Angel_Arle
1994
Sugoi Hebereke is an interesting game. It's a 4 player arena fighting game where you can use the cast from the famicom game Hebereke. They were in a couple of other spinoffs before this but I find this one the most interesting.
So what makes this game stick out is that it's not a 2D fighter like everything was trying to be like Street Fighter 2 or Mortal Kombat. This one is an overhead arena 4 player fighting game. It kind of reminds of something like Super Smash Bros. where it even has hazards and items just like that game.
Now the fighting overall is a little half baked, not having the manual for this game also won't help because it took me several sessions to learn certain moves and even then, there's still one move I can't figure out how to do. But what is very upsetting is the hazards are horribly done. You can get on top of some things to activate them like statues that stick their tongue out but the problem is that if you hit an opponent like this they just take no damage and at least with the AI I fought, they aren't smart dealing with some of these make camping a great idea. Also there are no ring outs and that seems odd to me but maybe they thought that could have caused problems IDK I'm not a game designer.
If you thought that was the worst part about the game its actually the slow down. Geez the slow down is so bad, the game really wants you to do 4 player matches but with so many sprites, it causes the game to slow down a lot and it can be atrocious at points, like when the music is slowing down as you win a round, there is a problem.
The presentation is nice at least, its got the charming cast of Hebereke and their voice clips also have some charm to them. The music also has some good tracks, give it a listen if you ever have a chance. Graphically it is good too but again the slowdown is just bad that it's hard for me to be too positive.
Overall I just feel mixed about it, this probably is a fun game if you have friends to play with but it probably won't last you long once you start playing it for the first time with only CPUs. There's just not enough here and the fighting is just not deep enough for me to stay invested. It's on the Super Famicom Online for Switch so if you are ever curious, go load that up and play it there. Though it sadly locks away 3-4 player mode due to the online only allowing 2 players so be aware of that when telling friends you want to play it with them.
So what makes this game stick out is that it's not a 2D fighter like everything was trying to be like Street Fighter 2 or Mortal Kombat. This one is an overhead arena 4 player fighting game. It kind of reminds of something like Super Smash Bros. where it even has hazards and items just like that game.
Now the fighting overall is a little half baked, not having the manual for this game also won't help because it took me several sessions to learn certain moves and even then, there's still one move I can't figure out how to do. But what is very upsetting is the hazards are horribly done. You can get on top of some things to activate them like statues that stick their tongue out but the problem is that if you hit an opponent like this they just take no damage and at least with the AI I fought, they aren't smart dealing with some of these make camping a great idea. Also there are no ring outs and that seems odd to me but maybe they thought that could have caused problems IDK I'm not a game designer.
If you thought that was the worst part about the game its actually the slow down. Geez the slow down is so bad, the game really wants you to do 4 player matches but with so many sprites, it causes the game to slow down a lot and it can be atrocious at points, like when the music is slowing down as you win a round, there is a problem.
The presentation is nice at least, its got the charming cast of Hebereke and their voice clips also have some charm to them. The music also has some good tracks, give it a listen if you ever have a chance. Graphically it is good too but again the slowdown is just bad that it's hard for me to be too positive.
Overall I just feel mixed about it, this probably is a fun game if you have friends to play with but it probably won't last you long once you start playing it for the first time with only CPUs. There's just not enough here and the fighting is just not deep enough for me to stay invested. It's on the Super Famicom Online for Switch so if you are ever curious, go load that up and play it there. Though it sadly locks away 3-4 player mode due to the online only allowing 2 players so be aware of that when telling friends you want to play it with them.
1991
Yoshi is a game I really want to like but it's just something I can't really get into. It's a puzzle game similar to the later Yoshi game, Yoshi's Cookie. But unlike that game where I have some appreciation for it, not much of that is here.
So the goal of Yoshi is to stack enemies onto eggs and sandwhich them with the other half of the egg to hatch a Yoshi. You'll move Mario to move the 4 stacks around so enemies will land on the correct one but to me the problem I have is that it's just too boring, even when you get the best Yoshi possible to hatch, it's just not satisfying.
There's also another mode where you have to clear every enemy on a board and I have to say this, I swear it feels luck based, sometimes you'll have an easy time getting rid of all of them but sometimes the game just doesn't get me the right enemies to poof them away. I get this can be a problem in other puzzle games too but here it feels the most annoying.
