on the default, and pretty easy, difficulty. I'll have to replay it on a harder setting in order to unlock stuff. etc. Unlike the second game on GC, this one doesn't have a shop; instead, you just unlock characters and stuff through play.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 28th November 2011
PSP
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Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max - beat Arcade mode on Normal difficulty with one character, Ingrid. This is a great game, very good port of the game and it's got additional content still not available anywhere else, too. It's too bad that it's not -- I'd love to see playable Ingrid in a version of this game easier to play multiplayer in than a portable release is -- but still, it's great to see. This is mostly a port of the Dreamcast, etc. game, with some more characters and maybe also modes, but that's a very good base, and they did add stuff, so yeah, good port. It's good that there are two screen view options too, one stretched and one with borders (just on the left and right, it's fullscreen vertically), because of course this is a 4:3 game.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 30th November 2011
Dreamcast
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Bust-A-Move 4 - beat Puzzle Story mode on Normal, Vs. CPU Story mode on Normal. The Puzzle mode Story game is insanely long... 110 rounds, seriously? That's like what, 500 puzzles? Why would they not let you save your progress there, that took hours, and you do have infinite continues! Bah... it was fun, but too long. Vs. CPU story mode was the normal length thankfully. This game is fantastic, with pretty much everything from BAM3 plus a few more things, most notably the balancing ropes, and yet again an all-new cast (with the exception of Bub, Bob, and Drunk, of course). I don't know why BAM games usually create all new casts every game... oh well. Also the 4-player mode from N64 BAM3 (BAM'99) does not return, sadly. Apart from that, though, this game is fantastic, an outstanding BAM game for sure! I love that just like BAM3 the game has so many different modes, though the only "new" one is that way too long Puzzle Story mode; the rest of them return in slightly altered form from the previous game. They were good before though, so why not. The next BAM game after this, Super Bust-A-Move, is also pretty good, but does cut down on the number of modes (it ditches most of the BAM3 modes that this keeps), and still doesn't have four player (excepting the Japan-only Gamecube version of SBAM2, which does).
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 12th December 2011
Wii
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Heavenly Guardian - Beat both loops and got the true ending.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 5th January 2012
PSP
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BlazBlue: Continuum Shift - beat the Arcade mode on Normal with several characters (Noel, Lichi, etc.), and one path of Story mode with Noel. This is a somewhat crazy-hard to follow, but very good, fighting game. You can clearly tell that it's from the same people who made Guilty Gear, for better or worse, but either way I definitely like this. It's not as good as a SNK fighter for sure, but it's great even so. I'd really been wanting to play a BlazBlue game, so I'm happy to finally be able to do so... I'll certainly be spending quite a bit more time with this one!
Game Boy
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Monster Truck Wars - beat on Easy. This is a decently fun topdown (somewhat Micro Machines/RC Pro-Am-ish) racing game. The game's not very difficult though (I tried it on Hard, it's a bit harder than Easy but still quite doable), and while you do have only three tries at qualifying on each race before you get game over, once you'rei n the actual race you're safe, the worst thing that can happen is getting no points for the championship. The game doesn't have saving though, so you have to play it all in one sitting. There's only really one environment, so there's no variation in graphics while you play, so it all kind of blends together... still, okay game, I had just enough fun to keep going.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 9th January 2012
PSP
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Blokus: Steambot Championship -- won a match in the final room and thus saw the credits. This is a boardgame conversion of the board game Blokus, which I hadn't heard of before seeing this game but which is a fun puzzle/strategy style game. The two or four players have to place tiles on a board, made up of pieces of 1-5 blocks, in all the configurations you can lay out that many blocks. You only get one of each kind of piece though. The key is that you must play pieces on a DIAGONAL to one of the edge points of your current pieces, and cannot play in any space that also touches (left/right/up/down, not diagonals of course) one of your pieces. This makes gameplay quite unique and interesting. It's definitely a fun game. And as the name suggests, you're playing against characters from the Steambot Chronicles games as well, which is cool and adds something.
