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Post by anayo on Jan 3, 2018 22:30:37 GMT -5
The quality level of most portable games was definitely lower than consoles for the most part, but there were a few gems here and there. For the original Game Boy, for instance, Mega Man IV and V are both splendid. The version of Bionic Commando on Game Boy might actually be better than the NES game in some ways! Gargoyle's Quest is still a blast today. I certainly wouldn't take a Game Boy (or Game Gear) over the NES, but the system surprises despite its limitations, and modern screens have helped tremendously in that regard. I do actually have a brick gameboy and a gameboy color, I'll keep my eyes peeled for those carts. Aw man my cousin lent that to me when I was about 10. It was perfect cause I was still in that post-Ocarina-of-Time "Zelda is awesome" mindset. I made it all the way to the final dungeon where I got stuck. Before I could figure out what to do I had to return the game to my cousin. It never occurred to me to find a walkthrough online, either (I didn't do that until Majora's Mask, where I got my Dad to print an entire tome for me to get through the Stone Tower Temple).
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Post by Ex on Jan 3, 2018 22:46:53 GMT -5
2. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse | Genesis | 1990 | 7/10Sometimes I can remember when a game released as a kid. I remember as an eleven year old, when Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse did. I remember, because I was surprised to see this game get such glowing reviews in video gaming magazines at the time. I had never liked Mickey Mouse (still not really fond of him honestly), and to me this game looked childish and boring. I couldn't understand how adult gamers were so enamored with it. So despite the fact that I had a SEGA Genesis in 1990, when this game released, I never once rented Castle of Illusion, let alone requested it as a present. After having beaten Castle of Illusion as an adult, I have to say I doubt my eleven year old self would have been impressed with it after all. In 1990 I was playing stuff like Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Altered Beast, Revenge of Shinobi, and Sword of Vermilion. So no, Mickey's little game wouldn't have done much for me at that time. But now as an adult, I can understand why SEGA produced Castle of Illusion when they did. The Genesis needed some quality kid friendly games, to offset its more hardcore entries. And in that regard, Castle of Illusion's reception makes a lot more sense to me now. Well Castle of Illusion's plot concerns Minnie Mouse getting kidnapped by a witch, and Mickey having to rescue her from the witch's clutches within said witch's Castle of Illusion. To do so, Mickey will have to find a bunch of magic crystals that will enable him to reach the witch's lair. These crystals are scattered throughout five key areas, each having many stages within. Every area has a theme like creepy forest, toyland, or candy land. At the end of these areas, Mickey must defeat bosses to retrieve their crystal. The gameplay itself is standard platforming fair. Mickey can bounce off enemy heads to kill them, or throw projectiles at them instead. Mickey's jumping feels a bit too "floaty" for my tastes, but as such is more forgiving. Stage designs tend to be above average, with some really cool surprises at times. Unfortunately the creativity that loads the front end doesn't last till the end. Latter stages start to become hard for hard's sake, forgoing the same level of creative mischief seen earlier in the game. Graphically speaking, Castle of Illusion is a triumph for its time. The tiles and backgrounds are very colorful and well detailed, and the sprites animate fairly well. Unfortunately I found the OST to be fairly bland, if not kind of bad. As for the difficulty, Castle of Illusion starts off simple enough, but by the end of it, you may be gritting your teeth a fair bit. All in all, I had a decent time with this game. It got to be a bit too formulaic early on, with the base gameplay never evolving. However, I can respect Castle of Illusion. Not only did this game get ported to Game Gear (with some differences), but its popularity spawned quite a few sequels. I think it's safe to say that until Sonic the Hedgehog released a year later, Castle of Illusion was the best mascot platformer on the Genesis.
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 3, 2018 22:56:52 GMT -5
Latter stages start to become hard for hard's sake, forgoing the same level of creative mischief seen earlier in the game. One part that pissed me off from the little I played yesterday, was the weird floating leaves level. There was one health power up floating down below a leaf platform or two near the end of the level and I went for it, but there was no way to get back up to another leaf/platform to continue through the level from what I saw. Gah! I agree on the graphics getting a thumbs up and the music being average.
