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Post by toei on Aug 3, 2024 20:32:03 GMT -5
There are multiple upgrades spread around the levels - weapon power, walking speed, and jump height all have several levels for each character. So you want to explore and build up your characters. As for the US version, it's easier. www.hardcoregaming101.net/shadow-blasters/"Bosses and enemies had their health cut down, while healing items and upgrades were made more plentiful, resulting in one of the easiest action titles on the Genesis. Even the American version’s Hard mode is easier than the Japanese’s Normal, which wasn’t exceptionally hard to begin with. While Shadow Blasters is still decent fun the first time around, Shiten Myooh is more involving and has more lasting value." |
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 3, 2024 20:39:37 GMT -5
Ahhh, that explains why I didn't know what half the power ups were even doing.  A manual probably explained them all. Otherwise they were tiny sprites with different shades of color. I kind of just took note of the obvious ones, health and full heals, then weapon power. Always went out of my way to get them but yeah haha.
Oh yeah, the final boss was pretty weird. Wasn't too bad once I got used to the controls. Still an odd one though, but nothing terribly frustrating.
I bet co-op was really fun with a friend on this one.
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Post by toei on Aug 4, 2024 5:59:16 GMT -5
I vaguely remembered that there was some kind of cosmic-scale fight at the end, so I pulled it up. IIRC it felt weird but was pretty easy once you got the handle of it. I like the concept of it anyway. The game definitely has its own flavor. It's the same team that made Saint Sword, but this one turned out better.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 4, 2024 12:28:21 GMT -5
Blades of Vengeance ~ 2h27m (bit more than I wanted, it was a rare time I just skimmed a YT vid not double checking HLTB haha)
INTENSE BATTLE WITH UNBELIEVABLE EVIL
Overall had a fun time with this one. Yet another Genesis game with an earlier vibe, despite this one coming out in 1993. Maybe it was just the dark fantasy setting they were really leaning into. Some good BGM in spots that's a bit groovier than expected at times though. Levels are fairly big, there were ~8 in this whole thing. They aren't really mazes but a bit non-linear. There's often some doors in the foreground you can go into that either lead to a small room (maybe a chest), or the next area of the level. Usually several screens worth per level. It does have a more Western flavor to it in ways, but not really in the European platformer way back then. I guess the devs here (Beam Software) were Australia based, so maybe that's why it feels a tad unique. Kind of a blend of a lot of stuff.
There's three playable characters, I went with the cool looking lady. Throughout the levels you'll find chests with items and some currency. Monsters also drop some of this stuff off and on as well. Pausing lets you cycle through the items. There's a lot of them and eventually I looked things up in a FAQ to make sure I knew exactly what they all did. You got normal health potions, invisibility potions, force field (invincible), strength up, some various screen clearing attacks. One was called "Midas" that turned enemies into currency, hah. When you beat a level there's some shop where you can spend all this, so your equipment carries over throughout the levels. You can carry more than 9 per item, that surprised me. But you'll be burning through a lot of these at times, especially health potions. The game isn't a cake walk and the bosses are pretty tough, maybe take a little too long as well. But they were all pretty solid and interesting, aside from the level 4 boss that was just like a super version of some tough lizardman enemy. The only method I found of beating this boss effectively was just spamming health/invincible potions. You only have ~2 lives too, but can buy them eventually. I took a few deaths along the way. There's some checkpoint system when you die, it was decently lenient thankfully.
After a few levels, you can buy "Armor" for a high price. This completely changes the character permanently. Whereas the female character starts off with a long sword, this switches her over to a crossbow. This was pretty nice at dealing with the stronger enemies in the back half, finally having some range. There were a lot of tough enemies where your only opening for hitting them is like a single second pixel/frame perfect moment, otherwise you get hit hard. Have to methodically take down some of them and be patient. The crossbow was awesome, but did make close encounters tougher than before. The sword was better for that.
First two levels were kind of generic caves, but nothing bad. After that though you start trekking through some cool dungeons and Keys become a thing, needed to get through some locked gates. There's poison gas, tricks and traps, elevators, ladders, etc. These were the cooler levels for sure and thankfully never got dizzying in a mazey way or whatever. One of the later levels was some castle section integrated into a forest, volcanic mountains in the background. The molten rock, grays, reds, and browns, all looked pretty cool and fitting for its theme.
Most annoying thing was maybe the fall damage. Kind of rare for a 2D game back then. Guess it forces you to slow down and be careful around those ladders.
By the end of the game, I was fairly loaded with items and the last boss was so massive on screen, it was yet another moment of just spamming items and trying to tank through it. Sometimes I think that's lazy design, but with all the items here, it was probably intentional for some boss fights I guess.
For some regulars here, I think some might enjoy this game. To what degree I don't know. But it was a fun Sunday morning spent for me.
