Retro Games Beaten

Premise: Two bad guys doing bad guy things, to save one of the bad guy's daughter. These bad guys are killing other bad guys, but also killing good guys, willy-nilly. Eventually other bad guys join these bad guys, to make up a small platoon of bad guys the player(s) controls in real-time. You're gonna see some dark scenes and wallow in black humor. You're gonna rage at unpolished gameplay, a variety of glitches, and truly unbalanced difficulty.

+Local split-screen co-op campaign.

Ys Origin (PC)
~ 6h53m, Normal, Yunica

The year of Ys' redemption arc concludes, knocking out the final "solo" character Ys game this morning. I can see how Origin is a fan favorite for many. It does pretty much everything very well, the story/characters are likable, the level design is great, the combat is among the best Ys has ever been, the bosses are tough and always interesting, and the music never lets up. I still liked VI and Oath a great deal though, so I'm not sure I have a favorite among this trilogy, but they were all bangers for me and each had their own strengths. VI was a little too easy, but I loved how that one felt like VIII-Lite with its tropical setting and more laid back adventure feel at times. Just really liked how that game progressed. Oath took the blueprint of III and turned it into something awesome, dialing up the bosses to an 11 that were freaking tough as nails in spots, along with the least amount of checkpoints in its vast levels compared to the normal Ys game. Origin reeled back some of that difficulty in ways, yet the enemies were the most dynamic here and all the bosses were a fun challenge that could take a few tries. I love the towns in Ys games, but Origin being another brief scenario, I didn't mind the sole focus on the Darm Tower being the only main zone of the game. For long time Ys fans, this one is filled with some awesome fan service, music remixes, etc, setting the stage for when Adol appears all those years later. With this one having three playable characters, I could see it being one I revisit down the road. Excellent stuff. For me, this whole trilogy is must play stuff for fans of any of them.

I think that wraps up my Ys journey for the year. I need a big break and will probably spread out the modern ones a bit more, plus they sound longer.  I'm pretty excited to hit up of the rest of them though. If it isn't obvious, finally diving into Ys will be a big standout for me this year in gaming. Such an awesome series.

S: Ys VIII
A: Ys II, IV (Dawn), VI/Oath/Origin
B: Ys I, Ys III
C: Ys V

Yeah I'll probably return to Origin for the other characters someday.

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22. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers* (SNES) ~45m
23. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - The Fighting Edition (SNES) ~20m
24. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - The Movie (SNES) ~1h10m

So I just spent my Saturday blasting through some nostalgia while watching Power Rangers on the side (my BGM this week working from home haha).

First off, these games were developed by Natsume and with some standout composers, with the first SNES game featuring Mega Man X3 composer Kinuyo Yamashita. All these games are well above average for licensed material and pretty solid. The first is a single plane beat em' up where you progress through a level normally, then about midway in turn into a Power Ranger, and then there's a boss at the end. Everything looks, sounds, and feels pretty good, but it's rather braindead easy. Until the final boss fights in the Megazord robot stuff. They wanted you to sink your lives and continues on that last fight to do it all over again, hah. This really isn't a bad time for anyone familiar with the IP. I owned this game growing up and remember having a lot of fun with it then. Still good stuff.

The fighting game, I pretty much had a hunch immediately with this being Bandai produced, it probably was from the same team that did the Gundam Wing fight games on SNES. Seems to be the case. Stellar sprite work, awesome music, and honestly pretty solid 16bit fighting mechanics here. Nothing too deep, but it's a fun quick romp.

Then there's The Movie game. Finally, this one has quite a bite to it with the difficulty. I almost gave up on the first level and it was a bit off putting. But I stuck with it and am glad I did. In this one by killing the putty/soldier enemies, they drop some power emblem thing which fills up a bar that'll let you manually transform into a Power Ranger when you want. This is good, since transforming refills your health. You have 5 hit points, 2 lives, and a few continues. So you need everything you can get here. Most levels had a hamburger or two to fill one up slot of health, but that was it. Some levels have a 1up in spots and when you beat a level, you might get enough points to get a life as well. The levels were constantly interesting and changing up quite a bit, with some tough and complex boss fights as well. Oh yeah, there's the ability to jump between two planes using the shoulder buttons. A lot like Rolling Thunder in some way. This was my only nitpick, if you touch an enemy even by a hair while jumping back and forth, you take a hit. So don't expect any i-frames or trying to use that to escape. But it helped on some bosses. Rolling Thunder in general I think is a very solid comparison to how this game played and I even thought I was playing Shinobi in spots. I honestly think toei should give it a look. 2-Players is probably a bit easier. But it was fun and fine solo. This is one that kicks ass with or without the IP, just a solid SNES game when you get a feel for its mechanics. Nice surprise with this one.

Seems like the Genesis Power Rangers games are completely different. Might give those a look tonight.

IT'S MORPHIN TIME!