12th May 2016, 1:48 PM
Update 2
Another 12 games now. This update took a lot longer than I was hoping, so I may need to either reduce the number of games per update or just accept not-weekly updates, and I'd rather not do the latter so... we'll see. But I would like to post weekly or so. (I could try to write less about each game again, as I did in some of the early summaries threads, but... that seems unlikely, at least for these physical ones. :p)
Also, a week or two ago during a Steam sale I got 8 more platformers, so I'll have more than that initial list to cover in the digital-downloads category. But with this update, we continue with games I own on physical media.
Table of Contents for This Update
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Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998)
Jazz Jackrabbit 2: Holiday Hare 98 (1998)
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (1994)
The Lost Vikings - Puzzle-Platformer (2D) (1993)
Interplay 15th: Norse by Norsewest: The Return of the Lost Vikings (1997)
Mega Man 3 (1992)
Mega Man X (1995)
Mega Man X4 (1998)
Mega Man X5 (2002)
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (1997)
PCG CGC1: Duke Nukem II (1993)
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1996)
The Summaries
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998, Win9x) - 1-2 player simultaneous, 1-? player online, saves, gamepad supported. Jazz Jackrabbit 2, developed by Epic MegaGames (later to rename themselves to Epic Games) and published by Gathering of Developers, is a shooting-heavy platformer, and sequel to Epic's successful Sonic-inspired early '90s game Jazz Jackrabbit. Epic was the other major shareware publisher on the PC back in the early to mid '90s, along with Apogee. I preferred Apogee for sure, and in the Apogee/Epic war everyone HAD to choose a side, but Epic made some great games as well, including Traffic Department 2192 and Epic Pinball. Their platformers, however, are okay to good, but just don't match up to the games Apogee published such as Commander Keen and more. However, Apogee gave up on platformers after 1994 in favor of first-person shooters, while Epic made one last try at a platformer here before they too fully went over to their Unreal FPS games. I played lots of Epic shareware games, but didn't buy any full versions of their games then, so they aren't covered here. I did eventually get this game sometime in the '00s, though, and it's good, though I still have some reservations about Epic's platformer design style. This game has an impressive feature-set, with lots of levels, two characters, splitscreen and online multiplayer, a level editor, and more, though, so there is a lot here for those who get into it, and more beyond this base title in the holiday edition, expansion pack (that I don't have), and downloadable fanmade levels that you can still find on the internet.
Jazz 2 looks fairly nice. The game has cartoony graphics with plenty of variety and lots of obstacles, platform types, and enemies to deal with. The tile-based graphics do show, though, and things often look very similar throughout each stage. Somehow this game has always seemed like a little bit less than the sum of its parts to me. Now, the original Jazz was a fast-paced game where you run around as an anthropomorphic animal, this one a green rabbit, and shoot stuff with a variety of guns. Your high-speed movement was a hazard though, for while running around is fun, it's far too easy to run into spikes or enemies you never saw coming. Jazz 2 solves this problem by running at a higher resolution by default. While on an older computer that supports it this game will run at 320x240, you really want to play at at least 640x480 so you can see where you're going. At that resolution everything looks a little bit too small for my tastes, but you won't run in to nearly as many things because you couldn't see them. However, due to Jazz's high speed, running into enemies or spikes every so often is an inevitability; Jazz is often too fast for his own good. Fortunately you do have hit points, up to five at most, and they are invaluable. Health refill items are also easy to find, thankfully. Beyond his high speed and guns, Jazz can also fly with your ears and butt-stomp, and you can shoot up, though not down or at diagonals.
Within each stage, as with many of the games I've covered here so far, you run around sizable levels, collecting items for points as you work your way through each stage in this game. Levels are fairly large and are mostly about platform-jumping and occasionally shooting the mostly-not-too-threatening enemies, though there are puzzle-solving elements such as boxes to hit that make blocks or platforms appear or boxes or springs you need to shoot with specific weapons in order to get past them. There are also hidden areas hidden through seemingly solid walls, of course. Most of the trickier puzzle areas are optional sections full of gems to collect for points and weapon ammo for your up to nine different guns, along with some health and extra lives, so it's useful, but the game isn't so hard that you must find them all. Indeed, with practice you won't, as many require specific actions to access and levels are designed with numerous one-way passages, pits, and more, so you can't just run back and try again once you've passed something. That replay value may be the main challenge here, though, because the enemies barely challenge you and bosses aren't too hard once you learn their patterns. Jazz 2 may be a bit too easy, but it's mostly good. Still, I just don't find myself drawn to keep playing this game, and never have gotten even halfway through it; after a few levels I lose interest and don't go back. I don't like the jerky movement as you run then stop then run then stop; Sonic does that much better. I like Claw a bit more than JJ2. Still, this is a good game, at least. Also available on Mac. For some odd reason Epic has never re-released any of their old games on digital download platforms, but they should.
Jazz Jackrabbit 2: Holiday Hare 98 (1998, Win9x) - 1 player, 1-? player online, saves. The original Jazz Jackrabbit had two free Holiday Hare demos of sorts released, in 1994 and 1995. Both have a couple of new levels with a Christmas theme, though the gameplay is the same as in the main game. For Jazz 2 the Holiday Hare tradition returned, but it's a paid title this time, not free. It still is a glorified demo, though, as you get five Christmas-themed Jazz 2 levels for your money in this surely budget-priced jewelcase-only release. The gameplay is exactly as before, so you run, jump, and shoot through large levels, finding secrets and constantly running into enemies and obstacles because you move too fast for your own good. There may not be much content here, and it'd have been great if this was free as before, but even so it's cool that this exists, Christmas is great and too few games have official Christmas versions these days! Physical release only. This set of levels is also included in the JJ2 expansion pack JJ2: The Secret Files, I believe, which compiles everything into one release. I don't have that, though; it seems to be a bit uncommon.
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (1994, Win3.x) - 1 player, saves. Lode Runner: The Legend Returns, from Sierra, is a sequel/remake to Broderbund's classic '80s puzzle-platform game Lode Runner. I never did play the Lode Runner games much, but I can see the appeal even if it's not my favorite kind of game. This game has 150 levels of classic 2d Lode Runner single-screen gameplay to work through. In each level, you need to collect all the gold then go to the exit which then appears. The Mad Monks are trying to kill you before you get it, though, so you'll need to be clever to survive. Instead of a normal gun, however, the Lode Runner has a beam which can make a hole in the ground, destroying the ground block to your left or right below you. While this title also has some items to collect which you can use here and there, the hole-making mechanic is this is the games' central focus, as always in the Lode Runner franchise. The gameplay here is pretty much the same as in the original Lode Runner, it's just a bit better looking this time, controls well, has 10 different environments to play through, and has easy level-saving for levels you make in the included, and easy to use, level editor. Lode Runner gameplay is simple, but the game quickly gets very challenging. Trying to figure out how to get to every piece of gold without being killed can be tough, and you'll often need to figure out which blocks you need to destroy and when, while fending off the enemies by dropping them in holes as well. And if you really get into the game, its simple design makes making your own levels easy.
The game does have the usual Windows 3.1/9x issues, though, including the requisite "the game can't see my gamepad even in Win3.1 running in DOSBox", and also screen-size issues. See, this game runs in a 640x480 box, full-screen with a border around it, in whatever your screen resolution is. Window's "run this in 640x480" does not work, you'll need to manually change your screen resolution to run this in a window larger than unacceptably tiny. Win3.1 in DOSBox seemed like a good solution for that, but it crashed DOSBox after I beat a few levels and still had joystick problems, so that has issues too. This game also looks as simple as it plays; Lode Runner: The Legend Returns is not exactly a game that pushes technology, for 1994 or otherwise. And maybe some more gameplay enhancements might have been nice, more block and obstacle types, something like that. Also, you really need to like Lode Runner to like this game, and with its somewhat slow pace, single-screen mazes, and high frusration factor at times, it isn't a game for everyone. Still, this game is mostly good. Some Lode Runner game is definitely worth trying, but I don't know which one is best, since I don't play the series that much. This is probably as good as any, for classic Lode Runner gameplay but with a somewhat newer look than the originals. Also released on Playstation and Saturn in Japan. Those don't have this versions' performance issues, but did not get a US release.
The Lost Vikings - (1993, DOS) - 1 player, password save, gamepad supported. The Lost Vikings was Blizzard Entertainment's first major original title, and it's a puzzle-platformer starring some silly cartoon-style time-travelling Vikings. This game shows how a game can benefit from a strong focus on one core mechanic, of splitting the usual action-game moves across three characters you control at once. It was a brilliant idea, and Blizzard executed on the concept very well! The game was mainly developed for the Super Nintendo, but also was released on computers. I got this floppy-disk PC version of the game for Christmas in 1993 and liked it a lot, and it's still a great, great game! I recently covered the very similar Sega Genesis version of this game in my Genesis Game Opinion Summaries list, so read that for more, but this is a great game so I'll say something, at least, this time. This is the first version of the game I played, after all, and the one I have the most nostalgia for. It's also a great version of the game, as much worth playing as any.
In this game, you play as Erik, Baleog, and Olaf, the three titular Lost Vikings. Each one has two abilities, and there is very little overlap. Erik can jump and dash, Baleog use a sword and bow, and Olaf can block and float with a shield, and you must use all three in concert to get through each puzzle-heavy level. Each has only three hit points per stage, and all three must survive and reach the exit in each stage to move on. The expertly-designed stages seem perfectly crafted for each character's strengths and weaknesses, and I love trying to figure out what to do in each stage, in what order. There are many obstacles to tackle, and while hitting switches is a constant and your basic actions stay the same, how you get to those switches, and the obstacles along the way, do change from each area to the next. You'll constantly need to think, and carefully explore each stage, to get through this game. While you will fight many enemies, this is a puzzle game first, action game second. You are given a continue password on each stage and have infinite tries at each level, so you won't need to replay much when you do die.
Your basic actions are each characters' two abilities plus a swap key to change between characters, but each Viking can also carry up to four items, including healing items, keys, and more. You can swap items between characters when they are close enough to eachother. The controls work well, but this is an 8-button SNES game ported to 4-button PC gamepads, so some functions are on the keyboard. You can move, use both abilities, use items, and activate switches on the pad, but switching characters, selecting items other than the selected one, moving items from one character to another, and pausing to restart the level are on the keyboard. It works, but it would be nice to have the character-switch keys on the pad as you do use those a lot. Ah well. Visually, The Lost Vikings is a nice-looking game comparable to its SNES counterpart. Content-wise this is a straight port of that game, and that's fine. The later Genesis version adds several exclusive levels and a multiplayer mode, but you won't find those here, understandably; the controls would be a big problem with multiple people on one system, and this game released before co-op online play was a common option. The sprite-art is all fantastic, as usual from Blizzard, and backgrounds are reasonably varied, as you travel through the various time periods in the game. I love the silly enemies and animations you'll see throughout this game.