Complaints? Overall this is good, but the amount of time you have to spend waiting for the other players to play, at the higher difficulties, is quite annoying. It can be minutes sometimes between your turns, at the top rooms. Bring something else to do while playing this game. Also, once you've won in all seven room levels, which doesn't take THAT long, there's nothing else to do other than keep playing at the same difficulties; this game doesn't have a lasting campaign mode, and the only stat tracking is of how many times you've finished in each position. And given that you lose money if you finish in 3rd or 4th, I'd often just turn off the game when I finished poorly, so that record isn't really accurate anyway. (You can use money to buy different clothes and hair for your character, which you only see in the "choosing a room" lobby building but is a nice touch, and also for room entry fees.) Overall, I like it. It clearly was a cheap production, but is fun.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 22nd February 2012
Genesis
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Phelios - Beat the game on Normal. This is a pretty good shmup, one of Namco's best from the era. Great fun and good challenge, beginning to end! :)
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 23rd February 2012
N64
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Fighter Destiny 2 - beat the Vs. CPU mode on Normal difficulty. The main mode to beat is the boardgame-like one, and I'm only very early in that, but I did beat a Vs. CPU (aka Arcade-style, 10 matches) game, so I can put the game here. :)
Wii
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Cruis'n - Beat Circuit mode. Fun but far too short arcade racer.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 24th February 2012
Game Boy Color
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Frogger 2 - Very good game! Quite challenging as well. This game is overlooked, probably even more overlooked than the also pretty good Frogger 2 game for PC/PSX/DC, but it's another great Frogger title. It nails the classic Frogger gameplay, but in a level-based design and with collectables (16 gems to collect on each stage), time (so it keeps track of the best time on each of the 32 levels, as well as whether you got all the gems), and, as the above suggests, battery save. This game quite impressed me. It's simple and straightforward -- collect the gems, get to the goal, avoid the hazards along the way (and no, there is no way to attack the enemies), and it works very well. Anyone who likes Frogger games should absolutely play this.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 3rd March 2012
PSP
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Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles - beat RoB Chronicles mode (the remake version). This was a pretty good remake, with additional stuff to find, a few small new areas, obviously also the inclusions of the original version and a new version of SotN as well, etc. Once I got a PSP I knew I had to get this, and yeah, it was definitely worth playing. :)
(Oh, I beat it with Maria, of course. The game's so much harder and more frustrating with Richter that it's not worth it.)
DS
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Meteos (Star Trip mode, beaten all three routes) - Great puzzle game! It feels like opposite Panel de Pon -- that is, the gameplay is similar, except blocks drop from the top instead of rising from the bottom, and you can only move blocks vertically instead of only horizontally. Yeah, don't play one after the other, it might be confusing. :) But it's a fantastic puzzle game.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 15th March 2012
Game Gear
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Tempo Jr. - super short and easy but entertaining, as I said in the thread about it.
Aladdin - This is an interesting version of Aladdin. This SMS/GG version is entirely different from the SNES or Genesis/PC/GB/GBA versions; it's shorter than either of them, and easier too, with a lot more story and less gameplay. That may sound bad, and it kind of is, but I do like that this version actually tells the story of the movie -- it's not some made up stuff mixed with shreds of the film like the other two versions, it actually tells the story from the movie, with lots of cutscenes and text. It's pretty thorough. The SNES and Genesis games are good (Genesis particularly), but they stray pretty far from the movie, like licensed games often did... this ones' much closer.
However, the downside is, as I said, this game is short and only somewhat challenging. That seems to be a common theme with some Game Gear games -- either short GG games are even shorter and easier than short GB games are, or I just don't have GB games comparable to stuff like this. This game's not Tempo Jr. easy, for sure -- you will die -- but it's not too hard either ,and it won't last long. It's only got five or six stages, and some are quite short. It does have password save so you don't need to play it all at once, and has infinite continues, so it won't be too hard to get through; that's a good thing, I like saving. Of course it'd matter more in a longer game, but still, this game DOES have cheap deaths, so without continues I'd be starting it over repeatedly for sure.