There's also multiplayer that uses the 2nd game mode but I didn't play much of it cause the person I played with didn't have a good time.
The presentation is nice. It's got some decent graphics to it and the music is pretty good and is composed by the same person who composes for Pokemon. In fact, I have failed to mention that this game was actually made by GameFreak so that's pretty interesting to see them make games before Pokemon.
Yeah I don't really have much to say, it's not really worth your time nowadays to actually go play this game. There are much better puzzle games you could be playing now, it's honestly a shame Nintendo isn't legally allowed to rerelease Yoshi's Cookie because I would have definitely preferred that one on the NES/Famicom Online for Switch.
So the goal of Yoshi is to stack enemies onto eggs and sandwhich them with the other half of the egg to hatch a Yoshi. You'll move Mario to move the 4 stacks around so enemies will land on the correct one but to me the problem I have is that it's just too boring, even when you get the best Yoshi possible to hatch, it's just not satisfying.
There's also another mode where you have to clear every enemy on a board and I have to say this, I swear it feels luck based, sometimes you'll have an easy time getting rid of all of them but sometimes the game just doesn't get me the right enemies to poof them away. I get this can be a problem in other puzzle games too but here it feels the most annoying.
There's also multiplayer that uses the 2nd game mode but I didn't play much of it cause the person I played with didn't have a good time.
The presentation is nice. It's got some decent graphics to it and the music is pretty good and is composed by the same person who composes for Pokemon. In fact, I have failed to mention that this game was actually made by GameFreak so that's pretty interesting to see them make games before Pokemon.
Yeah I don't really have much to say, it's not really worth your time nowadays to actually go play this game. There are much better puzzle games you could be playing now, it's honestly a shame Nintendo isn't legally allowed to rerelease Yoshi's Cookie because I would have definitely preferred that one on the NES/Famicom Online for Switch.
Sonic Spinball is a game I have no nostalgia for. I've seen a couple lets plays for it on Youtube but that's about it. The only pinball games I have played before this was Kirby's Pinball Land and Mario Pinball Land, both games I could never beat. But since I want to do a video review of Spinball someday, why not give it a try?
Sonic Spinball is actually interesting in the sense of it's made by people in North America, something to my knowledge was never done before. While a japan release was made and gave him a more japanese design on the cover, the game still uses a more American Sonic design and even has characters from the American cartoons.
In this game you must guide Sonic through 4 pinball tables collecting chaos emeralds and beating up bosses. Now I'm guessing the developers who made this clearly just didn't give a fuck about continuity because there are 16 Chaos emeralds in this game and they are all blue, wouldn't it make more sense to make them all green if they were going to choose one color?
Enough with the dumb nitpicks from me, how does it play? Well it's kind of a mixed bag, you can control Sonic's movement a bit as you are moving around the table and can even sometimes move on foot though the physics are very wonky and bad. In fact the game's collision as a whole is poor. On my 2nd attempt of beating the game, I clipped through a barrier that I was suppose to hit 2 objects before making them disappear and there were many times I should have died but Sonic just clips through the flipper when he's under it.
The boards themselves are for the most part fun, They aren't too hazardous and it's not too hard to get to the emeralds you need, though if you're not too good with pinball, you might get stuck on them for a while. I was actually having a good time going through 75% of this game. It's just that last board is so painful...
The Showdown is a horrible level, the beginning part of the table is what pisses me off. I usually didn't have issues with the ones in the other stages but I had moments where I would just keep dying on the sides because I didn't have the rocks out. But what makes it worse is the other sides of the table also have lava pits making it more stressful and if you die, you are back on that one part of the table I despise. This board alone made me go from a 6/10 to 5/10.
In fact I still technically haven't beaten the game the legitimate way, I used the code to take me straight to the 4th board so I guess it wasn't a true win. One day though I will do it legit and I'll make an edit to this review when I do and talk about it. I'm honestly proud I was even able to get to the last board without having to use a code for the 2nd or 3rd boards.
Besides that big complaint though, I do enjoy the other boards and they weren't too awfully designed in my opinion. Though I swear I die too much on Lava Powerhouse, it's not even hard I just am bad at it for some reason.
