9th July 2011, 7:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 13th July 2011, 5:41 PM by A Black Falcon.)
The Last Blade - cart in case. This game is the most valuable of these; complete copies sell for well over $31, and loose ones don't sell for too much less than that either. Finding a group of games with a copy of this in it for that price was a great find. This game is incredible, and is the best NGPC fighting game I've played yet for sure. Outstanding game, it does a good job of translating The Last Blade to the handheld. It has the stories from both of the Last Blade games in it too, and unlocks the Last Blade 2 characters eventually if you play it more. I haven't done that yet, but did beat it once. It feels a little simpler than the Neo-Geo games, but still has good depth and complexity. Outstanding game. Great backgrounds too, they look just like the Last Blade 2 backgrounds! I'll give this a longer review later, I'm still only in the Last Blade 1 portion of the game, but I will say that this game is truly exceptional, and is easily the best of the four NGPC fighting games I own. There are a bunch of modes -- Story, Survival, Time Attack, and Practice, for starters -- lots to buy in the shop (you get money when you win matches that you can use to buy things in the shop), good graphics, great gameplay, and more. I am a huge Last Blade series fan on the Neo-Geo, and this is a great portable conversion of the gameplay. Just awesome stuff.
Puzzle Bobble Mini - cart and case. Bust-A-Move. I assume this is a European (or Japanese, if the game is multilanguage) copy, because of the different title. This is an okay version of Bust-A-Move, but it's got some issues. Like the Game Boy/GBC versions, the playfield is small and cramped, and the bubbles are tiny. Telling some of the colors apart, and accurately aiming in the small field, is tough. For content, it's basic -- the game has an endless mode, a puzzle mode with 99 puzzles, and versus/vs. cpu. This is basically the same feature set as Bust-A-Move for Game Gear, so I imagine this is a port of the first game, just with more characters added in the versus mode. This version allows you to access all 99 puzzles from the start, so you don't need to actually progress, unlike the GG (which used password save for that because there's no battery in the cart). It's supposed to save your best times in each stage, but either my cart is messed up or it doesn't. That's annoying. Vs. CPU mode works as you'd expect. Endless is fun, and is like the GG's endless mode, except it actually does save your high scores in this one (there of course it didn't). Overall though, honestly I'd almost actually rather play the GG version; yes, it doesn't save scores and has lots of slowdown that this version doesn't have, but the larger graphics (and wider screen) make the game easier to play.
Sonic Pocket Adventure - cart only. This was apparently Dimps' first Sonic game, and it's basically a handheld version of Sonic 2, but with some new levels in it as well as ones out of Sonic 2. There's a link versus mode too, and some other mini modes. Pretty solid port, and I like that it actually saves, unlike the Game Gear Sonic games... but gameplay-wise it's nothing above GG Sonic, apart from having less slowdown. Of course, the NGPC isn't exactly a big leap in tech over handhelds from eight years before it (in fact, the Lynx was almost certainly the most powerful handheld ever all the way up until the Game Boy Advance came out), so that makes sense. Anyway, Sonic Pocket Adventure is a quality game. My first impression, though, is that Metal Slug 1st Mission is my favorite NGPC sidescroller so far... though of course there are only three, the two Metal Slug games on Sonic, so there's not exactly a lot of competition.
SNK vs. Capcom: Cardfighters Clash (SNK Version) - This is a card battle game, like the various card battle games popular then and now (pokemon cards, magic, etc). This isn't a port of something though, it's an original title. I've only played it a very little, but it seems pretty solid for the genre. Nice graphics on the cards too. It does explain how to play, which is good, because there's a good bit to learn.
Puzzle Bobble Mini - cart and case. Bust-A-Move. I assume this is a European (or Japanese, if the game is multilanguage) copy, because of the different title. This is an okay version of Bust-A-Move, but it's got some issues. Like the Game Boy/GBC versions, the playfield is small and cramped, and the bubbles are tiny. Telling some of the colors apart, and accurately aiming in the small field, is tough. For content, it's basic -- the game has an endless mode, a puzzle mode with 99 puzzles, and versus/vs. cpu. This is basically the same feature set as Bust-A-Move for Game Gear, so I imagine this is a port of the first game, just with more characters added in the versus mode. This version allows you to access all 99 puzzles from the start, so you don't need to actually progress, unlike the GG (which used password save for that because there's no battery in the cart). It's supposed to save your best times in each stage, but either my cart is messed up or it doesn't. That's annoying. Vs. CPU mode works as you'd expect. Endless is fun, and is like the GG's endless mode, except it actually does save your high scores in this one (there of course it didn't). Overall though, honestly I'd almost actually rather play the GG version; yes, it doesn't save scores and has lots of slowdown that this version doesn't have, but the larger graphics (and wider screen) make the game easier to play.
Sonic Pocket Adventure - cart only. This was apparently Dimps' first Sonic game, and it's basically a handheld version of Sonic 2, but with some new levels in it as well as ones out of Sonic 2. There's a link versus mode too, and some other mini modes. Pretty solid port, and I like that it actually saves, unlike the Game Gear Sonic games... but gameplay-wise it's nothing above GG Sonic, apart from having less slowdown. Of course, the NGPC isn't exactly a big leap in tech over handhelds from eight years before it (in fact, the Lynx was almost certainly the most powerful handheld ever all the way up until the Game Boy Advance came out), so that makes sense. Anyway, Sonic Pocket Adventure is a quality game. My first impression, though, is that Metal Slug 1st Mission is my favorite NGPC sidescroller so far... though of course there are only three, the two Metal Slug games on Sonic, so there's not exactly a lot of competition.
SNK vs. Capcom: Cardfighters Clash (SNK Version) - This is a card battle game, like the various card battle games popular then and now (pokemon cards, magic, etc). This isn't a port of something though, it's an original title. I've only played it a very little, but it seems pretty solid for the genre. Nice graphics on the cards too. It does explain how to play, which is good, because there's a good bit to learn.
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