As for the gameplay, apart from those long story scenes between levels, GG/SMS Aladdin has two major gameplay types. Levels are either auto-scrolling, as you move to the right and try to avoid obstacles and not get caught or run out of health, or they are free-roaming, as you explore levels somewhat Prince of Persia style looking for your way through the stage. The only boss is Jafar at the end, and he's pretty easy (though I did die once there, just as I beat him). The most challenging thing is that if guards touch you it's an instant death, and dying means restarting from the beginning or the last checkpoint, if you reached one. Auto-scrolling stages don't have checkpoints, but they are short. The free-roam stages are longer, and do have them. You have a health bar, but don't have multiple lives here; dying once is game over, and there you get to continue or see your password. Of course, as I said, guards are instant death, as are pits. The other obstacles are what the healthbar is for.
So yeah, this game really is entirely different from the SNES and Genesis titles. Those games were pretty different too, but this one is even more different from either of them. The chase stages of course are unlike anything I remember from either of those games, and the freeroam levels are too. They're much more reminiscent of a Prince of Persia or Castlevania game than either of the other Aladdin titles. You don't even throw apples in this game, unlike the others -- here you throw rocks, which are quite limited in quantity. And rocks are your only weapon, there's no other way to knock out the guards. No jumping on heads here. Oh, you do get a sword for the final battle, but that's it.
Overall, the game is fun to play, and the game balance works well. I like the gameplay of both stage styles, and the settings, story, and music are just like the film (or, well, as close as the GG can get to the film's music). The only real problem is that far too short length. It would have been nice to see an Aladdin game with the story and continue/save system of this version and the gameplay and length of the Genesis version... too bad such a thing doesn't exist, but for Aladdin fans -- and I am one, this was my favorite Disney movie in the '90s and I still think it's pretty good -- this is a must play. You'll probably spend about as much time watching the cutscenes as you will playing the game (seriously, it seemed like half of the playtime was story...), but the story's just like the movie, and the gameplay, while it lasts, is fun.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 5th April 2012
Game Gear
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VR Troopers - beat Giant mode on Easy difficulty. This is a mediocre fighting game with a few unique elements, like how you can't control your guys in the air -- once you leave the ground, you can only attack, not control your jump. That's quite rare in this genre. Also, it has no continues, so if you lose a match, that's it, you start again from the beginning. This is why I played on Easy; if it let you continue like every other fighting game I'd be fine with Normal, but as it is, that'd take QUITE a while to beat. Anwyay, teh game's pretty mediocre. Giant graphics mode is amusing, though -- in this mode the sprites are as tall as the screen, which is different to say the least. :) There's also a normal mode, where they're smaller, but the time I played through it it was in this mode. The game has three playable characters, the three characters in the show, for story mode, but the plot is quite minimal, and the ending barely extant, so it's not much of a "story" mode. There are a line or two of text between matches though. There's also a mode without a story, where you play as either the three VR Troopers or five of the bosses, but I didn't bother with that one. Anyway, this was probably worth the very low price I paid, but I wouldn't pay much more than that.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 5th April 2012
SNES
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Battle Cars - Normal difficulty. I'll make a post about this game later for sure, but in short, Battle Cars is a fun, but frustrating, futuristic combat racing game. The game is short on modes, with just one single player mode (yes, there isn't even a single player single race mode, just a circuit), and it gets frustratingly difficult midway through, but it is fun, and of course I love the genre. The game alternates between one-way races where you try to get points to get upgrades for your car, and versus races against a challenging opponent. Focus on the Speed and Turbo powerups, they're needed the most...