There's also bonus stages at the end of each stage and they are completely different from the normal gameplay. It involves Sonic playing an actual pinball machine with a different objective for each stage. The first one is breaking animal capsules rescuing characters from the SatAM show. The second one is trying to destroy Robotnik's teeth and the last one is destroying a Sonic 2 styled capsule surrounded by multiple Scratch robots. There's also a hidden one if you get every ring but sadly I wasn't able to get it, I'm also not sure what you get for winning these because I'm still trash at pinball. Now I'm thinking about it though, where is the tilt option? Isn't that suppose to be a thing in Pinball. I know Kirby's Pinball Land has it so I'm confused.
The presentation is fine, I'm not too big on the American designs though that might be because I didn't grow up with the series back then. I do like the scoreboard thing going on at the top of the screen always having something to say even if a lot of it is pretty cheesy. I don't know how to feel about the music, I think some songs have good melodies but I just hate the way they sound on this game, especially with songs like the options theme, it's so ear grating. Even some of the sound effects are awful like when you are hitting the first boss.
You know despite the issues I had with this game, I still had some fun with it? Like I notice lots of people say it's a bad game and while I can easily see why I don't really agree and I just can't put it into good words. Yeah it's a very flawed game and it's easily Sonic's worst game on the system but you could do worst honestly, it's better than Mario Pinball Land if that means anything. I'd say give it a few tries if you have never played this game, you might have some fun like I did. If I ever play another pinball game, it'll probably be one of those Compile ones on the PC Engine.
Sonic Spinball is actually interesting in the sense of it's made by people in North America, something to my knowledge was never done before. While a japan release was made and gave him a more japanese design on the cover, the game still uses a more American Sonic design and even has characters from the American cartoons.
In this game you must guide Sonic through 4 pinball tables collecting chaos emeralds and beating up bosses. Now I'm guessing the developers who made this clearly just didn't give a fuck about continuity because there are 16 Chaos emeralds in this game and they are all blue, wouldn't it make more sense to make them all green if they were going to choose one color?
Enough with the dumb nitpicks from me, how does it play? Well it's kind of a mixed bag, you can control Sonic's movement a bit as you are moving around the table and can even sometimes move on foot though the physics are very wonky and bad. In fact the game's collision as a whole is poor. On my 2nd attempt of beating the game, I clipped through a barrier that I was suppose to hit 2 objects before making them disappear and there were many times I should have died but Sonic just clips through the flipper when he's under it.
The boards themselves are for the most part fun, They aren't too hazardous and it's not too hard to get to the emeralds you need, though if you're not too good with pinball, you might get stuck on them for a while. I was actually having a good time going through 75% of this game. It's just that last board is so painful...
The Showdown is a horrible level, the beginning part of the table is what pisses me off. I usually didn't have issues with the ones in the other stages but I had moments where I would just keep dying on the sides because I didn't have the rocks out. But what makes it worse is the other sides of the table also have lava pits making it more stressful and if you die, you are back on that one part of the table I despise. This board alone made me go from a 6/10 to 5/10.
In fact I still technically haven't beaten the game the legitimate way, I used the code to take me straight to the 4th board so I guess it wasn't a true win. One day though I will do it legit and I'll make an edit to this review when I do and talk about it. I'm honestly proud I was even able to get to the last board without having to use a code for the 2nd or 3rd boards.
Besides that big complaint though, I do enjoy the other boards and they weren't too awfully designed in my opinion. Though I swear I die too much on Lava Powerhouse, it's not even hard I just am bad at it for some reason.
There's also bonus stages at the end of each stage and they are completely different from the normal gameplay. It involves Sonic playing an actual pinball machine with a different objective for each stage. The first one is breaking animal capsules rescuing characters from the SatAM show. The second one is trying to destroy Robotnik's teeth and the last one is destroying a Sonic 2 styled capsule surrounded by multiple Scratch robots. There's also a hidden one if you get every ring but sadly I wasn't able to get it, I'm also not sure what you get for winning these because I'm still trash at pinball. Now I'm thinking about it though, where is the tilt option? Isn't that suppose to be a thing in Pinball. I know Kirby's Pinball Land has it so I'm confused.