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Post by Ex on Aug 4, 2024 12:53:18 GMT -5
You gotta play Sword of Sodan for Genesis next Xeogred. Love to see your reaction to that one. |
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 4, 2024 14:14:11 GMT -5
You gotta play Sword of Sodan for Genesis next Xeogred . Love to see your reaction to that one.  |
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 4, 2024 20:27:43 GMT -5
El Viento ~58 minutes
Yeah... this will go down as probably one of the weirdest games I play this year. My rough scratch notes along the way:
WTF was the second level?
Level 3...
Using the water ability to snake its way to health pickups you can only get by "attacks"
Level 4 boss, so many bubbles on screen, can't use normal attack?
- This level with all the weird chained platforms zooming around was like a Lost World level in Super Mario World, utterly bizarre and nonsensical. But I liked it. - Level 3 was the factory stage with all the "Oil" things to blow up and stuff. Pretty fun. Felt a bit Shinobi III-ish. - Thought that was a funny use for the water ability. There was like maybe ~5 of those health pick ups in the entire game, these weird apple-looking icons you couldn't touch. You had to attack them with something to get them. - The blob boss, it seemed like there was maybe so many sprites on screen, it nullified the normal boomerang attack. Weird one.
*drum roll* Last level and final boss were FREAKING HORRIBLE. It didn't ruin the quirky and fun journey overall, but that was beyond awful. The last level had those flying bat things to latch onto you and drain your health fast if you don't do anything. Only way to get them off you was to wiggle around spamming magic and attacks. Getting to the last boss with enough health was the real challenge. Then I just got lucky at some point being able to do a ton of rapid damage to the boss and got it eventually. Only one life the entire game? Well it was fairly easy up until this point.
Graphics were good but pretty wack. Hard to tell what you could and could not jump onto half the time. Music was great. The characters arsenal and move set was indeed pretty cool. I knew to give some ducking+jumping buttons a try since toei mentioned the crouch running thing. So weird, but cool.
Jank city but yeah there's some good charm here overall. Hopefully whoever designed the last level got slapped though.
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Post by toei on Aug 4, 2024 20:40:27 GMT -5
I had forgotten that last level. Back when I sucked at action games I couldn't beat the game because of it. I couldn't believe there wasn't some kind of trick. But no, you're really supposed to go as fast as you can while being harassed by bats and continually taking damage.
This is technically part of a loose trilogy, btw, but I can't recommend the other games. Annet Futatabi on the Sega CD is a beat-'em-up instead, but it's very janky. It's not unplayable or anything, but it's not great. Then Earnest Evans on the Genesis is a huge mess. Earnest himself is made up of multiple sprites and plays like a ragdoll, but in 2D. It's impossible to describe the experience of playing that game. It's worth goofing around with it at least for a laugh. I somehow beat it legit, so it does become playable if you put in enough time... but it's a broken game that wouldn't have come out in that state if it wasn't Telenet.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 4, 2024 21:20:47 GMT -5
I blasted through Power Rangers for SNES myself. Not much that Xeogred hasn't covered - the game's pretty easy until you hit the last versus fighter-style battle, then it gets tougher. I got it on my third try after I got a handle on a few cheese strats. Very solid game, not groundbreaking but programmed very well (Natsume), and the game does do a little bit of light platforming as well. I like that it has you go vertical with ceiling grabs and such, and there's even a wall jump. I wish they'd leveraged that even more, honestly! But it plays a lot like an easier version of Capcom's X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse or War of the Gems. It's not as good as those games, but I'd still give it a 7/10. Also, I saw Iku Mizutani's name - man's a legend with those NES soundtracks for Shadow of the Ninja and Shatterhand in my book. I will probably give the other games a look, too. I'm not sure if I played through the movie game or not, honestly. Blades of Vengeance is slick. Very Amiga-ish in ways. The lady is probably one of the best characters upgraded. The wizard is supposed to be really good, too. The swordsman is probably the worst when upgraded since he stays melee and that can get you into trouble. |
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 4, 2024 21:34:28 GMT -5
toei: Yeah I can easily see how the last level/final boss would have ended a lot of runs. It was rather easy up until that point. Funny enough the tank boss seemed kind of tough too though, the very first one I think. But after that level your health starts upgrading along the way at points (score maybe?) and nothing really damaged you too much, until those stupid homing bat things. Was kind of insane the last level only had one minor health potion in some spot. I didn't really see much else to refill up with before the final boss. Just had to zoom through or get lucky. Think I'll pass on those other games, but maybe see how bad Earnest Evans is. It can't be Sword of Sodan bad right? (still assuming Ex was joking about name dropping that one). Sarge: Definitely curious on your take with the movie Power Rangers game. Just keep in mind what toei and I experienced, the first level is kind of annoying and drags. But I really enjoyed it after that. It's got a bit more depth to it than the first SNES game in ways, so I liked that. And yeah, that final boss in the first game took me a few tries haha. Think I figure out some uppercut move or something that did huge damage and just stuck with that. Felt like a bit of luck either way.
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A manual probably explained them all. Otherwise they were tiny sprites with different shades of color. I kind of just took note of the obvious ones, health and full heals, then weapon power. Always went out of my way to get them but yeah haha.
