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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2019 2:03:00 GMT -5
On a random note, I hope you're sticking with imgur now? I've noticed looking back on some old reviews a lot of your Tinypic images are down. Oh thanks, duly noted. I was looking into Run Like Hell myself but emulation for it isn't perfect and I'm not sure how good it really is. Speaking of which, Dino Crisis 3 looks pretty interesting to me with its sci-fi setting, I'd definitely check it out if it wasn't only on Xbox and if I'd beaten the second game. Would make a good fit for this month given its mostly negative reception. If you've never played through the original Manhunt, I definitely recommend the PC version of it. I would've already played it my PC felt like running it, I'll try again though.
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Post by Ex on Oct 3, 2019 9:25:02 GMT -5
I would've already played it my PC felt like running it, I'll try again though. Maybe emulate the PS2 version? Either way, I do think you'd enjoy Manhunt. Unfortunately I cannot recommend its sequel.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 3, 2019 20:56:09 GMT -5
I tried out what I guess is a sort of pirate port of the original Street Fighter, Fighting Hero, for NES. Yeah, yeah, pirate carts seem like low-hanging fruit, but hey, a bad game is a bad game.
Anyway, it was terrible. Controls barely respond, making it virtually unplayable. I say virtually because I saw that someone finished it off, and I'm sure it's possible, but... yeah. If a 1/10 is unplayable, then this is a 2/10. Avoid.
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Post by Ex on Oct 4, 2019 0:13:00 GMT -5
Sarge Fighting Hero looks suitably terrible for sure. Unfortunately just about every pirate NES game I tried was junk. Although I honestly enjoy Kart Fighter. - I made it almost to the end of the third chapter in Dead Space tonight. I've got three hours invested thus far. I like the zero gravity zones, cool stuff. Reminds me of Gravity Rush, albeit Dead Space predates that game. Not a fan of the no-oxygen zones though - though I understand the gameplay impetus for doing that. I don't find this game scary, but it is stressful, definitely not a "relaxing" game to play. Especially when you retrace your steps (lots of backtracking in this game), and enemies pop out of places they didn't exist the first time through. I realize I've still got a long ways to go, but overall I'm enjoying the experience so far. My only complaint is how zoomed in the camera is over Isaac. His torso often takes up way too much screen space, and your peripheral vision is really limited in tandem due to the zoom. This was probably intentional as it creates more opportunities to get ambushed by enemies. But I'm used to third person action games having more reasonable peripheral viewing distances nonetheless.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 4, 2019 10:44:27 GMT -5
I had a party last night, y'all. But not just any party, it was a Monster Party! And it was weird. So weird. There's a reason for that, of course: the original game had a lot of parody references to films and whatnot that were replaced for US consumption. The Japanese version never came out, though! They found a prototype, however, so we can see the differences, which are a lot less than you'd think. Still, surprised at some of the stuff that slipped through. Bosses say weird things. There's a dead spider that tells you as such, saying "Sorry, I'm dead." A giant Pharaoh head exclaims, "Oh boy, Mark soup!" (Our protagonist is Mark.) There's a spider you refight, and he has a "II" on his back to denote as such. The game is just so full of weirdness that it's hard to not appreciate it. I'll try to add a bit more later when I've got some time. EDIT: So let's get to the meat of the gameplay. I don't think most people play this game for that, but you know what? What's here isn't bad. I always assumed it was a garbage game, especially considering how many I tended to see in the wild, but no. I wouldn't call it a show-stopper, but the action here feels slow but very solid. You've got a baseball bat with puny range, but you can also hit back projectiles, and those are quite powerful. You can also change into a flying monster by snagging a capsule, amusingly named Bert. See, you fuse with him at the beginning of the game. Don't ask. He's supposedly an alien from another planet. He can fly, shoot beams, and is generally extremely powerful compared to Mark... but he's on a timer. You have to snag another capsule to extend your time. So you tend to alternate between moving cautiously (the game rewards patient play as Mark) or barreling forward while you have Bert. If you can hit a boss room with Bert, you can really make short work of them, but ones vulnerable to Mark's bat can also be taken out quite quickly with the jumping attack that tends to score multiple hits in rapid succession. Hitting the final boss with Bert also makes it go quickly, especially if you have the beam upgrade, randomly bestowed by "?" items. Unfortunately, the upgrade also reduces your rate of fire, making some sections more difficult. There's a lot of variety in the environments, so it's not a game that ever really feels stale, even if a lot of the enemies end up falling into a few movement archetypes. You'll push forward just to see what bonkers stuff comes up next. To actually do so, you have to beat up on all the bosses in a stage. They hide behind doors, although rooms can be empty as well. Once you beat them all, you'll get a key, which lets you unlock the final door in the level and move on. One notable exception comes late in the game, where beating all three bosses will actually take away your key, and you have to start the level over. This is apparently a bug, and not intended behavior. In some ways, it makes that level fly by (literally) since once you kill two bosses, you can get Bert and just start flying for the exit. The sound was pretty forgettable, but there's nothing offensive here. The haunted house was a little annoying, but also sufficiently "spooky" to work. Overall, I'd say this was a lot better than I was expecting. Again, nothing amazing, but I think it's at least an average NES game elevated by its kookiness. I'll give it a 6/10. I think NES fans would enjoy at least one romp through this surreal world. (If you're interested, here are the bosses in the US and Japanese versions.)