The presentation is fine, I'm not too big on the American designs though that might be because I didn't grow up with the series back then. I do like the scoreboard thing going on at the top of the screen always having something to say even if a lot of it is pretty cheesy. I don't know how to feel about the music, I think some songs have good melodies but I just hate the way they sound on this game, especially with songs like the options theme, it's so ear grating. Even some of the sound effects are awful like when you are hitting the first boss.
You know despite the issues I had with this game, I still had some fun with it? Like I notice lots of people say it's a bad game and while I can easily see why I don't really agree and I just can't put it into good words. Yeah it's a very flawed game and it's easily Sonic's worst game on the system but you could do worst honestly, it's better than Mario Pinball Land if that means anything. I'd say give it a few tries if you have never played this game, you might have some fun like I did. If I ever play another pinball game, it'll probably be one of those Compile ones on the PC Engine.
2013
This review contains spoilers
So first off I played this on Switch, I know that's like it's own page but it also has the 2nd game which I haven't played so I'm writing it here.
So I didn't really have any expectations when going into this but my god this was so boring. This game tries to be many games like Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Diablo. Hell even the credits say this. But if you're going to be similar to those or be meta about the game as a whole, how about you know be a fun game?
So it starts off as this basic looking game till you eventually go 3D with all these other things you get like improved textures, cinematic camera angles, and improved music.
The gameplay first starts off like Zelda and you'll even get stuff like Hearts, a bow, the Buster Sword, and bombs. Hell your character is even named Clink by default. The enemies are your knockoff brand Zelda 1 enemies though at least when you go 3D your character gets the link to the past swinging.
Now first off I have to ask why is it in this game you can move in eight directions but the bow can only be shot in four? Now you might say Link to the Past also did that but you see in that game, you always faced four directions, Link never faced diagonally when going those directions, so it was fine when he did it.
These sections are just so basic, they try to later put these crystals where it takes you back to the more simpler 2D sections to change stuff in the future but its nothing that deep. Also screw those sections where they have trap floors, Tapping the control pad repeatedly to move around and not fall is boring room design!
When you get to the Final Fantasy knockoff stuff, it's the most boring RPG combat I have ever done in my life. Like when Nakayoshi to Issho has better RPG battles then your game does, you have a problem. Also what's with some of the enemies looking like super realistic Mario enemies? Is this kind of stuff just not for me or something?!
You also get the not Aerith of your team who's basically just heal and nothing else and I should point out it just has infinite uses for it.
There's also some towns you can go into and by towns I mean 2. One even had fake load times that you can even buy to get rid of which I didn't do. Also in this town they at one part just make you walk back and forth to find who has the bombs and if this was meant to be a joke about fetch quest well it wasn't funny.
There's also these Diablo parts where like look I don't play Diablo, I probably never will I got nothing out of these besides getting to play as the not Aerith. You just mindlessly mash the attack button and get items that have not funny descriptions and there is even one that just straight up uses a Creeper face from Minecraft.
Later you fight a not Sephiroth and he does a literal move from Dragon Ball, like where the hell did that come from? The not aerith dies and you get her dad's airship to go fight him one more time in this really lame boss fight and you just win like what the heck was that!? If there is more then I guess I'll never find out what that is because that was really lame.
You can find these stars if you want to 100% but IDK what you get for them, I don't care enough to do it. Same goes for the cards, you can play this minigame from them that's probably a reference to something. It actually was probably the most fun I had with the game. Though if I have to complain, I hate how getting these cards just tell you what they are for as early as the beginning, kind of ruins the immersion of like upgrading this world.
The presentation is bland and boring, nothing about the graphics stick out to me and it feels like it was probably intentionally done that way so I guess it's not the worst but like even the music is boring. I just don't really have much to say. Though one huge complain I have is the game stutters sometimes, is this a Switch issue? I would like to know if anyone knows. It feels like the game isn't fully stable sometimes.
I just didn't like this game I'm sorry, am I just missing something here or is this just not a game meant for me? That felt like 2 hours wasted, the most I got out of it was laughing at the not Sephiroth using a Dragon Ball move. Now hopefully the sequel is better but after playing this, I have no expectations it'll even be higher then a 4, maybe a 5 for me. Only time will tell though, one day I'll play it. For others, just go play a different game that is based off these genres.