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Post by Ex on Jan 3, 2018 23:29:21 GMT -5
There was one health power up floating down below a leaf platform and I went for it, but there was no way to get back up to another leaf/platform to continue through the level I remember exactly what you're talking about, because that part got me too. That was a total troll moment by the level designers. The clock tower stage has some stuff like that too, except in the form of enemies hiding behind things. You can't see the bats until you jump and they fly from behind a platform, whacking Mickey in the face. It's mean spirited stuff like that which dragged the experience down for me to a 7/10. Also I was surprised this game didn't have a password system.
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Post by anayo on Jan 4, 2018 9:49:41 GMT -5
Ex, The colors in Castle of Illusion look gorgeous. That screenshot you posted with the orange/purple clouds and the sorceress boss in particular. Although for some reason I can tell it's from 1990 (without reading the date my guess was 1991). This isn't the first time I've noticed how Genesis games at the start of its sales life look very different from those released toward the end. It's not necessarily better or worse it's just a different feel. Chris Alaimo, the host of the YouTube channels Classic Gaming Quarterly and CGQ+ actually says he prefers the look of those earlier Genesis titles. Since I got my Genesis Christmas of '95 I think I prefer the later look, but I respect both. I wonder if this was just due to the artists' familiarity with 16-bit pixel artwork and animation or if it was that better tools/middleware came out later. I know that in the case of Genesis music Western developers were actually held back until the MS-DOS program "GEMS" was released on our shores (reference: How to make Sega Genesis music (in 1994))
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Post by Ex on Jan 4, 2018 12:23:56 GMT -5
The colors in Castle of Illusion look gorgeous. Yes they do, I agree. I was especially fond of this section's palette: The teal shades of the tree leaves are gorgeous. >I've noticed how Genesis games at the start of its sales life look very different from those released toward the end. I think the reason the Genesis games of the 1988-1991 era look the way they often do, is because developers were still working from an 8-bit mindset. They were using the techniques they'd learned during the 80s, which worked well for 8-bit platforms. These habits caused some distinct visual cues. For instance, now that the developers had access to a wider range of colors, the would choose softer hues for the borders of sprite work. In the image above, you can see that on Mickey's face around his eyes, and in the bark lines of the trees. Using softer hues like this didn't cause the same level of contrast as earlier 8-bit games had due to more limited palettes. Unfortunately on a CRT these faint border lines would often blur indistinctly. So later Genesis games started using harsher contrasting colors. Another tell-tale sign, is the way earlier Genesis games used dithering. Artists from the 80s were used to having to dither sparsely, because of palette and memory constraints. Later Genesis games' artists started dithering more tightly, and used gradient colors to fill in the dither. They had become comfortable with the Genesis' power and were utilizing it. Lastly it took a while for developers to become familiar with allocating Genesis' memory to larger tiles and sprites. I really think 1992 was the seachange year for Genesis games' graphics. You can see an example of what I mean by looking at the clouds in Sonic 1 & 2: Sonic 1's clouds are small, loosely dithered, no animation. A year later though: Sonic 2's clouds are big and fluffy, use more complex dithering, and even have animated reflections in the water.