The music is also great and has support for Soundblasters and more, though as a kid I never heard most of it, since our computer only had a PC Speaker and with that there's only an intro tune, then silence and sound effects in the levels. But it is a very good soundtrack, with a memorable main theme. Blizzard soundtracks would get even greater than this later on, but this one's great. The writing is funny as well, as the three heroes have amusing conversations throught their adventure. There also are other characters to talk to, and it's all silly stuff. And The Lost Vikings is an outstanding game all around. The game looks and sounds good, plays great, and has variety and depth. The puzzles are interesting and the game is challenging but rewarding to play. The three-characters system is fantastic, and The Lost Vikings benefits from its strong focus on its core mechanic. This is how you do his genre right, and I'm not sure if any game like it since has topped this great classic. Also available on the SNES, Amiga, Genesis, and Game Boy Advance. The Genesis version has slightly worse graphics, but four exclusive levels and an exclusive 3-player co-op mode. Blizzard released this version of the game for free for digital download on their website.
Interplay 15th Anniversary: Norse by Norsewest: The Return of the Lost Vikings (1997, Win9x) - 1 player, password save. Norse by Norsewest is the sequel to the great classic above. As with the first one, it is a 2d puzzle-platformer, and it originates from Blizzard's SNES game The Lost Vikings 2, though this version is based on the enhanced Playstation/Saturn edition which adds pre-rendered CGI cutscenes, voice acting for all ingame dialogue, and prerendered graphics, to the 4th-gen original's core gameplay, writing, and level designs. The original SNES version was apparently completed in 1995 and runs in an enhanced version of the original games' engine, but for some odd reason Interplay decided to not release it until Beam's 5th-gen versions had been completed, so all versions released in early 1997. The version of the game I have came in the Interplay 15th Anniversary Anthology, a pretty fantastic retail collection of 15 Interplay games released around the year 2000 that I got cheap sometime after that, which is why the game title is as it is. And I want to mention this first: unfortunately, while the regular retail version of Norse by Norsewest includes both DOS and Windows 9x versions of the game, this Anthology release removes the DOS version and contains only the Windows port... which, of course, has some big problems, like all these Win9x platformers do -- fullscreen doesn't work at all and you can only play in a 640x480 window at most, and you need to turn on 256 color mode and sometimes the colors mess up. And worse, sadly, both this Win9x release and apparently even the DOS version have absolutely no gamepad support, inexplicably; that's a somewhat unforgivable thing to leave out! You'll need key-to-joy mapping software to enjoy this game. And why does this Playstation conversion again have password-only saving, but it's worse now as this time it doesn't even let you use the keyboard keys to select letters, so you have to flip through with the arrows? The first game doesn't have this limitation. Thankfully the keyboard controls are reconfigurable, unlike some games mentioned here, so that's good at least.
Unfortunately, though, that is far from the biggest issue here. Norse by Norsewest probably is a good game, but compared to its all-time-great predecessor it is somewhat disappointing. The game can be fun and amusing, but it does not live up to its great predecessor, either in gameplay or technically. Basic gameplay here is similar to before, so this is a somewhat slow-paced puzzle-platformer, often heavier on the 'puzzle' side of things than the 'platformer' part. You have many situations to get past, and hav eto figure out how to get through each stage, get the necessary items, or what have you. The biggest issue I have with this game is, however, that Blizzard decided to add more characters and abilities, but in so doing they messed up the brilliant purity of the original. While The Lost Vikings excelled in setting up puzzles so that each character had to do one specific thing, here multiple characters can do multiple things. First, each of the orginal three Vikings returns, but with a new ability or two: Baleog now has a grappling hook to swing over pits, Olaf can fart to jump a little, and Erik can double-jump with some jet-boots. There are two new characters, a werewolf and a little dragon, and both can both jump and attack. So, now you have multiple ways to jump, multiple ways to attack, and more. You only have three characters per stage though, and my favorites are the levels with just the three core Vikings. There are still elements that only one character can get past, so this still is a puzzle game, but by adding lots of abilities, they significantly degraded the genius of the original. This game is a good object lesson in the fact that adding more content to a game is not necessarily better, and indeed sometimes is worse. This game is reasonably challenging and fun, but the focused gameplay of the original is superior to this.
Visually, this game looks decently nice, though the prerendered style has aged. I prefer the simpler, hand-drawn look of the original game overall, and would someday like to get the SNES version of this one, which reuses a lot of graphics from its predecessor. The voice-acting and CGI intro cutscene are amusing, though, and the humor at least remains intact from the first game. This is again a pretty funny game at times, and some jokes from this have stuck with me, such as the "do not touch, not doughnuts!" line from the intro. Whoops... :p Just like its predecessor, NWN is a very funny game. The humor may be my favorite thing about this game, in fact. And even if Norse by Norsewest is a disappointment, it still is a good game. NWN is no TLV, not even close, but it's still a fun, above-average platform-action game, with more action than the first game but still plenty of tricky puzzles and amusing situations throughout. Also available on the SNES (as The Lost Vikings 2; US only), Playstation, and Saturn. The PS1 or Saturn versions are probably the best overall, they don't have the issues this release does.
Mega Man 3 (1992, DOS) - 1 player, gamepad supported. Mega Man 3 for the PC, developed by Rozner Labs and published by Hi Tech Expressions, is an original PC game that uses Capcom's Mega Man character and license, but has no connection to Capcom beyond that. This is the second and final PC-only Mega Man game, following the first Mega Man; there is no "2" because this game released after NES MM3, so they used the name and cover art of the most recent release. This game is, in modern terms, essentially an indie game that got a retail release and a reskin using a very popular character -- Rozner Labs was a team of two American brothers, and Hi Tech Expressions a developer who published exclusively licensed games, most of them terrible. I got this game in '92 or '93 because I'd liked the Mega Man games on the NES quite a lot, wanted to play one on a platform I had, and only had a PC at the time. And ever since, I have had mixed feelings for this game. On the one hand, as a Mega Man game it isn't any good. While this is still a side-scrolling platform action game where you play as the blue robot Mega Man, with somewhat familiar controls and gameplay though this game has some unique quirks, it is very different from any other Mega Man game. The levels here are mazes, not linear paths, you actually swim around in water instead of sticking to the bottom as you do in any Capcom Mega Man game, and the controls and gameplay are a bit clunky and unpolished. However, this is not a bad game. I have thought it's bad at times, but when I last replayed it several years ago, I realized that no, MM3 for the PC is okay. This is an alright Western-style platformer with large, mazelike levels to explore and a moderate amount of challenge, though not too much. The mazelike levels are a huge change from what you expect from Mega Man, but they can be fun to explore. The bosses in this game are quite easy, but the levels are trickier. The game has decent controls, and you jump and shoot as expected. There is gamepad support, though you need the keyboard to pause to switch weapons, and the keyboard controls are not configurable if you use them; get used to J for jump and space to fire. The game also has six bosses, plus a boss stage at the end after you beat the first six. As in the console Mega Man games, you can play the six levels in any order. However, there is no saving in this game, sadly, so you have to beat the game in one sitting; this is why I never beat it as a kid, only much later. It does have fun gameplay and reasonably solid level designs, though.
Visually, the game looks alright, though this Mega Man is not quite Capcom's. The game runs in CGA or EGA, and the environments look nice and sprites are decent-looking. The six bosses and final boss are each unique, though they to take design ideas from past NES Mega Man bosses. Five of the six bosses have the same exact attack pattern of just jumping back and forth and shooting at you, though. This game has an environmental theme, as fitting with the times given the popularity of shows like Captain Planet, and apparently originally was going to be a game called Eco Man, before the Rozners were offered the Mega Man license again, since one of them had made the first DOS Mega Man game. So, you're Mega Man, exploring locations such as oil rigs and slimy sewers. Some popular Mega Man enemies appear, but others are original to this game, such as ubiqutous guys in yellow hazardous-materials suits. Yeah. I like the swimming though, and have always thought that it'd be kind of nice if Capcom had released some main-series Mega Man games where you can actually swim around like you can here. One water level's mazelike design can be annoying due to the fans pushing you into spikes, but still, it's a fun stage. However, there is only PC Speaker sound effects with no music; by '92 I would have thought a retail title would have soundblaster support, even most shareware games did by then. Console Mega Man games were known for their great soundtracks, but there's none of that here. Ah well. Overall, though, this game is alright. MM3 for the PC is a decent platformer with okay graphics, controls, and levels, and I do like it. If you forget the "Mega Man" part and just look at this game as a PC platformer, it's a fun little above-average game for platformer fans, and is well worth a try. Physical only.
Mega Man X (1995, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Mega Man X, developed again by Rozner Labs but published by Capcom this time, is, unlike its predecessor, a port of the SNES classic Mega Man X. After licensing out ports of their PC games before, in 1995 Capcom decided to publish some themselves, and the first two were Mega Man X and Super Street Fighter II. Both were available on their own, or bundled with the 6-button Capcom PC Fighter 6 gamepad. I got the gamepad-bundle version of this game, and I do still have that pad. Mega Man X, from 1993, is a great classic, Capcom's first SNES Mega Man game and a very good side-scrolling action platformer. As with the original series you play as Mega Man, running, jumping, and shooting his way through hordes of enemy robots, but this game is set some time after the original series. Mega Man is the new, cooler "X" version now, fighting evil reploids led by Dr. Sigma, instead of Wily. Unlike the NES games you start out in an intro level here, before moving to a standard Mega Man level select screen with eight stages to choose from. Of course, you need to learn (or look up) the best order to play the stages in, if you want to succeed, because you get a power from each enemy, and each enemy is weak to one of the others'. The controls and level designs are fantastic as always, and the well-polished action feels really good. All of the bosses in this game have memorable stages and character designs, as well. X brings in one big gameplay change versus the original series, though: you can grab on walls and slide down or jump off of them, and also can dash once you get the easy-to-find dash-boots powerup. These changes adds a lot to the game, and the levels really make use of them as well. Still, though this game is great, I have always liked the NES and GB Mega Man games the most, over X. Still, with good to great graphics, music, gameplay, and level designs, this game is really good too. In the '90s, the Mega Man series was one of the best.
This is a fairly faithful port of Mega Man X as well. Everything except for the robot ride armor is here, and the MIDI rendition of the soundtrack is pretty good. I guess it's too bad robot ride armor was removed, but they are a very minor part of this game anyway, so I don't miss them much. The team had to recreate the game mostly from scratch, so it's impressive it is as good as it is. The game looks good and plays great, but it is true that the graphics aren't quite at the level of what PC games could do by 1995; it is a SNES port after all. It is odd though that while the game came with a 6-button gameport gamepad, the game only supports four buttons so you need to have either pause or quick-weapon-switch on the keyboard. You can configure the controls, fortunately. It's probably best to have pause on the pad and pause to switch, classic Mega Man-style. The gamepad, called the Capcom PC Fighter 6, is interesting in that the 5th and 6th buttons actually are a third axis, as DOS only supports 4 buttons, but while SSFII supports all six buttons this doesn't. But when I got this game back in 1995, I was mostly just excited to finally be able to play a real Mega Man game on the PC, and a great one at that! And the other change from the SNES is an improvement -- instead of password save as you needed there, in this version you save to save files instead. There can be up to 15 saves at once, which is plenty. The saves don't save anything more than the passwords did, so you still need to play the whole final section of the game in one try, but still, it is a nice addition. This is a tough game, particularly in that final stretch, so it's unfortunate that you need to beat all of the final levels in one sitting; you really should be able to save between them as you can before! Because of that I've never beaten Mega Man X, though I have gotten to the final boss. Almost everything else about this game is great, though. For one last criticism, there is no new content here, so while this is a CD game, the game is under 6 megabytes large and most of the disc is empty. A CD soundtrack or something might have been nice, but no, it's just a straight port. You don't need the disc in to play, either.
