13th February 2011, 12:50 AM
I've been playing a lot of handheld games for the past few weeks.
(This is from today)
Game Boy Color
--
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (non-linked game) - I beat this back in 2001 some time after buying both games that summer in a linked game (ie Ages first, Seasons second), but years ago I started a non-linked game, so that I could beat it in the other way as well. There were ... many delays ... thanks to various things, including cartridge damage -- the cart's plastic shell's bottom right corner is broken off, and while the game works in GBC systems fine, in GBA systems (GBA/SP/GB Player) it won't work without thick tape covering that edge, and it's tough to get a cart with duct tape on it to get into the cart slot... and then getting it out (to switch games) is even harder. So I decided sometime last year (I think) that I'd just leave Seasons in the GBA until I beat it... but I didn't do that anytime soon. That's one reason why I got that GBA-SP late last year, I wanted another GBA (other than the GC+GB Player) so I could play GB games without the frustration of dealing with removing that Seasons cart. :)
I quit for a particularly long time in Seasons' Lost Forest-like maze square, that was a complete pain and I couldn't figure it out without a guide, and I was always playing the game away from my computer and then not caring quite enough to just go look it up and get past that point.
But I finally did, and after probably a couple of years (or more, I really have no idea when I started this Seasons-first playthrough) of occasional play, playing it for a little while and then not again for months, I finally decided to try to finish it a week or two ago. The eighth dungeon was really, really hard, but I got through it, and then got to the boss... but he was even harder, so I realized that what I needed was the medicine that gave you a full health recharge. I couldn't buy it from the witch, so I looked it up in a guide, and it turned out that I'd never started the trading game after getting the first item. I used the guide to quickly get through the trades, got the potion (and L-2 shooting sword, though it's not that big of an upgrade really, just looks cooler because it can shoot), tried the final boss...
And got stuck for several days, until finally managing to beat him today with the help of a technique from the web (using pegasus seeds to try to jump back and forth between his hands, instead of just getting in one hit each time you get onto his hands). That was the key, and I just barely managed to beat him, after several tries, with 3/4ths of a heart left and having used the potion. Pretty awesome. :)
Now, I can finally play Ages again, in a linked game, and see if it's as good as I remember it being... in '01 I liked Ages more than Seasons. It is the more popular of the two, but I wonder what I'll think now. :)
(Older ones from after the last post)
Jan. 28
Game Gear
--
The Lost World: Jurassic Park - This licensed platformer from Sega was the last game released for the GG, and is its only 1997 release. It's got the name of the movie, but like the Genesis game has nothing to do with it in terms of story; you're just some nameless hunter at Site B.
Unfortunately, it's short (seven not very long levels) and not particularly difficult, most of the time. This game doesn't take long to finish. The graphics are okay, but not amazing. It looks just good enough to do without trying to really look the best. There's only one weapon, which has infinite ammo. The only pickups are health powerups that look like vests. Walk around, avoid or shoot the dinosaurs, and get through the short levels. Generic stuff, but it's executed okay, what little there is. I like the levels that are here, there just needed to be more of them, and the game needed more exciting things like other weapons, other pickups, and more. The game just doesn't have enough to it.
One of the six platform levels is a little bit of a change of pace, as you control a small dinosaur (ally of your nameless hunter character) instead of the guy. This guy dies in one hit, with no powerups available, so this level is by far the hardest level in the game, and does get a little frustrating, though not too bad. I wish there was at least one more dinosaur level, why go to all that trouble for just the one stage?
Oh, there's a boss at the end of each level. All six bossfights are well done, and are highlights of the game. They were fun, interesting (or as interesting as this game gets, anyway), and varied, though some were easier than others. You have only one life per continue, but do have infinite continues, so you can keep trying. You start a level over if you die, unless you were at the boss, in which case you start from the boss. Not exactly trying to make it too hard here, or trying very hard with this design...
Overall, that really is the game. I mean, almost no pickups, few, short levels, only scattered enemies a lot of the time... this game just feels lazy and incomplete. It's not a bad start at a game, if it were at least twice as long I'd think much more positively of it, but there's not enough there.
At least they did something different for the final stage, it's a driving level with the T-Rex chasing you, and you're looking backwards, driving towards the screen, trying to avoid its constant attacks. Kind of fun really, it'd have been good as a level in the middle of the game or something like The Lion King's stampede level. But in this case, you finish it and that's it, you win. What, did you expect a climactic boss fight? There sort of was one at the end of level 6, where you have to run away from the T-Rex, shooting it while the giant thing chases you, and that was kind of cool, and the car chase after that was fun too, but... then that's it, you win? Bah, poor design. I'm not surprised though, this game obviously wasn't exactly an A-class effort. It's another very short Game Gear game. Ah well, at least what little there is to the game is tolerably fun. Still, it's too short, lacking, and simplistic to be anything better than a C or D grade game, I think.