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Post by Sarge on Oct 4, 2019 22:42:40 GMT -5
Time for another one done. It's Kid Dracula for Game Boy. Really, the biggest reason I started playing it was to test the new battery I got for my GBA SP. I've put in 1.5 hours, and it hasn't red-lighted yet. I'd like to see what I can reasonably expect out of the EverDrive-GB.
Oh, right. Kid Dracula. I dig this game, and wish it weren't so expensive. I certainly wouldn't pay the asking price for it, since it's good and not great, but it definitely shows Konami's chops on the system. I'd probably say it's worth at least a 7/10. I also absolutely gamed the bonus rounds. You can choose to try for lives or coins (you earn coins initially by killing enemies with charged shots), and the jump-and-pop minigame is really easy to rack up anywhere from 5-10 (my max was 11, I think) 1-Ups per play (ten coins). What's more, when I did the roulette, I figured out how to get it to land on the star for about six times in a row, before the game swapped things up. Not before I had nearly 400 coins, though... that I didn't even really need to use, since I had over 60 lives by then.
Still, you will die a bit towards the end. There's a tricky vertical ascent up an elevator (a bit like that boulder stage in Shinobi III), a final hallway that will see you die a few times until you figure out what to do (use the umbrella to block shots and just keep pressing forward to avoid getting crushed), and a final boss that can be hard to manipulate (his second phase has him jumping around and it can be tough squeezing by). Still, got him hit-less on the last attempt.
If you like goofy mascot platformers, you'll probably enjoy this one.
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Post by Ex on Oct 5, 2019 0:13:14 GMT -5
Sarge Nice to see you engaging with the theme in your traditional 8-bit way. I've sort of beaten both of the games you've just cleared, kind of. The Monster Party I beat was the USA version. And it was the Famicom version of Kid Dracula for me, which I realize isn't exactly the same as the GB one. I beat Monster Party back in October of 2017. My thoughts then:
Released in 1989, over time Monster Party has become a bit of a "cult classic". Many a time have I read that Monster Party is a hidden NES gem. Well, after having finished this game, I do not agree. It's true Monster Party is very unique. This platformer is full of grotesque imagery, fairly adult humor, and things which aren't appropriate for kids necessarily. I have to guess Nintendo didn't get far enough into Monster Party to realize this before stamping their seal of quality. But just because Monster Party has its macabre charm, that doesn't override it's a rather slog of a game to play. Primarily because enemies are damage sponges, and bosses attack too erratically. Truly Monster Party is a difficult game to beat, and let me tell you I will never beat it again.
You go through levels fighting enemies and various mini-bosses trying to find a key to the exit. Simple enough, sure. But level 6 is a maze from hell, and level 7 cruelly cheated me out of the exit key, making me have to reset the entire game. To put it bluntly, Monster Party is far more interested in being cheeky and ghoulish than it is being a fair and fun piece of entertainment. I was honestly disappointed that Monster Party did not live up to the praise I'd heard over the years. I did appreciate the double twist ending though. 5/10
I beat Castlevania Special: I'm Kid Dracula! on Famicom back in May of 2015. My thoughts then:
What would happen if you mixed Castlevania with Mega Man? This game, apparently. With cute graphics and nice music, I'm Kid Dracula is certainly inviting. However it isn't long before one realizes the easy difficulty level leans towards a game definitely meant for kids. That aspect is further bolstered by the innocent childlike sense of humor constantly pressed forth. Conceptually it all feels rather haphazard too, with levels and enemies that often have no correlation to one another. Luckily there are interesting platforming elements to contend with (roller coasters, ferris wheels, space elevators). Extra life gaining mini-games punctuate the level transitions, aiding the player if the bosses take a bit too many lives. Kid Dracula also gains a new magic power for every level he clears, and these gained abilities are needed to maneuver through some of the levels themselves. Ultimately if you're looking for a lighthearted and fairly charming platformer, "Castlevania Special: I'm Kid Dracula" will do you fine. But if you're a genre veteran hoping for a challenge, you'll find Kid Dracula is one vampire without much of a bite. 7/10
As for my playing today, I put another hour and a half into Dead Space. I reached chapter 5 tonight, out of 12 chapters apparently. This game looks to be a bit longer than I expected. That said, I did clear that asteroid shooting section that hooplehead hated - surprisingly on my first try. I can see how it would have been aggravating, considering how disingenuous that part is versus the rest of the gameplay. What was aggravating for me though, was the first time I had to fight one of those giant ape-beasts which you can "only shoot from behind". My trouble was, I had no stasis left when I encountered it. So taking the thing down took me a few tries. However the second time I fought one of those ape-beasts, I had plenty of stasis, and I killed the thing very quickly. At this point I do mostly enjoy Dead Space, I'd say it's around a 7.5/10 for me currently, but that tentative score could certainly improve as the game goes on. While I do find Dead Space to be entertaining, I don't find it particularly "fun" to play. Thus it's hard for me to put in a three hour long stint each session, in order to finish it off as quickly as most would. That's likely due to the tenseness Dead Space instills in its player. As one of its obvious inspirations does; System Shock 2, Dead Space is simply not a stress-relieving experience, quite the opposite. I think for some players though, that's exactly what they love about horror gaming. The underlying sense of constant danger, random jump scares, and that feeling of perpetually foreboding atmosphere. For me personally, I don't strongly enjoy all of those elements constantly. And that's why I don't play a whole lot of horror games all year long. It's not that I'm a scaredy-cat. Rather it's that I play games to unwind, not to be wound.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 5, 2019 13:28:10 GMT -5
I beat a terrible game, y'all. It's Street Fighter II.