Still, overall Mega Man X is a very good game. It looks good, has a lot of variety between its stages, has some inventive boss concepts each based on a different animal, and plays really well. This game is a classic, and this PC version is very nearly as good as the SNES original. The best classic MM games may be even better, but this game still holds up very well, on the PC or otherwise. SNES port. The SNES version is easier to find to day and has both physical and digital re-releases (on Wii and Wii U Virtual Console and in the Mega Man X Collection for PS2 and Gamecube), but this PC version is a physical-only release. A large part of this game was ported in altered form to the Game Boy/GB Color in the game Mega Man Xtreme. There is also a MMX remake on the PSP titled Mega Man Maverick Hunter X; I haven't played it, but it has 2.5d graphics and is supposed to be solid. And last there is an apparently bad iOS version with redone graphics. For a little more on this game and PC Mega Man 3, see the Rozners' interview in John Szczepeniak's "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, Vol. I".
Mega Man X4 (1998, Win9x, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Mega Man X4 for the PC is a port of Capcom's 1997 PS1/Saturn game of the same name, the fourth game in the the Mega Man X series. This was Capcom's second 5th-gen 2d Mega Man game after Mega Man 8 (PS1/Saturn), and it's a big improvement over that game in every way other than the voice acting. X4 is a true classic, a great-looking 2d game with very good gameplay and really nice spritework and backgrounds. I really liked theis in the '90s, and when I saw this game for cheap sometime in the later '90s, I got it. I remember seeing this, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and Mega Man X3 for under $10 each, but could only afford two of them, so I got this and the fantastic puzzle game classic Puzzle Fighter. I've still never played the PC version of X3... too bad. (Oh, there is no PC port of X2; it went from X to X3.) But after looking at the boxes this one was newer and had better graphics than X3, so I got X4 over X3. Well, that may not be the best reasoning, but I picked well, because Mega Man X4 is fantastic and my favorite game in the Mega Man X series. This is also the only MMX game I've actually beaten, sadly enough, though I am glad to have finished this one. Mega Man X4 was great then, and still is great now! In addition to the great graphics, art design, great difficulty balance that is not too hard or too easy, and gameplay, the level designs are inventive and varied and the game controls very well also. The game also lets you play the whole game as either Mega Man or Zero, for the first time in the series. Zero's fun to play as. The animated cutscenes and charmingly terrible voice acting are also good stuff, though I don't care for the story; it's dark as in all MMX games, but this goes farther than most into the realm of the depressing. Everything else about the game is great, though, and the port is even fantastic! This PC version of MMX4 is pretty much a perfect port of the PS1 version of the game, but with almost no load times, which is great. I was quite happy to find that the game runs great on my newer computer, too, as it runs with no issues. It's even the only Windows 9x or 3.1 game on this list so far that actually natively works with gamepads on my newer computer! That's pretty awesome. You can redefine the controls, too, thankfully, though you can only use the first 8 gamepad buttons for the games' 8 functions so pause will be on some random face or shoulder button, probably. Oh well, that's a very minor limitation.
Visually, X4 is a big step up from X3. The graphical overhaul the series got in this title still looks impressive and stylish, and X4 really is Mega Man X at its best. Sure, this is a low-resolution game for a 1998 PC game, but since it is a console port that is understandable, and I think the great art design and visuals stand out even if it's not nearly as sharp-looking as some contemporary PC games like Claw; it more than makes up for that with its better art design and gameplay. Every level looks and feels quite different, and the music is good as usual in the Mega Man series, even if the NES Mega Man soundtracks are my favorites. The game is nicely animated too, as your character and the enemies all animate as they move. And beyond the graphics, the gameplay is just as good. As in past MMX games, you can run, shoot, and dash, but this game adds a limited hover that you get if you find the fairly easy-to-find powerup item. The controls are very responsive and are great once you get used to them, though dash-jumping can take some practice to get right. I highly recommend putting the dash button on a shoulder button (and use a gamepad!), so you can more easily use dash, jump, and shoot at the same time. Levels and enemy patterns are crafted around dashing, and you will need to master the dash to get through this game. As usual in the X series, you have an intro level, eight robot masters to beat each with a special weapon you get from beating them, and then some boss levels at the end. Thankfully, this time you can save in between levels of the boss section, so you don't need to play it all in one sitting like you did in X1 above. That's a great improvement and surely helped me finish this one. The save system is clearly console-based, as you have two blocks of three save files to choose from, as if you're selecting one of the PS1's two memory cards, but it works.
The levels here are built off of past Mega Man games, as always in this iterative series, but they're probably the best in the X series. X5 would build on this games' look and design concepts, but it does not manage to improve on them. From the lava level with its rocks everywhere to the cyber-level with teleporters and warping enemies to the lush jungle, the stages are as fun to play through as they are to look at. Each level is broken up into two parts, and if you get a game over in part two and continue from there you only need to redo the second part, which is very nice. If you quit to the menu you will have to redo the whole stage, though. Now, Mega Man games usually either have harder levels, or harder bosses. This one probably has tougher bosses than levels, though with the correct weapon for each boss, if you experiment enough or look up the best route online, it gets easier. Some Mega Man games are too hard, but this ones' challenge is just right. There is also an Easy mode available, for people who find Normal too tough. For skilled players who find it too easy as gun-equipped Mega Man, though, there's always also sword-weilding Zero, the other playable character. Zero's pretty cool, but his very limited ranged options adds to the challenge. I really like that both are playable here, with a full story. But overall, Mega Man X4 is much more than "just right"; it is truly great, one of the all-time best 2d platformers. In graphics, sound, gameplay, levels, bosses, and more, Mega Man X4 is the pinnacle of its series... and the PC port is even fantastic! Get this game for sure for some system, and this one is as good a choice as any. Playstation port, also available on Saturn. The PS1 version is available on other platforms, such as the PS2/GC Mega Man X Collection. Physical only.
Mega Man X5 (2002, Win9x/2000 or above) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. The last of the PC Mega Man games released in the US on store shelves, Mega Man X5 released four years after its predecessor. After loving X4 I really wanted another game like it, but it would be years until Capcom finally released more 2d Mega Man X with this game and X6, both 2001 releases on the PS1. More than a year later, this PC port released in 2002, and I bought it soon after release. Mega Man X5 was originally intended to be the last Mega Man X game, though that was not to be. This is a great game, but in most ways it is a downgrade from the incredible Mega Man X4. The game is a lot better than the highly disappointing X6 and X7, but it's not quite X4, either. So, as usual in this series, Mega Man X5 is very, very much like the last game, just with new levels and lower production values. Expect more nice-looking 2d artwork, for a port of a low-rez PS1 game, more solidly-designed platform-action levels to blast through, and more tough boss fights. Versus its predecessor, a few things have changed. First, you can now crouch and shoot while crouching, but your bullets cannot pass through walls, unlike all previous Mega Man games. There are also many ropes to grab on to in the game. Levels make use of these things, and it does mix things up a bit from the Mega Man usual, though it's mostly similar to before. There are also three difficulty levels now, including a new harder option as well as easy and normal. The game also has a time limit, however, and that is annoying, though it's not as bad as in some games as it's not a timer so much as a limit to the number of levels you can play before beating all 8 Robot Masters. Thanks to Sigma, a giant space colony is going to crash into the earth and somehow kill all life on the planet in 16 hours, and a virus is turning almost all reploids into mavericks -- that is, making them evil. So, X and Zero have to go around killing not-actually-evil reploids, like usual in this series, for the usual overdose of overdone depressing writing. The story in this game feels partially copied out of X4 and partially new, but it's not particularly good. There are no animated cutscenes and no voice acting this time, though, only static images and text. Budget cuts indeed. The in-level conversations can be annoying and pointless, too. There are three endings, though, which is nice.
Now, the formulaic design here is fine, as the Mega Man series has always had one game create a formula, then its sequels make new experiences within that formula. And as usual, this game is based on a great formula! However, it is impossible to ignore that X5's levels, bosses, and design here aren't quite at X4's level. The box is smaller too, as the game has a smallish box was the unfortunate trend in the '00s, versus X1, X3, and X4 PC's big boxes. They thought that it would be a good idea to have a time limit in this game, too: the story is that a space station is going to crash into the Earth, unless Mega Man can stop it in time, so you have a limited number of tries until it crashes. Fortunately stopping the space station is not that hard, and if you beat all eight robot masters you can end the timer, so this is no Prince of Persia kind of situation, but still, it wasn't a great idea. I do like that now you have alternate robot suits to switch to right from the beginning though, that's cool. Upgrades for your suit have been a part of the MMX series since the beginning, but X5 lets you play as regular X, Falcon suit X, or Zero right from the start, and you can choose differently in each mission. I like this change, versus having to play the whole game as X or Zero as it is in X4. You can get more suits as well, if you collect the hidden parts for them. The Falcon suit's hover is great, but the unlockable suits each have a very handy power s well. But once yo uget into a stage, the issues return. This game is very good and has some fun stages, but they sometimes feel rehashed from the last game. Still, when I got this game back in '02 I was liking it, and beat the eight Robot Masters. There are some interesting boss fights here, such as the one against the spider-like guy; that's a cool fight. However, I've never gotten past the first of the final set of levels at the end, as its boss, the Black Demon, is absurdly hard unless you use some super-cheap strategies! That boss is a real pain. This game is the most forgiving yet for continues, as if you get game over and continue at a boss you'll continue right before the boss, crazily enough, but that only helps when the bosses are actually beatable... stupid Black Demon.
The PC port of this game is solid, that bug that requires a patch aside, and teh game looks and runs about the same as its predecessor. For 2002 this is definitely a dated-looking game, but it looks fine. The working joystick support is great as well. And the save system is a little bit cleaned up, too -- you have a normal save menu, instead of the two 'boxes' of three files. Overall, Mega Man X5 plays great, looks nice considering it's a PS1 port, and has good classic 2d art and animation. However, the stages are not as memorable as those in X4, the cheaper presentation hurts, and the gameplay tweaks don't all work; I wish you could still shoot through walls, and I never like game-wide timers. The game also may have bugs even after the patch, unlike its predecessor, though they are rare. Still, this is a good game based on a strong foundation, and even if it's a bit 'average' for a Mega Man game, that still leaves it as better than most games in this genre. Mega Man X5 is a pretty good game, but not an essential one. This game is a followup to a great classic, and Mega Man fans should play it because it provides more fun platform-action gameplay to work through. This game has some issues, but it is still mostly good, something that can't be said about the next two Mega Man X games... but I don't have those for PC, so those will be for another time. I did cover X6 in my PS1 summaries list years ago, though; it's kind of bad. Play X4 and X5 instead. This is a Playstation port. The PS1 version is available on other platforms, such as the PS2/GC Mega Man X Collection. As a note, there are PC versions of Mega Mans X6, X7, and X8, but none have US releases; X6 and X7 are Asia-only, and X8 is Asia & Europe only. No PC Mega Man games have digital re-releases.