Feb. 1
Game Gear
--
Bust-A-Move - 1P Vs. CPU mode (Normal difficulty) - Slow but good port of the first Bust-A-Move game. Versus mode's framerate is particularly low, but it's great fun anyway, and looks pretty nice. Bust-A-Move is a fantastic series, and despite the slow play, in versus mode particularly, fewer options than a newer puzzle game would have (1p v. cpu, puzzle (with 99 or 100 puzzles and passwords to save your progress), infinite, or 2p vs. if you have two copies, two systems, and a link cable, with the only options being easy/normal/hard difficulty selection for the 1p vs. and infinite modes), and of course no battery to save your scores... still though, this is great fun, one of the best games I have for GG.
Feb. 3
Game Boy
--
Quarth - This is one I've been working on for several weeks. Great, great game! I'd never heard of it before picking up the cartridge, I don't believe, but I'm very glad I did, because it's a very original and fun game. Basically it's like a shmup crossed with Tetris. Blocks come down towards you, you fire up trying to make rectangles. When a rectangle is formed, the game pauses while those blocks are destroyed. If a block reaches the bottom of the screen you lose and will have to start the stage over. The game is made up of five levels, each with nine stages in it. There is a stage select, and you can start from any stage within the first three levels, but if you want to finish the game you'll have to play 3-9 and all of levels 4 and 5 without turning off the system. And starting from about 3-8, the game gets quite hard, and only gets harder from there... yeah, this was a serious challenge. It took me several days before I finally managed it, I had to leave my GBASP on and plugged in charging overnight while I kept trying to get through the game. After you beat each level you see a cinema scene that turns out to be part of the ending, but you'll only see most of it when you beat the whole thing. There are six ships to choose from, but it's just a cosmetic thing, functionally they are all identical.
Overall, it's an amazing game with addictive, fun, and original gameplay. Easily a B+ title, no question. Quarth is great, I highly recommend playing it!
(This is from today)
Game Boy Color
--
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (non-linked game) - I beat this back in 2001 some time after buying both games that summer in a linked game (ie Ages first, Seasons second), but years ago I started a non-linked game, so that I could beat it in the other way as well. There were ... many delays ... thanks to various things, including cartridge damage -- the cart's plastic shell's bottom right corner is broken off, and while the game works in GBC systems fine, in GBA systems (GBA/SP/GB Player) it won't work without thick tape covering that edge, and it's tough to get a cart with duct tape on it to get into the cart slot... and then getting it out (to switch games) is even harder. So I decided sometime last year (I think) that I'd just leave Seasons in the GBA until I beat it... but I didn't do that anytime soon. That's one reason why I got that GBA-SP late last year, I wanted another GBA (other than the GC+GB Player) so I could play GB games without the frustration of dealing with removing that Seasons cart. :)
I quit for a particularly long time in Seasons' Lost Forest-like maze square, that was a complete pain and I couldn't figure it out without a guide, and I was always playing the game away from my computer and then not caring quite enough to just go look it up and get past that point.
But I finally did, and after probably a couple of years (or more, I really have no idea when I started this Seasons-first playthrough) of occasional play, playing it for a little while and then not again for months, I finally decided to try to finish it a week or two ago. The eighth dungeon was really, really hard, but I got through it, and then got to the boss... but he was even harder, so I realized that what I needed was the medicine that gave you a full health recharge. I couldn't buy it from the witch, so I looked it up in a guide, and it turned out that I'd never started the trading game after getting the first item. I used the guide to quickly get through the trades, got the potion (and L-2 shooting sword, though it's not that big of an upgrade really, just looks cooler because it can shoot), tried the final boss...
And got stuck for several days, until finally managing to beat him today with the help of a technique from the web (using pegasus seeds to try to jump back and forth between his hands, instead of just getting in one hit each time you get onto his hands). That was the key, and I just barely managed to beat him, after several tries, with 3/4ths of a heart left and having used the potion. Pretty awesome. :)
Now, I can finally play Ages again, in a linked game, and see if it's as good as I remember it being... in '01 I liked Ages more than Seasons. It is the more popular of the two, but I wonder what I'll think now. :)
(Older ones from after the last post)
Jan. 28
Game Gear
--
The Lost World: Jurassic Park - This licensed platformer from Sega was the last game released for the GG, and is its only 1997 release. It's got the name of the movie, but like the Genesis game has nothing to do with it in terms of story; you're just some nameless hunter at Site B.