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 12th April 2012
Game Boy/Color
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Shanghai Mini - beat the main 1p game mode. For anyone who doesn't know it, Shanghai is a series of puzzle games which is basically a matching game using the Mahjong tileset, where you have to clear a board of stacked tiles by matching identical tiles and removing them. In the main mode in this version, you have to beat 12 puzzles (one for each of the zodiac animals) in succession, and there's no saving or passwords, it either means leaving your GB on for a long time, playing a long session, or using a Super Game Boy/GB Player and playing it that way, to be able to leave it on longer -- because each game takes a good while, and playing twelve in one sitting isn't something I would want to do. I ended up going with the SGB approach; sure, that meant no full GBC color (it's a black-cart game), but the game does have decent preselected palettes, and a nice border, so it is SGB enhanced.
Also, because this is the GB, the tiles are quite small. It was often hard to tell exactly which one was which... definitely have to look closely with this one. Still, the base game is solid and great fun, as always for Shanghai/Mahjong Tiles, so I had a lot of fun with this. The game has one more feature to make it harder, too -- a timer. Now, you can set the timer length in the options menu, so you don't have to play with the default 7 minutes per game timer, but I did anyway in order to make the game tougher. And make it tougher it does; with that strict time limit, Shanghai games get pretty tough and tense. Good stuff. The game is challenging but fun, with as good graphics as a game like this could have on the GBC, good music, and more.
On the note of the music, the music is EXTREMELY repetitive, with only a couple of songs that loop constantly, but I found it so addictively good that I didn't mind that... sure, it looped all the time and there are only like 2 or 3 songs, but I'd say that the game has good music. Such catchy stuff. :)
Once you beat all 12 puzzles, the game has a decent ending and credits. Past that, the only other reasons to keep playing is to try it with different timer settings, or to play the versus modes. On the note of the versus modes, there are two. Both are either 1p vs. CPU (with a choice of an easy, medium, or hard opponent), or 2p via link cable (sadly I only have one copy of the game). In one of the games, the goal is to be the first to uncover and match with a special tile buried low in the pile. You compete with the computer to get to it first. You can't see the computer play, but you can see how many tiles they have remaining. The first player to win three rounds wins the game. The other mode is more of a versus fight. In this mode, special Shield, Sword, and Flask tiles are added, and each does a special function. Sword tiles send tiles to your opponent, for instance, and Shield ones protect you from incoming attacks. The goal is to be the first player to clear your board. In this mode, you see your field on the left, and a wall representing how many rows the enemy has on the right. Yeah, the two modes display how well your opponent is doing in entirely different ways, for some odd reason... I don't know why, but it does. I believe a single win wins this. Anyway, I beat a match in Normal in both games, but there's no continuing game here, just single matches. Still, both modes are fun and redesigned fairly well for the small screen.
So yeah, this game has some limitations -- I really wish it had saving, for scores, good times, progress through the campaign, etc -- but it's a great game overall anyway.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 25th May 2012
DS
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The Legend of Kage 2[/b] - Beat on Normal as the female ninja. This is a pretty good game, which surprised me because I don't like the NES game that much. This one's a lot of fun, though. It has some quirks, like how you can often just run past the enemies -- indeed, any place where there isn't a wall stopping you until you kill the people on screen, it's often easier to just run past anyone you can't kill while moving -- but still, it's a quite fun game with good, simple controls and nice 2d visuals. This is definitely a good game worth playing. There's more to do in it, too. While the two characters are similar, they're not the same (some different weapons and moves), and there are three difficulty levels too, each harder one unlocked when you beat the game on the lower setting. So I've unlocked Hard now. I'll probably play it at least partway through, the game's fun.
Oh, and given that this game is absolutely full of blind jumps and that you can jump several screens high (though that the upper screen shows what's above you helps, it doesn't show everything you can reach with your jump), it's fantastic that this game has no pits of death. I think the original game did have them. I hate platformers where you have to jump into the unknown and can die in one hit on things you might land on, that's just not fair, or fun.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 30th May 2012
GBA
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Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones - beat on Hard. I've beaten this before on Normal of course, but not Hard... this took a while to finish, but it was so worth it. FE games are so great... :) My top unit was again Lute, with the highest level (lv. 15 Sage; I didn't do any random-monster or tower missions) and the most Wins (kills, I think it means) too (158).