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (1997, Win9x) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is the first game in what would become a popular, lasting series of very strange platformer-ish games. This first Oddworld game is a slow-paced 2d puzzle-platformer with prerendered graphics and Prince of Persia-style controls, but with added complexity. Unlike Blackthorne, this game has a lot more stealth and much less shooting. In fact, your character, Abe the Mudokon, cannot attack at all, only avoid enemies. You can talk to other characters of your species, Mudokons, though, and possess enemies so long as they aren't on the same plane as you. You can then have enemies attack other enemies or kill themselves, or tell Mudokons to follow you or wait, as you try to get them to points where you can save them. As in many games in this subgenre, each area is a single screen, and you move between screens from edges or in doors. PoP, Blackthorne, and others work this same way. Unlike those games, though, this game has a larger, inter-connected world, instead of set levels. You do have infinite lives from the last checkpoints, and checkpoints are frequent, but you will often have to redo multiple screens after each death. The difficulty level is high, though, so you'll need all of those infinite lives if you want any chance of getting through here. Learning the Gamespeak system, the eight phrases Abe can say to other Mudokons, is also key. Puzzles quickly get complex and very tough, but the screen-by-screen nature of the game means that many things, such as enemies, are confined to each screen. Enemies will reset to their default state as soon as you leave a screen, though unfortunately if other Mudokons die they will stay dead until you die and restart the area. Figuring out what to do can be tricky but rewarding.
There are two big problems here, though. First, I don't like the comedy or humor much, and second, I like the gameplay even less. For the former, this game has a dark comedic tone. Abe is a worker trying to escape from a massive factory run by evil guys who want to turn Mudokons into their next food source. You can just escape, but there are also a lot of other Mudokons to try to rescue along the way. It tries to be funny, but while it can be amusing at times, I don't particularly care for its comedic style, most of the time; too much off-putitng dark comedy and fart jokes, not enough stuff that actually makes me want to keep playing. The gameplay sure doesn't help, either; I've never gotten much of anywhere in this game, and I doubt I ever will. I know this game is a popular classic, and I can see why, but I don't care for it. The game does look nice for the time, though. This game has CGI-rendered cutscenes with voice acting, and pre-rendered ingame graphics. It looks nice, though it is a bit pixelated and the bland factory backdround is somewhat bland. The audio work is good as well. The game also runs well even on a newer machine, and even recognizes my gamepad! That makes three Win9x games in a row with functioning gamepad support... amazing. You'll really want a pad for this game, too, as it is a console port; the game was also released on the Playstation. My bigger issue is with the controls and gameplay, though. As with all PoP-style games, the controls are clumsy and slow, you move from space to space instead of having free movement, and there are more commands to memorize than any platformer really needs. You'll need to execute them all with perfect timing to survive, too, which quickly gets very difficult. While trying to figure out each puzzle, which switches to hit, which guys to possess, and such, can be interesting, it also can be frustrating. You need to have a high tolerance for repetition and dealing with PoP-style games' usual frustrating controls, but worse here in this game with like 20 or more different things you can do, and I quickly lose patience with the game and quit. This isn't a bad game, I just don't find it fun. If I must play a PoP-style game, give me the more straightforward Blackthorne over this stealth and puzzle-focused title. I much prefer standard platformers over any of these, though. Still, for those who do like this kind of game, the game does look nice, creates an interesting world, and has plenty of challenging, interesting puzzles to figure out and get past. I can see why some people love this game, and people who like this kind of game might want to check the game out, but I can't recommend it, myself. Playstation port. There is also a remake, Oddworld: Big 'n' Tasty, available digitally only for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, and PS Vita. I haven't played it.
PCG CGC1: Duke Nukem II (1993, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Duke Nukem II, the second game in this later-to-be-infamous series, is a pretty good side-scrolling platform-action game. This is a shooting-heavy game where you wander around sizable levels, collecting stuff and shooting lots of aliens as you try to find the key that will let you proceed to the next stage. The last level in each of the four eight-level episodes is a boss fight. The original Duke Nukem had plenty of shooting and a bit of attitude, but this game ups that significantly, though it is not the oversexed gorefest of Duke 3D; there is violence here, but it's 16-bit-style violence, not Duke 3D stuff. Duke is now a narcisstic egomaniac, though, who in the intro is hawking his book "Why I'm So Great" on some TV talkshow, when he is abducted by aliens planning to take over the world, starting with Duke. Naturally, you break out of alien prison immediately and start wiping them out to save the earth. My parents thought Duke Nukem sounded too violent so I wasn't allowed to play either of the original Duke games as a kid, though I remember trying the first one once and thinking not too much of it. I eventually got this second game in PC Gamer's Classic Game Collection Vol. 1 disc, included on the disc that cmae with a summer 2000 issue of the magazine. Duke II is similar to the first Duke game, but this game has much better graphics and sound and better, smoother gameplay, so I'm glad they included this one over the original. Duke II has VGA graphics, unlike its EGA predecessor, and Soundblaster sound and music support as well. The art design is solid, though not amazing, and the music is good.
This is a simple game, and most of the time you just run, shoot, and jump. The controls are okay, but not as smooth as a Mega Man X is, or such. The scrolling is also a bit jerky; it's not nearly as bad as the first Duke game is, but it is worse than, say, Commander Keen. You have health bar in this game and can take nine hits. You'll need it. Some powerups refill health. However, in a Gauntlet-like touch, shooting food items destroys them for points instead of a health refill, so watch out! You do have infinite lives from the beginning of the current level, so there is no real game over here, but still health is valuable and the game does get tricky eventually. This isn't a really hard game, but it has some parts that are a decent challenge. You also get several different weapons, but unfortunately you cannot switch between them during play. Instead, the stronger weapons are just time-limited or ammo-limited powerups, after which you go back to the regular basic gun. I really wish you could switch weapons to save ammo for those, it'd have been great. As for the level layouts, as with many Western platformers of the era, this game has large levels full of enemies to kill and things to collect for points. Exploration is required, as the key and keycard items you will need to get past the laser gates at the end of each stage are usualy hidden off in some corner of the level. Fortunately dead enemies do not respawn, which is great. You will take hits due to the short draw distance sometimes, though; Duke's sprite is large, so you can't always see as far as you might like around you. You'll need good reflexes to avoid damage sometimes. I do like the variety of enemies, though, each of which has their own attack patterns. Enemies do not just charge blindly at you in this game; some crawl on the ground then jump at you and cling to you, some jump between floor and ceiling, others shoot at you, and more. Exploring the levels can be fun, so long as you don't miss that keycard's hiding spot. There are also secret areas to try to find. You can also save at any time, though it will pick up from the beginning of the current level, I believe. Now, this is a shareware game, which means that the first episode is available free, and the other three come with the registered version. Shareware games often let you play the episodes in any order, and this one is no exception, though I'd always play them in order.
Overall, Duke Nukem 2 is a decently fun game. It looks alright and sounds good, plays fairly well, has an amusing sense of humor, and has a good amount of content. The levels are interesting to explore and there are various settings to see as you progress. I like the enemy variety as well. I do dislike the jerky scrolling, sometimes nearly-unavoidable hits, and the sometimes too-well-hidden keycard locations, though. And while Duke II is good for a PC sidescrolling shooter/platformer, it doesn't match up to greats like the three Mega Man X games above. Still, this is a pretty fun little game well worth checking out if you like action-platformers. It's well designed and fun. Available both digitally and in retail. Also available in an Apogee Anthology pack, digitally. The sharware episode is free, demo-style, so play that to check the game out. This game is PC-only, but Duke Nukem for the Game Boy Color took a lot of inspiration from this title, as immediately becomes obvious if you play it. That game's good fun too, far better than the awful GBC Commander Keen game!
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1996, Win3.x) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is an okay platformer from Activision that they seem to have really liked, because they ported it to numerous platforms in the mid '90s; this PC version is from '96, but the SNES/Genesis originals released in '94. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a very nicely-animated platform adventure which can be fun to play. You are Pitfall Harry Jr., exploring Central American jungles and Mayan ruins in a search for treasures you need to save your famous father, the Harry from the original Pitfall, from a curse. This game has 14 main levels, plus 3 bonus levels and the original Atari 2600 game hidden on the main menu via a cheatcode, so there's a decent amount of game here but not too much; this is no Earthworm Jim, it's more average in challenge, though bosses can be tricky. The console versions of this game didn't have saving, so it is playable in one sitting, but this PC release is better, and just like Activision's other platformer from this time, Earthworm Jim for Windows 95, has a level-select menu that unlocks as you complete stages. This game doesn't install, it runs straight off the CD, but it will make a file for your options and level-select progress. Unfortunately, as with that game, it has issues on a modern OS -- it won't detect my gamepad, fullscreen is 320x240 only so it won't work (remember, Windows Vista and better is 640x480 minimum), and it crashes if I turn on the sound effects, too, though the music works at least. That last one's an odd one. But when running on my Win9x computer or virtual machine this game will run fine, and it's the best version of this game so it is worth the hassle if you like the game.
Gameplay in Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure consists of running around collecting stuff while you try to figure out where to go in each stage. You can whip, Indiana Jones-style, jump, and throw rocks at enemies. Thanks to your highly-animated sprite, your movements are a bit restricted, you don't have totally free movement. You do have a health bar this time, though, so you can take some hits, but you will thanks to the controls and often cheap enemy locations. Still, it is mostly fun once you get used to how the game plays. Levels are large and complex, but there is always a main path to follow, once you find it. Therea re many side areas to look at and the main path can be obscored, though, so you'll be bumping around until you figure out the path forwards. Levels are loaded with ropes to swing on or climb, vines to ride down, pitfalls to avoid, and lots of enemies trying to hurt you. One big issue with this game, though, is that you can't always tell what you can stand on or walk through and what you can't, so you'll constantly be bumping into walls or going through things that look like platforms. With some memorization you get used to it, but it can be annoying sometimes. On the other hand, though, the graphics are great, with very detailed backgrounds that even have some animation in them. This is a very nice-looking game, for a mid '90s 2d platformer that originated on 4th-gen consoles. Of the console versions only the Jaguar and SNES versions also have 256-color graphics like this one, but neither of those have CD audio as well, and the music is quite good and fits the setting well, I like it over what I've heard of the chiptune versions. There are also regular checkpoints, and you have three continues per game. This was a much stricter limit on the consoles which didn't have saving than it is here, but you still do need to replay the current stage if you run out of continues.
So, the game can be fun, but before playing for this list I'd always gotten frustrated in the first level by the somewhat restrictive controls and confusing 'is that a wall/platform or not' issues. However, I gave it another try for this, on my WinME machine this time where it runs great, and I liked the game a lot more than I expected to. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure does have some game-design issues, but running around looking at the environments and figuring out your way through each stage is fun. Overall this is an above-average game which is worth a try, though I would recommend trying it before buying, it's not for everyone. Also available on the SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Jaguar, and Game Boy Advance. The Genesis version is available on the Wii Virtual Console, digitally. However, of all those ports, this is the only one with all the levels (some versions have some stages removed), saving, CD audio, AND 256-color graphics, so this PC release is the best version.
