Club Retro 2022: June - Hudson Soft
Jun 18, 2022 15:31:56 GMT -5
Post by Sarge on Jun 18, 2022 15:31:56 GMT -5
Milon's Secret Castle finally bites the dust.
Let's start with the good. I dig the structure of the game. It's a smaller game than it appears at first - you have entryways to areas, and you explore them and find shops and money, which fuel unlocking more areas. It's very much an early exploratory platformer. It's a game that I want to really like, and I respect what they've done here, especially considering its vintage. I also didn't mind scouring levels for hidden shops and items, as you can shoot bubbles pretty fast (with an umbrella), even if their hit boxes aren't too forgiving. Virtually every area has a honeycomb that will extend your life meter. There is thankfully a continue code unlocked after you beat the first boss - hold left before you go back to the title screen, and then hit start when you get there. Don't let off before hitting start, or wait until you hit the title, or it won't work.
Also, it's worth noting that despite the hints being pretty terse and somewhat cryptic, they're not too hard to figure out, unlike something like Simon's Quest which has some real head scratchers going in blind. Here, you can just explore to your heart's content and you'll likely figure out what to do next.
For a while, money is finite. You can't reenter a stage and farm for it, so the progression is quite gated. This eventually goes by the wayside when you hit the third floor, where one room actually does have money blocks that you can farm. Thankfully this is the case, otherwise you wouldn't be able to finish. I have to wonder if that was planned, or if development hit a point where they're like, nope, gotta get this game out the door, instead of placing money in the latter areas (of which there is very little), just let them build it up here.
Now for the bad. Controlling Milon is an absolute chore. His acceleration curve is genuinely awful, like a bad version of Super Mario Bros. As such, it ends up difficult to do any sort of precision platforming. Areas can be cramped, and coupled with enemies that respawn quickly and constantly, that can be a death sentence. The reason for this is the ridiculously short invincibility period on getting hit. You can shed life really, really fast. Eventually you get a high jump, and the physics on that are wonky, too, and make it even weirder to navigate areas, even if it does make you less reliant on the "proper" path.
Stage design can border on annoying to absolutely obnoxious. At least without the high jump powerup. But even then, it's not terribly fun to navigate any of them. You're also going to spend a lot of time farming health to survive if you're not a super expert at the game.
All bosses play the same. They may look different, but they just jump around and hurl fireballs. Given this is such an early game, I can forgive it. The end comes pretty quickly - figure out which boss is real and kill him (easily if you have health) and you get a single ending screen.
I don't regret finally beating this one, and I do respect what's here. But Nintendo absolutely beats the pants off of it with Metroid. And perhaps that's a little unfair, since Metroid benefitted from the FDS storage space and their programming know-how, clocking in at 128KB to Milon's 64KB. But man, that's pretty impressive what they did with 64KB here, so again, props. I just wish it were more fun to control.
There's a couple of longplays that finish the game in about an hour, but a first run will take much closer to four hours. And suffice it to say, that's pretty egregious, much like Blaster Master, but at least the devs gave infinite continues, so you could keep hacking away at it. I used limited save states and occasionally consulted a guide when I'd forgotten some areas I'd been in due to taking large breaks from the game. I still really want to like this game, but... eh, objectively, I can't. I'd say it's a 4 or 4.5/10, but my brain wants to give it a 5 or 5.5 for the ambition. Just a few tweaks and it would be a fun romp.
Let's start with the good. I dig the structure of the game. It's a smaller game than it appears at first - you have entryways to areas, and you explore them and find shops and money, which fuel unlocking more areas. It's very much an early exploratory platformer. It's a game that I want to really like, and I respect what they've done here, especially considering its vintage. I also didn't mind scouring levels for hidden shops and items, as you can shoot bubbles pretty fast (with an umbrella), even if their hit boxes aren't too forgiving. Virtually every area has a honeycomb that will extend your life meter. There is thankfully a continue code unlocked after you beat the first boss - hold left before you go back to the title screen, and then hit start when you get there. Don't let off before hitting start, or wait until you hit the title, or it won't work.
Also, it's worth noting that despite the hints being pretty terse and somewhat cryptic, they're not too hard to figure out, unlike something like Simon's Quest which has some real head scratchers going in blind. Here, you can just explore to your heart's content and you'll likely figure out what to do next.
For a while, money is finite. You can't reenter a stage and farm for it, so the progression is quite gated. This eventually goes by the wayside when you hit the third floor, where one room actually does have money blocks that you can farm. Thankfully this is the case, otherwise you wouldn't be able to finish. I have to wonder if that was planned, or if development hit a point where they're like, nope, gotta get this game out the door, instead of placing money in the latter areas (of which there is very little), just let them build it up here.
Now for the bad. Controlling Milon is an absolute chore. His acceleration curve is genuinely awful, like a bad version of Super Mario Bros. As such, it ends up difficult to do any sort of precision platforming. Areas can be cramped, and coupled with enemies that respawn quickly and constantly, that can be a death sentence. The reason for this is the ridiculously short invincibility period on getting hit. You can shed life really, really fast. Eventually you get a high jump, and the physics on that are wonky, too, and make it even weirder to navigate areas, even if it does make you less reliant on the "proper" path.
Stage design can border on annoying to absolutely obnoxious. At least without the high jump powerup. But even then, it's not terribly fun to navigate any of them. You're also going to spend a lot of time farming health to survive if you're not a super expert at the game.
All bosses play the same. They may look different, but they just jump around and hurl fireballs. Given this is such an early game, I can forgive it. The end comes pretty quickly - figure out which boss is real and kill him (easily if you have health) and you get a single ending screen.
I don't regret finally beating this one, and I do respect what's here. But Nintendo absolutely beats the pants off of it with Metroid. And perhaps that's a little unfair, since Metroid benefitted from the FDS storage space and their programming know-how, clocking in at 128KB to Milon's 64KB. But man, that's pretty impressive what they did with 64KB here, so again, props. I just wish it were more fun to control.
There's a couple of longplays that finish the game in about an hour, but a first run will take much closer to four hours. And suffice it to say, that's pretty egregious, much like Blaster Master, but at least the devs gave infinite continues, so you could keep hacking away at it. I used limited save states and occasionally consulted a guide when I'd forgotten some areas I'd been in due to taking large breaks from the game. I still really want to like this game, but... eh, objectively, I can't. I'd say it's a 4 or 4.5/10, but my brain wants to give it a 5 or 5.5 for the ambition. Just a few tweaks and it would be a fun romp.