So I didn't really have any expectations when going into this but my god this was so boring. This game tries to be many games like Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Diablo. Hell even the credits say this. But if you're going to be similar to those or be meta about the game as a whole, how about you know be a fun game?
So it starts off as this basic looking game till you eventually go 3D with all these other things you get like improved textures, cinematic camera angles, and improved music.
The gameplay first starts off like Zelda and you'll even get stuff like Hearts, a bow, the Buster Sword, and bombs. Hell your character is even named Clink by default. The enemies are your knockoff brand Zelda 1 enemies though at least when you go 3D your character gets the link to the past swinging.
Now first off I have to ask why is it in this game you can move in eight directions but the bow can only be shot in four? Now you might say Link to the Past also did that but you see in that game, you always faced four directions, Link never faced diagonally when going those directions, so it was fine when he did it.
These sections are just so basic, they try to later put these crystals where it takes you back to the more simpler 2D sections to change stuff in the future but its nothing that deep. Also screw those sections where they have trap floors, Tapping the control pad repeatedly to move around and not fall is boring room design!
When you get to the Final Fantasy knockoff stuff, it's the most boring RPG combat I have ever done in my life. Like when Nakayoshi to Issho has better RPG battles then your game does, you have a problem. Also what's with some of the enemies looking like super realistic Mario enemies? Is this kind of stuff just not for me or something?!
You also get the not Aerith of your team who's basically just heal and nothing else and I should point out it just has infinite uses for it.
There's also some towns you can go into and by towns I mean 2. One even had fake load times that you can even buy to get rid of which I didn't do. Also in this town they at one part just make you walk back and forth to find who has the bombs and if this was meant to be a joke about fetch quest well it wasn't funny.
There's also these Diablo parts where like look I don't play Diablo, I probably never will I got nothing out of these besides getting to play as the not Aerith. You just mindlessly mash the attack button and get items that have not funny descriptions and there is even one that just straight up uses a Creeper face from Minecraft.
Later you fight a not Sephiroth and he does a literal move from Dragon Ball, like where the hell did that come from? The not aerith dies and you get her dad's airship to go fight him one more time in this really lame boss fight and you just win like what the heck was that!? If there is more then I guess I'll never find out what that is because that was really lame.
You can find these stars if you want to 100% but IDK what you get for them, I don't care enough to do it. Same goes for the cards, you can play this minigame from them that's probably a reference to something. It actually was probably the most fun I had with the game. Though if I have to complain, I hate how getting these cards just tell you what they are for as early as the beginning, kind of ruins the immersion of like upgrading this world.
The presentation is bland and boring, nothing about the graphics stick out to me and it feels like it was probably intentionally done that way so I guess it's not the worst but like even the music is boring. I just don't really have much to say. Though one huge complain I have is the game stutters sometimes, is this a Switch issue? I would like to know if anyone knows. It feels like the game isn't fully stable sometimes.
I just didn't like this game I'm sorry, am I just missing something here or is this just not a game meant for me? That felt like 2 hours wasted, the most I got out of it was laughing at the not Sephiroth using a Dragon Ball move. Now hopefully the sequel is better but after playing this, I have no expectations it'll even be higher then a 4, maybe a 5 for me. Only time will tell though, one day I'll play it. For others, just go play a different game that is based off these genres.
1997
This review contains spoilers
Mega Man X4 was an interesting game in the series, unlike the previous game, this wasn't outsourced and we have the main team again for this. Though unlike Classic Mega Man's lackluster debut to 32 bit consoles, X4 would make a much better attempt and I'll talk about it for a bit.
I'm not going to go too much into the plot but I didn't really put too much attention on it. It's weird to me because I have played this game like three times and I still don't feel like I fully understand it. I will say the awful dub does make feeling anything from them basically impossible, it's just as awful as it was in 8. I'd recommend playing Rockman X4 if you want to get more out of the story with its much better voice acting. (If you can even understand japanese that is.)
Screw the story though let me actually talk about what makes this game very good, the gameplay. So the biggest innovation is that Zero is now a fully separate playable character, which is a big improvement from what they did in X3. This means you can have two different experiences with X or Zero though they still will go through the same stages. The biggest change is how they go through the story and they also both get a unique boss later in the game.