Another 12 games now. This update took a lot longer than I was hoping, so I may need to either reduce the number of games per update or just accept not-weekly updates, and I'd rather not do the latter so... we'll see. But I would like to post weekly or so. (I could try to write less about each game again, as I did in some of the early summaries threads, but... that seems unlikely, at least for these physical ones. :p)
Also, a week or two ago during a Steam sale I got 8 more platformers, so I'll have more than that initial list to cover in the digital-downloads category. But with this update, we continue with games I own on physical media.
Table of Contents for This Update
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Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998)
Jazz Jackrabbit 2: Holiday Hare 98 (1998)
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (1994)
The Lost Vikings - Puzzle-Platformer (2D) (1993)
Interplay 15th: Norse by Norsewest: The Return of the Lost Vikings (1997)
Mega Man 3 (1992)
Mega Man X (1995)
Mega Man X4 (1998)
Mega Man X5 (2002)
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (1997)
PCG CGC1: Duke Nukem II (1993)
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1996)
The Summaries
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998, Win9x) - 1-2 player simultaneous, 1-? player online, saves, gamepad supported. Jazz Jackrabbit 2, developed by Epic MegaGames (later to rename themselves to Epic Games) and published by Gathering of Developers, is a shooting-heavy platformer, and sequel to Epic's successful Sonic-inspired early '90s game Jazz Jackrabbit. Epic was the other major shareware publisher on the PC back in the early to mid '90s, along with Apogee. I preferred Apogee for sure, and in the Apogee/Epic war everyone HAD to choose a side, but Epic made some great games as well, including Traffic Department 2192 and Epic Pinball. Their platformers, however, are okay to good, but just don't match up to the games Apogee published such as Commander Keen and more. However, Apogee gave up on platformers after 1994 in favor of first-person shooters, while Epic made one last try at a platformer here before they too fully went over to their Unreal FPS games. I played lots of Epic shareware games, but didn't buy any full versions of their games then, so they aren't covered here. I did eventually get this game sometime in the '00s, though, and it's good, though I still have some reservations about Epic's platformer design style. This game has an impressive feature-set, with lots of levels, two characters, splitscreen and online multiplayer, a level editor, and more, though, so there is a lot here for those who get into it, and more beyond this base title in the holiday edition, expansion pack (that I don't have), and downloadable fanmade levels that you can still find on the internet.
Jazz 2 looks fairly nice. The game has cartoony graphics with plenty of variety and lots of obstacles, platform types, and enemies to deal with. The tile-based graphics do show, though, and things often look very similar throughout each stage. Somehow this game has always seemed like a little bit less than the sum of its parts to me. Now, the original Jazz was a fast-paced game where you run around as an anthropomorphic animal, this one a green rabbit, and shoot stuff with a variety of guns. Your high-speed movement was a hazard though, for while running around is fun, it's far too easy to run into spikes or enemies you never saw coming. Jazz 2 solves this problem by running at a higher resolution by default. While on an older computer that supports it this game will run at 320x240, you really want to play at at least 640x480 so you can see where you're going. At that resolution everything looks a little bit too small for my tastes, but you won't run in to nearly as many things because you couldn't see them. However, due to Jazz's high speed, running into enemies or spikes every so often is an inevitability; Jazz is often too fast for his own good. Fortunately you do have hit points, up to five at most, and they are invaluable. Health refill items are also easy to find, thankfully. Beyond his high speed and guns, Jazz can also fly with your ears and butt-stomp, and you can shoot up, though not down or at diagonals.
Within each stage, as with many of the games I've covered here so far, you run around sizable levels, collecting items for points as you work your way through each stage in this game. Levels are fairly large and are mostly about platform-jumping and occasionally shooting the mostly-not-too-threatening enemies, though there are puzzle-solving elements such as boxes to hit that make blocks or platforms appear or boxes or springs you need to shoot with specific weapons in order to get past them. There are also hidden areas hidden through seemingly solid walls, of course. Most of the trickier puzzle areas are optional sections full of gems to collect for points and weapon ammo for your up to nine different guns, along with some health and extra lives, so it's useful, but the game isn't so hard that you must find them all. Indeed, with practice you won't, as many require specific actions to access and levels are designed with numerous one-way passages, pits, and more, so you can't just run back and try again once you've passed something. That replay value may be the main challenge here, though, because the enemies barely challenge you and bosses aren't too hard once you learn their patterns. Jazz 2 may be a bit too easy, but it's mostly good. Still, I just don't find myself drawn to keep playing this game, and never have gotten even halfway through it; after a few levels I lose interest and don't go back. I don't like the jerky movement as you run then stop then run then stop; Sonic does that much better. I like Claw a bit more than JJ2. Still, this is a good game, at least. Also available on Mac. For some odd reason Epic has never re-released any of their old games on digital download platforms, but they should.
Jazz Jackrabbit 2: Holiday Hare 98 (1998, Win9x) - 1 player, 1-? player online, saves. The original Jazz Jackrabbit had two free Holiday Hare demos of sorts released, in 1994 and 1995. Both have a couple of new levels with a Christmas theme, though the gameplay is the same as in the main game. For Jazz 2 the Holiday Hare tradition returned, but it's a paid title this time, not free. It still is a glorified demo, though, as you get five Christmas-themed Jazz 2 levels for your money in this surely budget-priced jewelcase-only release. The gameplay is exactly as before, so you run, jump, and shoot through large levels, finding secrets and constantly running into enemies and obstacles because you move too fast for your own good. There may not be much content here, and it'd have been great if this was free as before, but even so it's cool that this exists, Christmas is great and too few games have official Christmas versions these days! Physical release only. This set of levels is also included in the JJ2 expansion pack JJ2: The Secret Files, I believe, which compiles everything into one release. I don't have that, though; it seems to be a bit uncommon.
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (1994, Win3.x) - 1 player, saves. Lode Runner: The Legend Returns, from Sierra, is a sequel/remake to Broderbund's classic '80s puzzle-platform game Lode Runner. I never did play the Lode Runner games much, but I can see the appeal even if it's not my favorite kind of game. This game has 150 levels of classic 2d Lode Runner single-screen gameplay to work through. In each level, you need to collect all the gold then go to the exit which then appears. The Mad Monks are trying to kill you before you get it, though, so you'll need to be clever to survive. Instead of a normal gun, however, the Lode Runner has a beam which can make a hole in the ground, destroying the ground block to your left or right below you. While this title also has some items to collect which you can use here and there, the hole-making mechanic is this is the games' central focus, as always in the Lode Runner franchise. The gameplay here is pretty much the same as in the original Lode Runner, it's just a bit better looking this time, controls well, has 10 different environments to play through, and has easy level-saving for levels you make in the included, and easy to use, level editor. Lode Runner gameplay is simple, but the game quickly gets very challenging. Trying to figure out how to get to every piece of gold without being killed can be tough, and you'll often need to figure out which blocks you need to destroy and when, while fending off the enemies by dropping them in holes as well. And if you really get into the game, its simple design makes making your own levels easy.
The game does have the usual Windows 3.1/9x issues, though, including the requisite "the game can't see my gamepad even in Win3.1 running in DOSBox", and also screen-size issues. See, this game runs in a 640x480 box, full-screen with a border around it, in whatever your screen resolution is. Window's "run this in 640x480" does not work, you'll need to manually change your screen resolution to run this in a window larger than unacceptably tiny. Win3.1 in DOSBox seemed like a good solution for that, but it crashed DOSBox after I beat a few levels and still had joystick problems, so that has issues too. This game also looks as simple as it plays; Lode Runner: The Legend Returns is not exactly a game that pushes technology, for 1994 or otherwise. And maybe some more gameplay enhancements might have been nice, more block and obstacle types, something like that. Also, you really need to like Lode Runner to like this game, and with its somewhat slow pace, single-screen mazes, and high frusration factor at times, it isn't a game for everyone. Still, this game is mostly good. Some Lode Runner game is definitely worth trying, but I don't know which one is best, since I don't play the series that much. This is probably as good as any, for classic Lode Runner gameplay but with a somewhat newer look than the originals. Also released on Playstation and Saturn in Japan. Those don't have this versions' performance issues, but did not get a US release.
The Lost Vikings - (1993, DOS) - 1 player, password save, gamepad supported. The Lost Vikings was Blizzard Entertainment's first major original title, and it's a puzzle-platformer starring some silly cartoon-style time-travelling Vikings. This game shows how a game can benefit from a strong focus on one core mechanic, of splitting the usual action-game moves across three characters you control at once. It was a brilliant idea, and Blizzard executed on the concept very well! The game was mainly developed for the Super Nintendo, but also was released on computers. I got this floppy-disk PC version of the game for Christmas in 1993 and liked it a lot, and it's still a great, great game! I recently covered the very similar Sega Genesis version of this game in my Genesis Game Opinion Summaries list, so read that for more, but this is a great game so I'll say something, at least, this time. This is the first version of the game I played, after all, and the one I have the most nostalgia for. It's also a great version of the game, as much worth playing as any.
In this game, you play as Erik, Baleog, and Olaf, the three titular Lost Vikings. Each one has two abilities, and there is very little overlap. Erik can jump and dash, Baleog use a sword and bow, and Olaf can block and float with a shield, and you must use all three in concert to get through each puzzle-heavy level. Each has only three hit points per stage, and all three must survive and reach the exit in each stage to move on. The expertly-designed stages seem perfectly crafted for each character's strengths and weaknesses, and I love trying to figure out what to do in each stage, in what order. There are many obstacles to tackle, and while hitting switches is a constant and your basic actions stay the same, how you get to those switches, and the obstacles along the way, do change from each area to the next. You'll constantly need to think, and carefully explore each stage, to get through this game. While you will fight many enemies, this is a puzzle game first, action game second. You are given a continue password on each stage and have infinite tries at each level, so you won't need to replay much when you do die.
Your basic actions are each characters' two abilities plus a swap key to change between characters, but each Viking can also carry up to four items, including healing items, keys, and more. You can swap items between characters when they are close enough to eachother. The controls work well, but this is an 8-button SNES game ported to 4-button PC gamepads, so some functions are on the keyboard. You can move, use both abilities, use items, and activate switches on the pad, but switching characters, selecting items other than the selected one, moving items from one character to another, and pausing to restart the level are on the keyboard. It works, but it would be nice to have the character-switch keys on the pad as you do use those a lot. Ah well. Visually, The Lost Vikings is a nice-looking game comparable to its SNES counterpart. Content-wise this is a straight port of that game, and that's fine. The later Genesis version adds several exclusive levels and a multiplayer mode, but you won't find those here, understandably; the controls would be a big problem with multiple people on one system, and this game released before co-op online play was a common option. The sprite-art is all fantastic, as usual from Blizzard, and backgrounds are reasonably varied, as you travel through the various time periods in the game. I love the silly enemies and animations you'll see throughout this game.