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 12th July 2012
GBC
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Top Gear Pocket 2 - Huh, so it has eight seasons before the end. Pretty fun game, I miss the rumble (versus the first one) but otherwise this is much improved -- better graphics, more fun, less frustration (crashing was removed, for instance, which is great), and battery save too. It's better all around, and was a fun game. Too bad it still doesn't have ingame music, just engine noise.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 14th July 2012
GG
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Legend of Illusion - Short and not very difficult, but it was moderately amusing. I think the others in the series are better, though.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 15th July 2012
PC
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Jamestown - finally went back and finished the latter couple of levels on the third difficulty, which allowed me to play the final level. And yeah, that was definitely worth it... great fun game. I'll need to play it much sooner next time, Jamestown is really good. There's certainly more to do, too. It is kind of funny how on difficulty 3 the levels feel harder than the bosses, though... not the usual balance for a bullet-hell game, but eh, it works.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 5th August 2012
GB
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Kirby's Star Stacker - beat all main game mode stages. The middle three difficulties had only 16 levels each, but the final one, Insane, had 50... that took a decent while. I've gotten through it now, though! Overall this is an absolutely amazing game, and easily one of the best handheld puzzle games I've played. It's really, really too bad that the console version was a Japanese-only SNES exclusive (a 1998-released SNES exclusive, at that; come on, just release it on N64 too...). This game actually works great on the handheld, but I'd love to play the console version too.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 18th August 2012
GBA
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Drill Dozer - Yeah, that 2006 2d platformer on the GBA with the rumble cart. Well, the rumble works great -- this is a far cry from that pathetic DS rumble cart, this one's good, like the GBC rumble games, except without a battery. It's too bad that no other GBA games have rumble carts, it'd have been great to see more! So yeah, I beat the final boss (though not all bonus levels yet, getting them will require some grinding). I was playing this one during the Olympics, along with one other game I haven't yet finished, but I did beat this one (before the Olympics ended, in fact; I forgot to post it), and it's a good game. However, Drill Dozer does have some issues, so I think I was justified in not buying it new. First, it's from Game Freak,so the art looks quite Pokemon-esque. I'd call that probably a negative. Second, it's a short game. The main game is only about 11 stages long, and each one is average length. There are five or six bonus levels to unlock, but those are optional, and shorter than the main stages (harder, but shorter). But on that note, problem three is the controls and difficulty (yes, they're connected). The game starts out easy, but gets really hard by the end... something that might be good, if the controls weren't so annoying. Yes, the ... unique ... control scheme is the cause of many of the problems. Drill Dozer only uses the A and B buttons for jumping and such; most of the action is on the shoulder buttons. This is a problem, because having to hold down the shoulder buttons all the time is somewhat uncomfortable on any model of Game Boy Advance, and it's much harder to be as precise with shoulder buttons as it is with face buttons, too. And by the third boss, precision is absolutely necessary. This combination of required precision, and controls that make precision much harder than it should be, make the game pretty frustrating at times. You drill left with the L button, and right with the R button. Seems simple. But you increase drill speed (and drilling duration) by pressing the same button again, while the drill is at max power on the onscreen meter. Time it right or it'll stop and you'll have to start drilling again. The timing isn't too hard on its own, but when you're being required to do this or else you'll be hit, or die, it gets much harder to be perfect every time -- and you will need near-perfection to beat the later bosses, or the bonus missions. And I have problems with that. I'd be fine with face buttons, but just can't quite do it with shoulder buttons. Parts where you need to use the correct drilling direction in order to progress, or to hurt a boss, can be tricky too -- I had lots of problems with the third boss because I had a really hard time getting down which color meant which button. And other times it's even harder to tell, and I just had to guess (and take some damage when I was wrong). Yeah, the controls have some issues.