Unfortunately, it's short (seven not very long levels) and not particularly difficult, most of the time. This game doesn't take long to finish. The graphics are okay, but not amazing. It looks just good enough to do without trying to really look the best. There's only one weapon, which has infinite ammo. The only pickups are health powerups that look like vests. Walk around, avoid or shoot the dinosaurs, and get through the short levels. Generic stuff, but it's executed okay, what little there is. I like the levels that are here, there just needed to be more of them, and the game needed more exciting things like other weapons, other pickups, and more. The game just doesn't have enough to it.
One of the six platform levels is a little bit of a change of pace, as you control a small dinosaur (ally of your nameless hunter character) instead of the guy. This guy dies in one hit, with no powerups available, so this level is by far the hardest level in the game, and does get a little frustrating, though not too bad. I wish there was at least one more dinosaur level, why go to all that trouble for just the one stage?
Oh, there's a boss at the end of each level. All six bossfights are well done, and are highlights of the game. They were fun, interesting (or as interesting as this game gets, anyway), and varied, though some were easier than others. You have only one life per continue, but do have infinite continues, so you can keep trying. You start a level over if you die, unless you were at the boss, in which case you start from the boss. Not exactly trying to make it too hard here, or trying very hard with this design...
Overall, that really is the game. I mean, almost no pickups, few, short levels, only scattered enemies a lot of the time... this game just feels lazy and incomplete. It's not a bad start at a game, if it were at least twice as long I'd think much more positively of it, but there's not enough there.
At least they did something different for the final stage, it's a driving level with the T-Rex chasing you, and you're looking backwards, driving towards the screen, trying to avoid its constant attacks. Kind of fun really, it'd have been good as a level in the middle of the game or something like The Lion King's stampede level. But in this case, you finish it and that's it, you win. What, did you expect a climactic boss fight? There sort of was one at the end of level 6, where you have to run away from the T-Rex, shooting it while the giant thing chases you, and that was kind of cool, and the car chase after that was fun too, but... then that's it, you win? Bah, poor design. I'm not surprised though, this game obviously wasn't exactly an A-class effort. It's another very short Game Gear game. Ah well, at least what little there is to the game is tolerably fun. Still, it's too short, lacking, and simplistic to be anything better than a C or D grade game, I think.
Feb. 1
Game Gear
--
Bust-A-Move - 1P Vs. CPU mode (Normal difficulty) - Slow but good port of the first Bust-A-Move game. Versus mode's framerate is particularly low, but it's great fun anyway, and looks pretty nice. Bust-A-Move is a fantastic series, and despite the slow play, in versus mode particularly, fewer options than a newer puzzle game would have (1p v. cpu, puzzle (with 99 or 100 puzzles and passwords to save your progress), infinite, or 2p vs. if you have two copies, two systems, and a link cable, with the only options being easy/normal/hard difficulty selection for the 1p vs. and infinite modes), and of course no battery to save your scores... still though, this is great fun, one of the best games I have for GG.
Feb. 3
Game Boy
--
Quarth - This is one I've been working on for several weeks. Great, great game! I'd never heard of it before picking up the cartridge, I don't believe, but I'm very glad I did, because it's a very original and fun game. Basically it's like a shmup crossed with Tetris. Blocks come down towards you, you fire up trying to make rectangles. When a rectangle is formed, the game pauses while those blocks are destroyed. If a block reaches the bottom of the screen you lose and will have to start the stage over. The game is made up of five levels, each with nine stages in it. There is a stage select, and you can start from any stage within the first three levels, but if you want to finish the game you'll have to play 3-9 and all of levels 4 and 5 without turning off the system. And starting from about 3-8, the game gets quite hard, and only gets harder from there... yeah, this was a serious challenge. It took me several days before I finally managed it, I had to leave my GBASP on and plugged in charging overnight while I kept trying to get through the game. After you beat each level you see a cinema scene that turns out to be part of the ending, but you'll only see most of it when you beat the whole thing. There are six ships to choose from, but it's just a cosmetic thing, functionally they are all identical.
Overall, it's an amazing game with addictive, fun, and original gameplay. Easily a B+ title, no question. Quarth is great, I highly recommend playing it!
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