The music is also great and has support for Soundblasters and more, though as a kid I never heard most of it, since our computer only had a PC Speaker and with that there's only an intro tune, then silence and sound effects in the levels. But it is a very good soundtrack, with a memorable main theme. Blizzard soundtracks would get even greater than this later on, but this one's great. The writing is funny as well, as the three heroes have amusing conversations throught their adventure. There also are other characters to talk to, and it's all silly stuff. And The Lost Vikings is an outstanding game all around. The game looks and sounds good, plays great, and has variety and depth. The puzzles are interesting and the game is challenging but rewarding to play. The three-characters system is fantastic, and The Lost Vikings benefits from its strong focus on its core mechanic. This is how you do his genre right, and I'm not sure if any game like it since has topped this great classic. Also available on the SNES, Amiga, Genesis, and Game Boy Advance. The Genesis version has slightly worse graphics, but four exclusive levels and an exclusive 3-player co-op mode. Blizzard released this version of the game for free for digital download on their website.
Interplay 15th Anniversary: Norse by Norsewest: The Return of the Lost Vikings (1997, Win9x) - 1 player, password save. Norse by Norsewest is the sequel to the great classic above. As with the first one, it is a 2d puzzle-platformer, and it originates from Blizzard's SNES game The Lost Vikings 2, though this version is based on the enhanced Playstation/Saturn edition which adds pre-rendered CGI cutscenes, voice acting for all ingame dialogue, and prerendered graphics, to the 4th-gen original's core gameplay, writing, and level designs. The original SNES version was apparently completed in 1995 and runs in an enhanced version of the original games' engine, but for some odd reason Interplay decided to not release it until Beam's 5th-gen versions had been completed, so all versions released in early 1997. The version of the game I have came in the Interplay 15th Anniversary Anthology, a pretty fantastic retail collection of 15 Interplay games released around the year 2000 that I got cheap sometime after that, which is why the game title is as it is. And I want to mention this first: unfortunately, while the regular retail version of Norse by Norsewest includes both DOS and Windows 9x versions of the game, this Anthology release removes the DOS version and contains only the Windows port... which, of course, has some big problems, like all these Win9x platformers do -- fullscreen doesn't work at all and you can only play in a 640x480 window at most, and you need to turn on 256 color mode and sometimes the colors mess up. And worse, sadly, both this Win9x release and apparently even the DOS version have absolutely no gamepad support, inexplicably; that's a somewhat unforgivable thing to leave out! You'll need key-to-joy mapping software to enjoy this game. And why does this Playstation conversion again have password-only saving, but it's worse now as this time it doesn't even let you use the keyboard keys to select letters, so you have to flip through with the arrows? The first game doesn't have this limitation. Thankfully the keyboard controls are reconfigurable, unlike some games mentioned here, so that's good at least.
Unfortunately, though, that is far from the biggest issue here. Norse by Norsewest probably is a good game, but compared to its all-time-great predecessor it is somewhat disappointing. The game can be fun and amusing, but it does not live up to its great predecessor, either in gameplay or technically. Basic gameplay here is similar to before, so this is a somewhat slow-paced puzzle-platformer, often heavier on the 'puzzle' side of things than the 'platformer' part. You have many situations to get past, and hav eto figure out how to get through each stage, get the necessary items, or what have you. The biggest issue I have with this game is, however, that Blizzard decided to add more characters and abilities, but in so doing they messed up the brilliant purity of the original. While The Lost Vikings excelled in setting up puzzles so that each character had to do one specific thing, here multiple characters can do multiple things. First, each of the orginal three Vikings returns, but with a new ability or two: Baleog now has a grappling hook to swing over pits, Olaf can fart to jump a little, and Erik can double-jump with some jet-boots. There are two new characters, a werewolf and a little dragon, and both can both jump and attack. So, now you have multiple ways to jump, multiple ways to attack, and more. You only have three characters per stage though, and my favorites are the levels with just the three core Vikings. There are still elements that only one character can get past, so this still is a puzzle game, but by adding lots of abilities, they significantly degraded the genius of the original. This game is a good object lesson in the fact that adding more content to a game is not necessarily better, and indeed sometimes is worse. This game is reasonably challenging and fun, but the focused gameplay of the original is superior to this.
Visually, this game looks decently nice, though the prerendered style has aged. I prefer the simpler, hand-drawn look of the original game overall, and would someday like to get the SNES version of this one, which reuses a lot of graphics from its predecessor. The voice-acting and CGI intro cutscene are amusing, though, and the humor at least remains intact from the first game. This is again a pretty funny game at times, and some jokes from this have stuck with me, such as the "do not touch, not doughnuts!" line from the intro. Whoops... :p Just like its predecessor, NWN is a very funny game. The humor may be my favorite thing about this game, in fact. And even if Norse by Norsewest is a disappointment, it still is a good game. NWN is no TLV, not even close, but it's still a fun, above-average platform-action game, with more action than the first game but still plenty of tricky puzzles and amusing situations throughout. Also available on the SNES (as The Lost Vikings 2; US only), Playstation, and Saturn. The PS1 or Saturn versions are probably the best overall, they don't have the issues this release does.
Mega Man 3 (1992, DOS) - 1 player, gamepad supported. Mega Man 3 for the PC, developed by Rozner Labs and published by Hi Tech Expressions, is an original PC game that uses Capcom's Mega Man character and license, but has no connection to Capcom beyond that. This is the second and final PC-only Mega Man game, following the first Mega Man; there is no "2" because this game released after NES MM3, so they used the name and cover art of the most recent release. This game is, in modern terms, essentially an indie game that got a retail release and a reskin using a very popular character -- Rozner Labs was a team of two American brothers, and Hi Tech Expressions a developer who published exclusively licensed games, most of them terrible. I got this game in '92 or '93 because I'd liked the Mega Man games on the NES quite a lot, wanted to play one on a platform I had, and only had a PC at the time. And ever since, I have had mixed feelings for this game. On the one hand, as a Mega Man game it isn't any good. While this is still a side-scrolling platform action game where you play as the blue robot Mega Man, with somewhat familiar controls and gameplay though this game has some unique quirks, it is very different from any other Mega Man game. The levels here are mazes, not linear paths, you actually swim around in water instead of sticking to the bottom as you do in any Capcom Mega Man game, and the controls and gameplay are a bit clunky and unpolished. However, this is not a bad game. I have thought it's bad at times, but when I last replayed it several years ago, I realized that no, MM3 for the PC is okay. This is an alright Western-style platformer with large, mazelike levels to explore and a moderate amount of challenge, though not too much. The mazelike levels are a huge change from what you expect from Mega Man, but they can be fun to explore. The bosses in this game are quite easy, but the levels are trickier. The game has decent controls, and you jump and shoot as expected. There is gamepad support, though you need the keyboard to pause to switch weapons, and the keyboard controls are not configurable if you use them; get used to J for jump and space to fire. The game also has six bosses, plus a boss stage at the end after you beat the first six. As in the console Mega Man games, you can play the six levels in any order. However, there is no saving in this game, sadly, so you have to beat the game in one sitting; this is why I never beat it as a kid, only much later. It does have fun gameplay and reasonably solid level designs, though.
Visually, the game looks alright, though this Mega Man is not quite Capcom's. The game runs in CGA or EGA, and the environments look nice and sprites are decent-looking. The six bosses and final boss are each unique, though they to take design ideas from past NES Mega Man bosses. Five of the six bosses have the same exact attack pattern of just jumping back and forth and shooting at you, though. This game has an environmental theme, as fitting with the times given the popularity of shows like Captain Planet, and apparently originally was going to be a game called Eco Man, before the Rozners were offered the Mega Man license again, since one of them had made the first DOS Mega Man game. So, you're Mega Man, exploring locations such as oil rigs and slimy sewers. Some popular Mega Man enemies appear, but others are original to this game, such as ubiqutous guys in yellow hazardous-materials suits. Yeah. I like the swimming though, and have always thought that it'd be kind of nice if Capcom had released some main-series Mega Man games where you can actually swim around like you can here. One water level's mazelike design can be annoying due to the fans pushing you into spikes, but still, it's a fun stage. However, there is only PC Speaker sound effects with no music; by '92 I would have thought a retail title would have soundblaster support, even most shareware games did by then. Console Mega Man games were known for their great soundtracks, but there's none of that here. Ah well. Overall, though, this game is alright. MM3 for the PC is a decent platformer with okay graphics, controls, and levels, and I do like it. If you forget the "Mega Man" part and just look at this game as a PC platformer, it's a fun little above-average game for platformer fans, and is well worth a try. Physical only.
Mega Man X (1995, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Mega Man X, developed again by Rozner Labs but published by Capcom this time, is, unlike its predecessor, a port of the SNES classic Mega Man X. After licensing out ports of their PC games before, in 1995 Capcom decided to publish some themselves, and the first two were Mega Man X and Super Street Fighter II. Both were available on their own, or bundled with the 6-button Capcom PC Fighter 6 gamepad. I got the gamepad-bundle version of this game, and I do still have that pad. Mega Man X, from 1993, is a great classic, Capcom's first SNES Mega Man game and a very good side-scrolling action platformer. As with the original series you play as Mega Man, running, jumping, and shooting his way through hordes of enemy robots, but this game is set some time after the original series. Mega Man is the new, cooler "X" version now, fighting evil reploids led by Dr. Sigma, instead of Wily. Unlike the NES games you start out in an intro level here, before moving to a standard Mega Man level select screen with eight stages to choose from. Of course, you need to learn (or look up) the best order to play the stages in, if you want to succeed, because you get a power from each enemy, and each enemy is weak to one of the others'. The controls and level designs are fantastic as always, and the well-polished action feels really good. All of the bosses in this game have memorable stages and character designs, as well. X brings in one big gameplay change versus the original series, though: you can grab on walls and slide down or jump off of them, and also can dash once you get the easy-to-find dash-boots powerup. These changes adds a lot to the game, and the levels really make use of them as well. Still, though this game is great, I have always liked the NES and GB Mega Man games the most, over X. Still, with good to great graphics, music, gameplay, and level designs, this game is really good too. In the '90s, the Mega Man series was one of the best.
This is a fairly faithful port of Mega Man X as well. Everything except for the robot ride armor is here, and the MIDI rendition of the soundtrack is pretty good. I guess it's too bad robot ride armor was removed, but they are a very minor part of this game anyway, so I don't miss them much. The team had to recreate the game mostly from scratch, so it's impressive it is as good as it is. The game looks good and plays great, but it is true that the graphics aren't quite at the level of what PC games could do by 1995; it is a SNES port after all. It is odd though that while the game came with a 6-button gameport gamepad, the game only supports four buttons so you need to have either pause or quick-weapon-switch on the keyboard. You can configure the controls, fortunately. It's probably best to have pause on the pad and pause to switch, classic Mega Man-style. The gamepad, called the Capcom PC Fighter 6, is interesting in that the 5th and 6th buttons actually are a third axis, as DOS only supports 4 buttons, but while SSFII supports all six buttons this doesn't. But when I got this game back in 1995, I was mostly just excited to finally be able to play a real Mega Man game on the PC, and a great one at that! And the other change from the SNES is an improvement -- instead of password save as you needed there, in this version you save to save files instead. There can be up to 15 saves at once, which is plenty. The saves don't save anything more than the passwords did, so you still need to play the whole final section of the game in one try, but still, it is a nice addition. This is a tough game, particularly in that final stretch, so it's unfortunate that you need to beat all of the final levels in one sitting; you really should be able to save between them as you can before! Because of that I've never beaten Mega Man X, though I have gotten to the final boss. Almost everything else about this game is great, though. For one last criticism, there is no new content here, so while this is a CD game, the game is under 6 megabytes large and most of the disc is empty. A CD soundtrack or something might have been nice, but no, it's just a straight port. You don't need the disc in to play, either.