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Post by Ex on Jan 4, 2018 17:47:58 GMT -5
3. Hyper Iria | Super Famicom | 1995 | 8/10
Hyper Iria is a Japan-only Super Famicom platformer, developed by TamTam, and published by Banpresto in 1995. Hyper Iria is licensed from the 1994 anime series "Iria: Zeiram the Animation". In 2016 the ROMhacking group Dynamic Designs released an English fan translation for Hyper Iria. That is the version this reviewer played. Hyper Iria's plot is loosely based on its anime source. Hyper Iria's take concerns a strong warrior named Iria working as a bounty hunter, living in a science fiction world. Iria takes odd jobs across its desolate landscape, just trying to stay alive mostly. Her work now involves stopping monsters which originate from an alien entity known as Zeiram. Iria's brother, Bob, died fighting Zeiram before. However, Bob's consciousness was uploaded into a portable computer that Iria carries with her. It is Iria and Bob's hope that her work will someday bring them directly in contact with Zeiram itself. So that Iria can enact revenge upon the deadly creature. Hyper Iria's gameplay is fairly complex for being a SFC platformer. Iria has the standard platformer moveset of walking, running (by double tapping a direction), jumping (double jumping actually). She can also attack various ways. Iria can standing kick, crouch kick, and jump kick. She has two weapon types to use as well, guns and explosives. What types of guns or explosives Iria uses on a mission, is up to the player. This is because as Iria completes missions, she gains money. This money can be spent in-between levels to purchase various types of guns, grenades, mines, as well as equipment upgrades. (Guns and bombs do have limited ammo by the way.) When Iria departs for a new mission, the player is able to outfit Iria from the current armory they've purchased. Iria will certainly need these offensive items, because in every mission she faces ferocious monster opposition. Sometimes mutants, sometimes robots, and sometimes Zeiram itself all try to kill her. Handling the enemies is one thing, but there's also the complexity of the levels to consider as well. Every level in Hyper Iria is huge, almost labyrinthine. Normally this would be terrible, but Iria has a trick up her sleeve. Her brother Bob acts as a navigation computer, telling Iria (or the player rather), which direction to go. As long as Iria listens to Bob, she won't get lost. But sometimes hidden items lie off the beaten path (ammo!), so only listening to Bob can cause the player to miss bonuses. In addition to the platforming gameplay, before every mission Iria must actually fly to her destination. In doing so, she uses a strange contraption (which was also in the anime). During these flying stages, Iria and Bob have conversations, while the player shoots at stuff. Yep, these are shmup styled intermissions! And they're pretty fun. Hyper Iria's presentation is rather great. It's very clean, colorful, and technically efficient. Iria looks as she does in the anime (especially during the beautiful cutscene artwork). Monsters appear suitably nasty and animate well (nicely splattering when they die). Background artwork is good, especially during the flying stages. The OST is above average, mostly focusing on a techno-rock vibe straight out of 90s anime land. The controls work well enough, even allowing the player to cycle weapon and ammo types with the L and R shoulder triggers. Iria does jump a tad stiffly, but the double jump lets the player correct mistakes. One possible negative is Hyper Iria suffers slowdown fairly often, although this can be a boon in a pinch. Honestly Hyper Iria's pacing is a bit languid overall, playing a bit more slowly than its peers. I think this is beneficial though, as it gives the gameplay a tactical feel, rather than an arcade one. Sometimes battles with mid-bosses and monsters benefit from this pacing. For example, using terrain to block a monster, while carefully lobbing grenades at its head. That sort of attack is easier to accomplish thanks to the slower speed of (the admittedly ironically named) Hyper Iria. As for the English fan translation, it's excellent. I certainly enjoyed reading Iria and Bob's banter with one another. Without being in English, the player would have no hope of navigating the levels sans Bob's help. I didn't go into Hyper Iria expecting much, but I came away happy with my time spent. Hyper Iria is a "thinking man's" platformer, a rare breed. I certainly recommend Hyper Iria to fans of its genre. Especially to fans of the "Iria: Zeiram the Animation" anime, as Hyper Iria does its source justice.
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 4, 2018 17:54:39 GMT -5
Wow that's a nice surprise. The OVA is one of my favorites of all time. The game sounds a bit Super Turrican-ish there with the open big levels, which could be cool. I'll need to check this one out for sure.
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Post by Ex on Jan 4, 2018 18:18:31 GMT -5
Wow that's a nice surprise. The OVA is one of my favorites of all time. The game sounds a bit Super Turrican-ish there with the open big levels, which could be cool. I'll need to check this one out for sure. I actually thought about you while I was playing it. "Would Xeogred like this? He loves the Iria anime... pretty sure he'd like this."What I'm less sure of is... I'll find out someday.
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 4, 2018 20:59:12 GMT -5
I knocked out Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse myself just now. I agree the backend loses some creativity and 5-1 was just a complete pain with trial and error parts... seemed impossible to dodge falling down that one platform drop in between three knights throwing axes, the surprise instant death goo at the end of a ramp, etc. The water level somewhere in the middle with the secret path to the end... I hate stuff like that haha. This game seriously needed the Sonic/Mario camera pan when you try to look down or up. And Mickey was a little too floaty and clunky to me, wish there was a run button to maneuver him better. The bosses were a mixed bag, I actually thought the toyland boss was pretty tough, then the water dragon one. Overall pretty cool though and worth a run.
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