17th April 2015, 4:18 PM
(This post was last modified: 17th April 2015, 5:03 PM by A Black Falcon.)
Turbo CD
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Shubibinman 3: Ikai no Princess - I finished this quite short and easy game on Normal in notime. This game has good graphics, decently good controls, lots of variety, fun encounters... and almost no content or challenge. It's really too bad, they almost had something great here, but it's just far too short and easy. This game is actually the shortest of the four Shubibinman games, despite being the only one on a CD, which is kind of sad. You'd think a game would get longer, not shorter, when it moves from HuCard to CD! The challenge of the first two games just isn't here at all, either. There is a Hard mode, and I will play the game again on that, but it doesn't add as much challenge as it should. This reminds me a bit of Download 2 or that Bakuretsu Yoshimoto Shingeki game, in being Turbo CD games which are fun, but are very short (you'll beat them day one no problem) and have limited replay value. This game has infinite continues, too, making it even easier.
Level designs are a disappointment as well. Most stages are just a path to the right. A few do have jumping puzzle elements, but as in Valis you don't die when you fall, you just lose some health. Levels aren't nearly varied enough, and there are few obstacles apart from a few segments. A good example of this games' wasted potential is that your characters have a cool wall-kick move, to jump off walls... but there is only ONE place in the entire game you'll ever need it, because the rest of the game has almost no walls! It's crazy, why put that in and then fail to use it at all? The other Shubibinman games have better, more interesting level designs. This game has better graphics and music for sure, and fun sword-slashing gameplay, but the levels are too bland in design underneath their often quite nice looks.
Another issue is that you have a gun -- hold down the attack button to charge, let go and you'll shoot -- and can even control your shot (tap fire again, dpad will move it around). That's pretty cool... but it's massively overpowered. Most bosses go down in just a few hits with the gun, it's kind of pathetic how easy it makes most of the game. They didn't balance the gun well at all.
So yeah, this game disappointed me a bit. I WAS expecting it to be easy, because that's its reputation, but the short length and bland levels are unfortunate. Shubibinman 1 may have bland and very repetitive graphics and be unfair (it's easy to moderate in challenge... until you die, at which point it becomes impossible and you should just start the game over), but I like its level-design variety and controls; I like that game a lot more than most, I think. In comparison, this one looks far nicer and the controls are better (apart from your overpowered gun), but the super-short design isn't something I'll probably go back to nearly as often as I have the first game. So yeah, this is an okay game. It's fun though, but is it worth the $20-plus it costs? Maybe not... though being a sidescrolling action game on a system with far too few of them does make it more interesting than it otherwise would be.
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Shubibinman 3: Ikai no Princess - I finished this quite short and easy game on Normal in notime. This game has good graphics, decently good controls, lots of variety, fun encounters... and almost no content or challenge. It's really too bad, they almost had something great here, but it's just far too short and easy. This game is actually the shortest of the four Shubibinman games, despite being the only one on a CD, which is kind of sad. You'd think a game would get longer, not shorter, when it moves from HuCard to CD! The challenge of the first two games just isn't here at all, either. There is a Hard mode, and I will play the game again on that, but it doesn't add as much challenge as it should. This reminds me a bit of Download 2 or that Bakuretsu Yoshimoto Shingeki game, in being Turbo CD games which are fun, but are very short (you'll beat them day one no problem) and have limited replay value. This game has infinite continues, too, making it even easier.
Level designs are a disappointment as well. Most stages are just a path to the right. A few do have jumping puzzle elements, but as in Valis you don't die when you fall, you just lose some health. Levels aren't nearly varied enough, and there are few obstacles apart from a few segments. A good example of this games' wasted potential is that your characters have a cool wall-kick move, to jump off walls... but there is only ONE place in the entire game you'll ever need it, because the rest of the game has almost no walls! It's crazy, why put that in and then fail to use it at all? The other Shubibinman games have better, more interesting level designs. This game has better graphics and music for sure, and fun sword-slashing gameplay, but the levels are too bland in design underneath their often quite nice looks.
Another issue is that you have a gun -- hold down the attack button to charge, let go and you'll shoot -- and can even control your shot (tap fire again, dpad will move it around). That's pretty cool... but it's massively overpowered. Most bosses go down in just a few hits with the gun, it's kind of pathetic how easy it makes most of the game. They didn't balance the gun well at all.
So yeah, this game disappointed me a bit. I WAS expecting it to be easy, because that's its reputation, but the short length and bland levels are unfortunate. Shubibinman 1 may have bland and very repetitive graphics and be unfair (it's easy to moderate in challenge... until you die, at which point it becomes impossible and you should just start the game over), but I like its level-design variety and controls; I like that game a lot more than most, I think. In comparison, this one looks far nicer and the controls are better (apart from your overpowered gun), but the super-short design isn't something I'll probably go back to nearly as often as I have the first game. So yeah, this is an okay game. It's fun though, but is it worth the $20-plus it costs? Maybe not... though being a sidescrolling action game on a system with far too few of them does make it more interesting than it otherwise would be.
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