Despite that though, I would recommend playing Drill Dozer. Don't pay too much for it, but it's interesting for sure. Flawed, but interesting. It's too bad that there isn't a sequel, the game has promise amongst its issues. I'll go back eventually and get the rest of the bonus missions.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 10th September 2012
PS1
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Bravo Air Race - short and easy plane racing game. Very short and pretty easy. This game has only four tracks, and there isn't even a circuit mode either. Heck, there aren't even any difficulty settings! Choose a plane, choose a track, and go. It shows you the credits once you've finished in first in all four. Bravo Air Race actually is fun, with decent graphics, okay track designs, and decently good handling, but it's only about an hour long, unfortunately. It's too bad; I enjoyed it, for the very short time it lasted. The game does have a sequel, Air Race Championship which does have a circuit mode and more tracks, but it was only released in Japan unfortunately. Apart for the super short length, my other main complaint is that the tracks are very narrow vertically. It's best to not press up or down when you don't have to -- you can't go up very high, and if you fly too high you'll be slowed down. I wish the tracks had more vertical depth, like the tracks do in many other air racing games. But still, it is a fun game, just insanely limited in content.
PC (freeware)
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Astro Rally - while working on the PC racing games reviews I went and finished this also very short but entertaining little game. See that thread for the full review.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 25th September 2012
Sega CD
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*Devastator - Finally beat this very difficult, Japan-only SCD game... it's part side-scrolling action-platform game, part shmup. The game has seven levels. None are overly long, so this game isn't very long, and the first six are of only average challenge, too (four are platforming, two shmup). The last level, though... that's a completely different story. The last level is a boss rush shmup level. There are three bosses, the first with one form (a re-fight of an old boss), the second with two forms (another refight), and the last a new, three-form boss. There are no checkpoints in the stage, so if you die you start the whole thing over. Yeah, it's quite tough. I had to leave my SCD on for a good week before I finally spent several hours today with the game, memorized the level, and finally managed to get through the whole thing. You do get two points of health refill between bosses (you have 5 hit points), but none between forms, and I needed max health for the first boss, so fighting through the first two got very tedious since I'd have to give up and try again if I wasn't going to get to the last boss's first form with full health. There are a lot of bosses and patterns to memorize in this fight, for sure; I used several continues, and I had it set to 9 lives per continue. It's kind of odd that the final level is so hard, considering that the rest of the game isn't, but I guess they wanted something hard in the game to make up for the otherwise short length. Well, it worked. Overall, the final level is a real pain, but I like Devastator. Oh, the game has anime cutscenes from the anime movie of the same name in between levels. I really don't know what was going on in the story, but apparently my giant robot saved the city in the end of the game. It's too bad this one didn't come over to the US... it's one of only a very few SCD action games that were Japan-exclusives. There was pretty much only Devastator, Ninja Warriors, Night Striker, Cyborg 007, and not much else... if we could even get Keio Flying Squadron, why not this? It's not the best game around, but it is decently fun at least. Oh well.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 6th October 2012
Sega Saturn
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Clockwork Knight (Normal) - Great fun game! The game's way too short, and is a primitive 2.5d platformer as all you do is go right and there are no perspective shifts, but still, what's there works well and is fun, and I definitely liked the game overall. Good graphics too. The last two bosses were tough, at least, but I got through them... it took about 15-18 lives to do so, but I won. I was down to only 6 lives at the end, and the game has no continues, so it's lucky I won, I didn't want to have to start the game over again. But yeah, fun game. It's basically got a similar concept to Toy Story, except it was released before that movie -- it's about toys that come alive. Also it's about a toy knight having to rescue the kidnapped princess, as I say in my Saturn review thread. Yeah, lame story. The CG cutscenes are quite high quality, though. So yeah, overall, for a game from December 1994, it's a nice effort. It's short and primitive for a 2.5d platformer, but it's certainly good enough to be worth playing.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 21st October 2012
Game Boy
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Tetris Blast - beat the main game (password-save challenge puzzle mode) normal mode (first 50 puzzles). I'm working on the hard mode now, the second game with two new, tough pieces added. Tetris Blast, aka Bombliss, is a great game. It's not the hardest puzzle game around -- I think the only seriously difficult stage of the first 50 was stage 46 -- but it's a lot of fun anyway. The two new pieces do make the second time nicely more challenging, though. Overall, it's quite unfortunate that none of the other Bombliss games released in the West -- this one's great. Why not release one of the SNES ones too, Nintendo? :(
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 10th December 2012
Game Gear
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Deep Duck Trouble starring Donald Duck - Decent to good GG platformer, from the same people as most of these. This is maybe one of their better ones, but the crazy-massive amounts of slowdown are a real pain, and the game is, as usual, short. Great graphics, but the gameplay's only average-to-poor. So yeah, it's your standard GG platformer. I actually beat this a few months ago, but forgot to list it.