Still, overall Mega Man X is a very good game. It looks good, has a lot of variety between its stages, has some inventive boss concepts each based on a different animal, and plays really well. This game is a classic, and this PC version is very nearly as good as the SNES original. The best classic MM games may be even better, but this game still holds up very well, on the PC or otherwise. SNES port. The SNES version is easier to find to day and has both physical and digital re-releases (on Wii and Wii U Virtual Console and in the Mega Man X Collection for PS2 and Gamecube), but this PC version is a physical-only release. A large part of this game was ported in altered form to the Game Boy/GB Color in the game Mega Man Xtreme. There is also a MMX remake on the PSP titled Mega Man Maverick Hunter X; I haven't played it, but it has 2.5d graphics and is supposed to be solid. And last there is an apparently bad iOS version with redone graphics. For a little more on this game and PC Mega Man 3, see the Rozners' interview in John Szczepeniak's "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, Vol. I".
Mega Man X4 (1998, Win9x, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Mega Man X4 for the PC is a port of Capcom's 1997 PS1/Saturn game of the same name, the fourth game in the the Mega Man X series. This was Capcom's second 5th-gen 2d Mega Man game after Mega Man 8 (PS1/Saturn), and it's a big improvement over that game in every way other than the voice acting. X4 is a true classic, a great-looking 2d game with very good gameplay and really nice spritework and backgrounds. I really liked theis in the '90s, and when I saw this game for cheap sometime in the later '90s, I got it. I remember seeing this, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and Mega Man X3 for under $10 each, but could only afford two of them, so I got this and the fantastic puzzle game classic Puzzle Fighter. I've still never played the PC version of X3... too bad. (Oh, there is no PC port of X2; it went from X to X3.) But after looking at the boxes this one was newer and had better graphics than X3, so I got X4 over X3. Well, that may not be the best reasoning, but I picked well, because Mega Man X4 is fantastic and my favorite game in the Mega Man X series. This is also the only MMX game I've actually beaten, sadly enough, though I am glad to have finished this one. Mega Man X4 was great then, and still is great now! In addition to the great graphics, art design, great difficulty balance that is not too hard or too easy, and gameplay, the level designs are inventive and varied and the game controls very well also. The game also lets you play the whole game as either Mega Man or Zero, for the first time in the series. Zero's fun to play as. The animated cutscenes and charmingly terrible voice acting are also good stuff, though I don't care for the story; it's dark as in all MMX games, but this goes farther than most into the realm of the depressing. Everything else about the game is great, though, and the port is even fantastic! This PC version of MMX4 is pretty much a perfect port of the PS1 version of the game, but with almost no load times, which is great. I was quite happy to find that the game runs great on my newer computer, too, as it runs with no issues. It's even the only Windows 9x or 3.1 game on this list so far that actually natively works with gamepads on my newer computer! That's pretty awesome. You can redefine the controls, too, thankfully, though you can only use the first 8 gamepad buttons for the games' 8 functions so pause will be on some random face or shoulder button, probably. Oh well, that's a very minor limitation.
Visually, X4 is a big step up from X3. The graphical overhaul the series got in this title still looks impressive and stylish, and X4 really is Mega Man X at its best. Sure, this is a low-resolution game for a 1998 PC game, but since it is a console port that is understandable, and I think the great art design and visuals stand out even if it's not nearly as sharp-looking as some contemporary PC games like Claw; it more than makes up for that with its better art design and gameplay. Every level looks and feels quite different, and the music is good as usual in the Mega Man series, even if the NES Mega Man soundtracks are my favorites. The game is nicely animated too, as your character and the enemies all animate as they move. And beyond the graphics, the gameplay is just as good. As in past MMX games, you can run, shoot, and dash, but this game adds a limited hover that you get if you find the fairly easy-to-find powerup item. The controls are very responsive and are great once you get used to them, though dash-jumping can take some practice to get right. I highly recommend putting the dash button on a shoulder button (and use a gamepad!), so you can more easily use dash, jump, and shoot at the same time. Levels and enemy patterns are crafted around dashing, and you will need to master the dash to get through this game. As usual in the X series, you have an intro level, eight robot masters to beat each with a special weapon you get from beating them, and then some boss levels at the end. Thankfully, this time you can save in between levels of the boss section, so you don't need to play it all in one sitting like you did in X1 above. That's a great improvement and surely helped me finish this one. The save system is clearly console-based, as you have two blocks of three save files to choose from, as if you're selecting one of the PS1's two memory cards, but it works.
The levels here are built off of past Mega Man games, as always in this iterative series, but they're probably the best in the X series. X5 would build on this games' look and design concepts, but it does not manage to improve on them. From the lava level with its rocks everywhere to the cyber-level with teleporters and warping enemies to the lush jungle, the stages are as fun to play through as they are to look at. Each level is broken up into two parts, and if you get a game over in part two and continue from there you only need to redo the second part, which is very nice. If you quit to the menu you will have to redo the whole stage, though. Now, Mega Man games usually either have harder levels, or harder bosses. This one probably has tougher bosses than levels, though with the correct weapon for each boss, if you experiment enough or look up the best route online, it gets easier. Some Mega Man games are too hard, but this ones' challenge is just right. There is also an Easy mode available, for people who find Normal too tough. For skilled players who find it too easy as gun-equipped Mega Man, though, there's always also sword-weilding Zero, the other playable character. Zero's pretty cool, but his very limited ranged options adds to the challenge. I really like that both are playable here, with a full story. But overall, Mega Man X4 is much more than "just right"; it is truly great, one of the all-time best 2d platformers. In graphics, sound, gameplay, levels, bosses, and more, Mega Man X4 is the pinnacle of its series... and the PC port is even fantastic! Get this game for sure for some system, and this one is as good a choice as any. Playstation port, also available on Saturn. The PS1 version is available on other platforms, such as the PS2/GC Mega Man X Collection. Physical only.
Mega Man X5 (2002, Win9x/2000 or above) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. The last of the PC Mega Man games released in the US on store shelves, Mega Man X5 released four years after its predecessor. After loving X4 I really wanted another game like it, but it would be years until Capcom finally released more 2d Mega Man X with this game and X6, both 2001 releases on the PS1. More than a year later, this PC port released in 2002, and I bought it soon after release. Mega Man X5 was originally intended to be the last Mega Man X game, though that was not to be. This is a great game, but in most ways it is a downgrade from the incredible Mega Man X4. The game is a lot better than the highly disappointing X6 and X7, but it's not quite X4, either. So, as usual in this series, Mega Man X5 is very, very much like the last game, just with new levels and lower production values. Expect more nice-looking 2d artwork, for a port of a low-rez PS1 game, more solidly-designed platform-action levels to blast through, and more tough boss fights. Versus its predecessor, a few things have changed. First, you can now crouch and shoot while crouching, but your bullets cannot pass through walls, unlike all previous Mega Man games. There are also many ropes to grab on to in the game. Levels make use of these things, and it does mix things up a bit from the Mega Man usual, though it's mostly similar to before. There are also three difficulty levels now, including a new harder option as well as easy and normal. The game also has a time limit, however, and that is annoying, though it's not as bad as in some games as it's not a timer so much as a limit to the number of levels you can play before beating all 8 Robot Masters. Thanks to Sigma, a giant space colony is going to crash into the earth and somehow kill all life on the planet in 16 hours, and a virus is turning almost all reploids into mavericks -- that is, making them evil. So, X and Zero have to go around killing not-actually-evil reploids, like usual in this series, for the usual overdose of overdone depressing writing. The story in this game feels partially copied out of X4 and partially new, but it's not particularly good. There are no animated cutscenes and no voice acting this time, though, only static images and text. Budget cuts indeed. The in-level conversations can be annoying and pointless, too. There are three endings, though, which is nice.
Now, the formulaic design here is fine, as the Mega Man series has always had one game create a formula, then its sequels make new experiences within that formula. And as usual, this game is based on a great formula! However, it is impossible to ignore that X5's levels, bosses, and design here aren't quite at X4's level. The box is smaller too, as the game has a smallish box was the unfortunate trend in the '00s, versus X1, X3, and X4 PC's big boxes. They thought that it would be a good idea to have a time limit in this game, too: the story is that a space station is going to crash into the Earth, unless Mega Man can stop it in time, so you have a limited number of tries until it crashes. Fortunately stopping the space station is not that hard, and if you beat all eight robot masters you can end the timer, so this is no Prince of Persia kind of situation, but still, it wasn't a great idea. I do like that now you have alternate robot suits to switch to right from the beginning though, that's cool. Upgrades for your suit have been a part of the MMX series since the beginning, but X5 lets you play as regular X, Falcon suit X, or Zero right from the start, and you can choose differently in each mission. I like this change, versus having to play the whole game as X or Zero as it is in X4. You can get more suits as well, if you collect the hidden parts for them. The Falcon suit's hover is great, but the unlockable suits each have a very handy power s well. But once yo uget into a stage, the issues return. This game is very good and has some fun stages, but they sometimes feel rehashed from the last game. Still, when I got this game back in '02 I was liking it, and beat the eight Robot Masters. There are some interesting boss fights here, such as the one against the spider-like guy; that's a cool fight. However, I've never gotten past the first of the final set of levels at the end, as its boss, the Black Demon, is absurdly hard unless you use some super-cheap strategies! That boss is a real pain. This game is the most forgiving yet for continues, as if you get game over and continue at a boss you'll continue right before the boss, crazily enough, but that only helps when the bosses are actually beatable... stupid Black Demon.
The PC port of this game is solid, that bug that requires a patch aside, and teh game looks and runs about the same as its predecessor. For 2002 this is definitely a dated-looking game, but it looks fine. The working joystick support is great as well. And the save system is a little bit cleaned up, too -- you have a normal save menu, instead of the two 'boxes' of three files. Overall, Mega Man X5 plays great, looks nice considering it's a PS1 port, and has good classic 2d art and animation. However, the stages are not as memorable as those in X4, the cheaper presentation hurts, and the gameplay tweaks don't all work; I wish you could still shoot through walls, and I never like game-wide timers. The game also may have bugs even after the patch, unlike its predecessor, though they are rare. Still, this is a good game based on a strong foundation, and even if it's a bit 'average' for a Mega Man game, that still leaves it as better than most games in this genre. Mega Man X5 is a pretty good game, but not an essential one. This game is a followup to a great classic, and Mega Man fans should play it because it provides more fun platform-action gameplay to work through. This game has some issues, but it is still mostly good, something that can't be said about the next two Mega Man X games... but I don't have those for PC, so those will be for another time. I did cover X6 in my PS1 summaries list years ago, though; it's kind of bad. Play X4 and X5 instead. This is a Playstation port. The PS1 version is available on other platforms, such as the PS2/GC Mega Man X Collection. As a note, there are PC versions of Mega Mans X6, X7, and X8, but none have US releases; X6 and X7 are Asia-only, and X8 is Asia & Europe only. No PC Mega Man games have digital re-releases.
