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Post by toei on Mar 11, 2019 11:25:56 GMT -5
I just realized last night that I never actually beat Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, so I might just aim for that one too before the end of the month.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 11, 2019 13:43:51 GMT -5
Dragon's Trap might be my favorite SMS game. Although I didn't play on the SMS, so I guess I can't count it? I'll reiterate again, though, that the changes to the game via the remaster are so infinitesimal outside of graphics and sound that I might as well have been playing there. The gameplay certainly feels 8-bit, but I think it has aged remarkably well, and is the primary reason that remaster worked.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 11, 2019 17:10:38 GMT -5
I've never even heard of this! Looks amazing. I should be getting my 8bitdo Genesis pad this week hopefully so maybe I'll hit some stuff up. Also turns out "Sonic Blast" is just another sidescroller, maybe it's decent. It's got the DKC styled graphics so it seems insane they got that working on an 8bit system.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 11, 2019 17:17:22 GMT -5
Well, they did bring DKC to the Game Boy as well, so... yep. (And for the record, I enjoyed the heck out of Donkey Kong Land.)
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Post by Ex on Mar 11, 2019 20:54:50 GMT -5
I've never even heard of this! Looks amazing. For 8-bit it's quite good. Here's CGRundertow's review: If you enjoyed the first two SMS Sonic games, you should really enjoy this one.
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Post by Ex on Mar 12, 2019 11:04:48 GMT -5
14. Fantasy Zone | Master System | 1986"Fantasy Zone" is a shmup developed and published by SEGA for the Master System in 1986. The Master System version is a port of the 1985 arcade original. "Fantasy Zone" is notable for being a forerunner of the "cute 'em up" shmup sub-genre, as well as introducing the character Opa-Opa. Opa-Opa is a sentient spaceship that acted as SEGA's first mascot before Alex Kidd or Sonic. In "Fantasy Zone" Opa-Opa must fend off of an invading army from annihilating his beloved Fantasy Zone world. "Fantasy Zone" consists of eight colorful stages (though the eighth is just a boss rush and then the final boss). In each stage, Opa-Opa must destroy enemy bases, once all the bases are gone, Opa-Opa can fight the stage boss. Stages are filled with mobile shooting enemies, and said bases can attack as well. Every time Opa-Opa destroys an enemy, it drops coins. Coins are collected and spent at Shops. Shops are where the player can upgrade Opa-Opa's capabilities. Giving Opa-Opa better shooting capability, improved bombs, and faster speed. However when Opa-Opa dies, he loses all of his upgrades, which can be a devastating loss when fighting a boss. +Colorful stages full of cartoonish mayhem. +Being able to load out your ship capabilities mid-stage is cool. +Cute everything. +Unexpected twist ending adds emotional gravitas. +Opa-Opa is a great character in general. -Die and lose all your power-ups. -Last 5% of the game represents a massive difficulty spike. -Some enemy projectiles are unfairly small. -Lame boss rush for the "last stage". -Final boss is impossible without the single right bomb type. With better difficulty balancing, "Fantasy Zone" on Master System would be a real classic. (It's quite possible one of the other myriad ports of this game has better balancing.) The cute graphics and alien landscapes are certainly inviting. Unfortunately late-game difficulty spikes come across as incompetently sadistic as opposed to challenging, and thus ruins the fun ride. I really like the concept of "Fantasy Zone", and Opa-Opa himself is a cool character. Thankfully SEGA learned a lot from this outing, and successfully implemented that knowledge into the sequel "Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa". Ex's time to beat: 37 minutes Ex's rating: 6/10
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Post by Sarge on Mar 12, 2019 11:43:35 GMT -5
I feel like I'm doing a disservice not posting pictures with my thoughts like Ex is. Great writeup. I beat my own game last night, though, and it's Asterix! So let's talk about that for a sec. From what I can see, Sega also developed this one, and the controls feel quite similar to the Mickey games. It wouldn't surprise me if it's the same engine. For such a powerful console, there's quite a bit of slowdown, even with a fairly minimal number of sprites on screen, so I don't know if that's a system limitation or some iffy coding. Land of Illusion had the same issues. It doesn't impact the experience too negatively, though! While I don't think this was as good as Land of Illusion, being more straightforward in nature, it was still a very competent hop-and-bop with some mild puzzle-platforming. Much like those Mickey games, the graphics are bright and colorful, and I think represent the source material well. Despite being a "kids" game, though, there are still significant platforming challenges with some very tight timings. A few of them can be a little finicky control-wise, too. Again, though, not enough to drag the experience down too much. One of the cooler things is that you can control either Asterix or Obelix. This completely changes how you approach the game, as they have different abilities, and this often leads to taking different routes through each stage. It's pretty cool, actually! If I revisit the game, it'll be to play as Obelix, since I exclusively played as Asterix after the first level. I'd say if you're a platformer aficionado, you'll enjoy this game. While I don't think it was amazing, I do think it was good, so I'll give 'er a 7/10.
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Post by toei on Mar 12, 2019 12:29:28 GMT -5
Ex Fantasy Zone was actually the game that popularized the boss rush, so at the time it would have been new and probably quite impressive (though I'm not generally a fan of them, either). In the shmuplations interview, the creator explains that he thought of Fantasy Zone as a "boss game", and put most of his energy on them - he felt it would have been a waste to only use them once, so he brought them back for the final stage. He also says that the reason the levels are looping areas where you have to kill ten bases to progress rather than standard side-scrolling stages was that he wasn't good at shmups and preferred games like Pac-Man - to him, having to kill those ten enemies was similar to collecting the dots.
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Post by Ex on Mar 12, 2019 12:37:50 GMT -5
For such a powerful console, there's quite a bit of slowdown I've run into slowdown in plenty of SMS games, even the Sonic ones. I think the SMS was great at detailed and colorful sprites, but its capability to handle multiple moving sprites without slowdown appears to be lacking. he wasn't good at shmups and preferred games like Pac-Man Ah ha, so that's why this exists!:
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Post by Sarge on Mar 12, 2019 12:56:04 GMT -5
I still wonder how much of that was inherent system limitations, or just talent drain from Nintendo dominating the market. I think I might do some more research today and see if I can get to the bottom of it. (I was looking a bit yesterday, because of course I was.)
Also, is it just me, or does the SMS seem to handle sprite flickering differently than the NES? I definitely know it's there, as I started paying attention finally, and it was really clear in something like R-Type. But for whatever reason, I haven't really noticed it quite as much on the SMS. (Or it just could be that I'm so used to it from the NES that I almost don't see it unless it means shots are disappearing and killing me.)
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