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 24th December 2012
SNES
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Space Megaforce - Normal difficulty. See the 'bought' thread for most of my thoughts on the game, but yeah, it's great. Great graphics, great gameplay, that classic Compile style... what more could you want? Well, the Japanese version's full intro and ending and a second Mode 7 stage would have been cool, but that's about it really. It is really hard to choose between the Compile shmups, with how great most of them are, but this is definitely a fantastic one. It plays like a followup to Blazing Lazers' style, except, as I remembered, it's a whole lot easier than that game thanks to having infinite continues and difficulty level choices, with a not-that-tough Normal setting too. On the higher settings it gets much harder, of course, but still, the infinite continues make this easier than Blazing Lazers. I like that I can actually finish this one, and Blazing Lazers' final boss rush was way too hard, but it is kind of too bad that this game has only 9 real stages; 3 of the 12 levels are bonus-ish stages which mostly exist for points and aren't very hard. Blazing Lazers has like 11 levels, but all are full levels. But even so, Space Megaforce is a fantastic game, with some flashy graphics, almost no slowdown, eight weapons all with several modes (press R!), and more. Incredible game!
(Of the Compile 4th-gen shmups, Blazing Lazers and Super Aleste are one style, with a futuristic spaceships theme and 4 or 8 powerup types, each with two modes you can switch between somehow. Powerups will increase your weapon power, but you pick these up one at a time, not in the large bunches the second type uses. MUSHA, Spriggan, and Robo Aleste are a second style, with a giant-robots theme (giant robots in ancient Japan for MUSHA and Robo Aleste, giant robots in the modern day for Spriggan), large numbers of weapon-powerup pickups like the first Aleste had, and weapon combo systems. And Spriggan Mark 2 is its own thing, because of its horizontal-scrolling nature (remember that all other Compile shmups are vertical), though the graphical design is of course similar to the first game.)
Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember) - A Black Falcon - 27th December 2012
Game Boy
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Trax - Pretty cool but short twinstick-esque shmup from Hal. Yeah, that Hal, who later made Kirby. The game has nice graphics, fun shooting action, a variety of weapons, and two modes, main game or battle mode. There are twelve maps and even computer opponents in battle mode, so that it's not a link-cable-only affair. That is great, and the battle mode is fun; I'd like to get another copy of this game for some link cable play. Unfortunately the game does not keep track of a running points total, so each match is separate, but still, it's a good game. The biggest problem is, as I said earlier, the length -- there's just not much to Trax. There are five levels and then a boss-rush last stage, and that's it. There's no saving, but you do get infinite continues and the difficulty level is only moderate at best, so it's quite beatable. I think that half of the time I spent playing the game was in the boss rush stage, because it's the only one that really challenges. Unfortunately, there are no difficulty level settings here, which is annoying. Also, the boss-rush stage's music isn't some of the best in the game, which is too bad given how much you'll likely be listening to it, compared to the others. At least the boss fights remain fun and varied, so that I was having fun even when I'd been playing the same fights (in the boss rush) over and over. Each boss is different and requires a different approach, and the same applies for each of the three forms of the final boss.
So yeah, it's lacking in challenge and length, but still, other than that, this game is a lot of fun! You drive around in a tank, blowing up enemies and picking up powerups. You can also level parts of cities along the way at some points. The controls are simple but work well, so you can either fire in the direction you're going, or or lock firing so you can move in one direction and fire in another. Nice.