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (1997, Win9x) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is the first game in what would become a popular, lasting series of very strange platformer-ish games. This first Oddworld game is a slow-paced 2d puzzle-platformer with prerendered graphics and Prince of Persia-style controls, but with added complexity. Unlike Blackthorne, this game has a lot more stealth and much less shooting. In fact, your character, Abe the Mudokon, cannot attack at all, only avoid enemies. You can talk to other characters of your species, Mudokons, though, and possess enemies so long as they aren't on the same plane as you. You can then have enemies attack other enemies or kill themselves, or tell Mudokons to follow you or wait, as you try to get them to points where you can save them. As in many games in this subgenre, each area is a single screen, and you move between screens from edges or in doors. PoP, Blackthorne, and others work this same way. Unlike those games, though, this game has a larger, inter-connected world, instead of set levels. You do have infinite lives from the last checkpoints, and checkpoints are frequent, but you will often have to redo multiple screens after each death. The difficulty level is high, though, so you'll need all of those infinite lives if you want any chance of getting through here. Learning the Gamespeak system, the eight phrases Abe can say to other Mudokons, is also key. Puzzles quickly get complex and very tough, but the screen-by-screen nature of the game means that many things, such as enemies, are confined to each screen. Enemies will reset to their default state as soon as you leave a screen, though unfortunately if other Mudokons die they will stay dead until you die and restart the area. Figuring out what to do can be tricky but rewarding.
There are two big problems here, though. First, I don't like the comedy or humor much, and second, I like the gameplay even less. For the former, this game has a dark comedic tone. Abe is a worker trying to escape from a massive factory run by evil guys who want to turn Mudokons into their next food source. You can just escape, but there are also a lot of other Mudokons to try to rescue along the way. It tries to be funny, but while it can be amusing at times, I don't particularly care for its comedic style, most of the time; too much off-putitng dark comedy and fart jokes, not enough stuff that actually makes me want to keep playing. The gameplay sure doesn't help, either; I've never gotten much of anywhere in this game, and I doubt I ever will. I know this game is a popular classic, and I can see why, but I don't care for it. The game does look nice for the time, though. This game has CGI-rendered cutscenes with voice acting, and pre-rendered ingame graphics. It looks nice, though it is a bit pixelated and the bland factory backdround is somewhat bland. The audio work is good as well. The game also runs well even on a newer machine, and even recognizes my gamepad! That makes three Win9x games in a row with functioning gamepad support... amazing. You'll really want a pad for this game, too, as it is a console port; the game was also released on the Playstation. My bigger issue is with the controls and gameplay, though. As with all PoP-style games, the controls are clumsy and slow, you move from space to space instead of having free movement, and there are more commands to memorize than any platformer really needs. You'll need to execute them all with perfect timing to survive, too, which quickly gets very difficult. While trying to figure out each puzzle, which switches to hit, which guys to possess, and such, can be interesting, it also can be frustrating. You need to have a high tolerance for repetition and dealing with PoP-style games' usual frustrating controls, but worse here in this game with like 20 or more different things you can do, and I quickly lose patience with the game and quit. This isn't a bad game, I just don't find it fun. If I must play a PoP-style game, give me the more straightforward Blackthorne over this stealth and puzzle-focused title. I much prefer standard platformers over any of these, though. Still, for those who do like this kind of game, the game does look nice, creates an interesting world, and has plenty of challenging, interesting puzzles to figure out and get past. I can see why some people love this game, and people who like this kind of game might want to check the game out, but I can't recommend it, myself. Playstation port. There is also a remake, Oddworld: Big 'n' Tasty, available digitally only for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, and PS Vita. I haven't played it.
PCG CGC1: Duke Nukem II (1993, DOS) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Duke Nukem II, the second game in this later-to-be-infamous series, is a pretty good side-scrolling platform-action game. This is a shooting-heavy game where you wander around sizable levels, collecting stuff and shooting lots of aliens as you try to find the key that will let you proceed to the next stage. The last level in each of the four eight-level episodes is a boss fight. The original Duke Nukem had plenty of shooting and a bit of attitude, but this game ups that significantly, though it is not the oversexed gorefest of Duke 3D; there is violence here, but it's 16-bit-style violence, not Duke 3D stuff. Duke is now a narcisstic egomaniac, though, who in the intro is hawking his book "Why I'm So Great" on some TV talkshow, when he is abducted by aliens planning to take over the world, starting with Duke. Naturally, you break out of alien prison immediately and start wiping them out to save the earth. My parents thought Duke Nukem sounded too violent so I wasn't allowed to play either of the original Duke games as a kid, though I remember trying the first one once and thinking not too much of it. I eventually got this second game in PC Gamer's Classic Game Collection Vol. 1 disc, included on the disc that cmae with a summer 2000 issue of the magazine. Duke II is similar to the first Duke game, but this game has much better graphics and sound and better, smoother gameplay, so I'm glad they included this one over the original. Duke II has VGA graphics, unlike its EGA predecessor, and Soundblaster sound and music support as well. The art design is solid, though not amazing, and the music is good.
This is a simple game, and most of the time you just run, shoot, and jump. The controls are okay, but not as smooth as a Mega Man X is, or such. The scrolling is also a bit jerky; it's not nearly as bad as the first Duke game is, but it is worse than, say, Commander Keen. You have health bar in this game and can take nine hits. You'll need it. Some powerups refill health. However, in a Gauntlet-like touch, shooting food items destroys them for points instead of a health refill, so watch out! You do have infinite lives from the beginning of the current level, so there is no real game over here, but still health is valuable and the game does get tricky eventually. This isn't a really hard game, but it has some parts that are a decent challenge. You also get several different weapons, but unfortunately you cannot switch between them during play. Instead, the stronger weapons are just time-limited or ammo-limited powerups, after which you go back to the regular basic gun. I really wish you could switch weapons to save ammo for those, it'd have been great. As for the level layouts, as with many Western platformers of the era, this game has large levels full of enemies to kill and things to collect for points. Exploration is required, as the key and keycard items you will need to get past the laser gates at the end of each stage are usualy hidden off in some corner of the level. Fortunately dead enemies do not respawn, which is great. You will take hits due to the short draw distance sometimes, though; Duke's sprite is large, so you can't always see as far as you might like around you. You'll need good reflexes to avoid damage sometimes. I do like the variety of enemies, though, each of which has their own attack patterns. Enemies do not just charge blindly at you in this game; some crawl on the ground then jump at you and cling to you, some jump between floor and ceiling, others shoot at you, and more. Exploring the levels can be fun, so long as you don't miss that keycard's hiding spot. There are also secret areas to try to find. You can also save at any time, though it will pick up from the beginning of the current level, I believe. Now, this is a shareware game, which means that the first episode is available free, and the other three come with the registered version. Shareware games often let you play the episodes in any order, and this one is no exception, though I'd always play them in order.
Overall, Duke Nukem 2 is a decently fun game. It looks alright and sounds good, plays fairly well, has an amusing sense of humor, and has a good amount of content. The levels are interesting to explore and there are various settings to see as you progress. I like the enemy variety as well. I do dislike the jerky scrolling, sometimes nearly-unavoidable hits, and the sometimes too-well-hidden keycard locations, though. And while Duke II is good for a PC sidescrolling shooter/platformer, it doesn't match up to greats like the three Mega Man X games above. Still, this is a pretty fun little game well worth checking out if you like action-platformers. It's well designed and fun. Available both digitally and in retail. Also available in an Apogee Anthology pack, digitally. The sharware episode is free, demo-style, so play that to check the game out. This game is PC-only, but Duke Nukem for the Game Boy Color took a lot of inspiration from this title, as immediately becomes obvious if you play it. That game's good fun too, far better than the awful GBC Commander Keen game!
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1996, Win3.x) - 1 player, saves, gamepad supported. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is an okay platformer from Activision that they seem to have really liked, because they ported it to numerous platforms in the mid '90s; this PC version is from '96, but the SNES/Genesis originals released in '94. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a very nicely-animated platform adventure which can be fun to play. You are Pitfall Harry Jr., exploring Central American jungles and Mayan ruins in a search for treasures you need to save your famous father, the Harry from the original Pitfall, from a curse. This game has 14 main levels, plus 3 bonus levels and the original Atari 2600 game hidden on the main menu via a cheatcode, so there's a decent amount of game here but not too much; this is no Earthworm Jim, it's more average in challenge, though bosses can be tricky. The console versions of this game didn't have saving, so it is playable in one sitting, but this PC release is better, and just like Activision's other platformer from this time, Earthworm Jim for Windows 95, has a level-select menu that unlocks as you complete stages. This game doesn't install, it runs straight off the CD, but it will make a file for your options and level-select progress. Unfortunately, as with that game, it has issues on a modern OS -- it won't detect my gamepad, fullscreen is 320x240 only so it won't work (remember, Windows Vista and better is 640x480 minimum), and it crashes if I turn on the sound effects, too, though the music works at least. That last one's an odd one. But when running on my Win9x computer or virtual machine this game will run fine, and it's the best version of this game so it is worth the hassle if you like the game.
Gameplay in Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure consists of running around collecting stuff while you try to figure out where to go in each stage. You can whip, Indiana Jones-style, jump, and throw rocks at enemies. Thanks to your highly-animated sprite, your movements are a bit restricted, you don't have totally free movement. You do have a health bar this time, though, so you can take some hits, but you will thanks to the controls and often cheap enemy locations. Still, it is mostly fun once you get used to how the game plays. Levels are large and complex, but there is always a main path to follow, once you find it. Therea re many side areas to look at and the main path can be obscored, though, so you'll be bumping around until you figure out the path forwards. Levels are loaded with ropes to swing on or climb, vines to ride down, pitfalls to avoid, and lots of enemies trying to hurt you. One big issue with this game, though, is that you can't always tell what you can stand on or walk through and what you can't, so you'll constantly be bumping into walls or going through things that look like platforms. With some memorization you get used to it, but it can be annoying sometimes. On the other hand, though, the graphics are great, with very detailed backgrounds that even have some animation in them. This is a very nice-looking game, for a mid '90s 2d platformer that originated on 4th-gen consoles. Of the console versions only the Jaguar and SNES versions also have 256-color graphics like this one, but neither of those have CD audio as well, and the music is quite good and fits the setting well, I like it over what I've heard of the chiptune versions. There are also regular checkpoints, and you have three continues per game. This was a much stricter limit on the consoles which didn't have saving than it is here, but you still do need to replay the current stage if you run out of continues.
So, the game can be fun, but before playing for this list I'd always gotten frustrated in the first level by the somewhat restrictive controls and confusing 'is that a wall/platform or not' issues. However, I gave it another try for this, on my WinME machine this time where it runs great, and I liked the game a lot more than I expected to. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure does have some game-design issues, but running around looking at the environments and figuring out your way through each stage is fun. Overall this is an above-average game which is worth a try, though I would recommend trying it before buying, it's not for everyone. Also available on the SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Jaguar, and Game Boy Advance. The Genesis version is available on the Wii Virtual Console, digitally. However, of all those ports, this is the only one with all the levels (some versions have some stages removed), saving, CD audio, AND 256-color graphics, so this PC release is the best version.