No, not that one. The Game Boy port. Yes, this was an official Capcom product! The frame rate is awful; just landing jumping attacks is an absolute chore. So basically, don't try. At the very least, the controls are responsive enough to pull off special moves, so I abused fireballs and spammed them all the way to the end, even with M.Bison.
The funny part is that in still shots, the game actually looks quite good! I could see how one would potentially see this in a magazine and get suckered into a purchase. Even the soundtrack makes a halfway decent transition to the Game Boy soundchip.
Chalk this up under unfilled potential. The Game Boy proved it could handle some decent fighters, with even Killer Instinct being a surprisingly great port of the original. Stuff like Battle Arena Toshinden and Samurai Shodown got solid games, and then you get the excellent Power Quest, one of the smoothest fighters out there. At least they did us a solid and made Street Fighter Alpha on GBC, a massive step up from this. I give this a 3/10, just because I could still pull special moves unlike Fighting Hero.
Also, the GameFAQs reviewers, sans one, are smoking crack. Review scores? 10/9/8/8/7/3.
EDIT: And more 8-bit stuff! It's Kid Dracula again, but this time the Famicom Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-Kun. Playing these back to back proves an interesting experience. I'm not sure which is the better game; there are aspects that seem better in one, but the Game Boy game plays with expectations a bit in that boss battles are remixed and often tougher. There is certainly content that shows up in both versions, but each has quite a bit of unique content as well. I think both are well worth playing. 7/10.
Also, whoever decided dying to the last boss means you start the whole stage over needs to be slapped. Same with the elevator section. The checkpointing definitely skews more anti-player than the Game Boy game, which might be an argument for the GB version being the superior experience.
EDIT 2: Shaq Fu. Game Boy. Not great. The jumps once again feel like the console version, and it runs smoother than SFII, but I gotta dock a lot of points when I can just mash with low kicks most of the time and beat the game. Ten minutes and I was done. I'll give it the same thing I gave SFII, a 3/10.
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Post by toei on Oct 6, 2019 1:23:18 GMT -5
When I was a kid I owned a Game Boy fighter by Konami called Raging Fighter. I never found it very satisfying, but it looks a hundred times more fun than GB SF2.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 6, 2019 22:00:04 GMT -5
toei : I remember Raging Fighter well, mainly because I had a friend that traded his copy of Navy Seals for it at my urging. Hey, Nintendo Power made it look pretty cool... I've also been at the portable stuff again, in the form of Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. If the first Game Boy falls terribly short, the sequel dramatically improves every aspect of the game. While you still move pretty slowly compared to even the NES game, the controls are tight, and there are a lot of interesting level design quirks that make the stages fun to navigate. Of course, Soleiyu and Dracula suck to try to beat. The former I managed by bringing in the Axe, the latter is just a ton of trial and error finding safe spots. I always forget where they are since I usually take several years between runs. Thankfully, the game gives you a close checkpoint that you don't have to redo, so you can keep pounding at it until you figure it all out. Still, I did all this on real hardware (GBA SP), so no save states to speed things along a bit. So what should have taken probably less than an hour on a good run took me a good two and half spread over several play sessions (I quit several times and the passwords don't keep mid-stage checkpoints, which you can keep if you simply continue). Oh, right, did I mention the game has a fantastic soundtrack? It has a fantastic soundtrack. One of my favorite tracks: Anyway, I don't think I can objectively say it's better than the 8-bit or 16-bit entries (the lowest of which I rate as a 8/10, excepting the X68000 game), but it's darn close. I think it's better than "good", so it has to slot in at a 7.5/10. A very good way to get your portable Castlevania on, and far, far above the other two entries on the system.
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