First let me talk about X. He is pretty much everything you expect if you have played any of the previous 3 games. The only new thing added for X was the new armor X can get which is called the Fourth Armor. Getting each part can give you abilities like a hover, an air dash, double defense, infinite energy on special weapons as long as you don't charge them, a special attack called the Nova Strike and you can even choose from two buster upgrades. One of them lets you store multiple charges and the other lets you shoot an even bigger charge shot that I'm personally more a fan of.
The special weapons didn't really have too much use for me sadly, maybe I should experiment more in a future playthrough but as of right now I felt more comfortable just using the buster.
Another thing you can do is if you do several button inputs before selecting X and then get an armor piece, you'll be awarded the Ultimate Armor. This armor is busted, not only do you get all the armor benefits already but you get infinite uses of the Nova Strike making the game pretty much no challenge. Use this armor if you want to feel unstoppable for most of the game.
Now we have the "new" playable character Zero. He introduces a new way to combat enemies. This is with the help of the Z Saber. Now while past games in X and Classic have used melee weapons before, this is the first time where its the huge focus of the gameplay. Zero can do a 3 slash combo and slash in the air as well. Zero can also dash and wall kick like X can. He will also need to collect heart tanks like X to raise his health though Zero has no way of getting armor upgrades so make sure you get heart tanks if you can.
What really makes Zero fun is when you beat bosses, you can get abilities that affect your movement like double jump and air dash or some new moves to your saber like being able to spin in the air with it and a long range electric move that stays out for a few seconds. You'll be making lots of uses for these as not only do they not use energy, they are as easy as holding a direction or just pressing the special attack button to do them. Zero can also get this giga attack and is the only move that actually requires energy. This makes Zero a really capable fighter in the later half of the game and it can sometimes make him even more fun then X.
Like the previous games you'll be fighting 8 mavericks going through each stage beating them one by one and then being able to go to the last few levels in the game. The levels in this game can be pretty fun though it's more of the same for the most part. There are some pretty fun levels like Cyber Peacock's first half is going as fast as you can to get fast times to get the upgrades awarded for the S rank times. In fact the only level I don't really like is Jet Stingray's level. It's this level where you use this hovercraft like vehicle and it feels very trial and error and I never enjoy it when I have to play it. It's arguable that some of the levels play a bit too safe like Web Spider's stage but to me I don't mind because the levels are just so much fun to just play in.
Sub tanks from past games also return though there's only 2 in this game with the other 2 being replaced with new tanks called a Weapon tank and Mystery Tank. The weapon tank refills any weapon energy depleted back to full similar to the one from the classic series. The mystery tank will make it so you'll start with 5 lives instead of 3. Though these won't really be that useful due to this game's difficulty.
The game is actually pretty easy this time, even game over's in this game aren't punishing since getting one on the second half will now just restart you on the second half. The game will even refill your weapon energy if you happen to die. A lot of the levels also just aren't hard to begin with either excluding Jet Stingray's level where I probably died like 15 times.
Then you have the bosses, if you disliked how easy they were in past games, you won't like them here either. A lot of them reset their pattern when hit with a weakness making them real easy to get stuck in a loop. Granted you could just defeat them without the weakness, I still was never huge on them being a joke with the weakness. The only boss in the game that really gives me trouble is the final boss. It has 3 forms and while I can beat the first two forms easily, it's the stupid last form that gets me so much, I think it's more me just playing bad but it took many tries to beat it but damn it feels nice winning the fight.
The game's presentation is pretty good, the jump from 16 bit to 32 bit really shows and lots of environments look really nice. Though not all of it is great, the 3D stairs area in Split Mushroom's stage hasn't really aged that well but still most of the other stuff is still great. The music also shines well here too. There's some great theme's for Cyber Peacock, Frost Walrus, Web Spider, and many more. There's even two japanese songs for the intro and ending if you play Rockman X4 and they sound nice though I feel like the ending music feels kind of unfitting for what the ending of this game is.
Overall Mega Man X4 is a very good game that you should consider playing if you haven't at this point. As of right now it's my second favorite X game and while it does have its problems for me to give it a 10 or even a 9, it's still a must play for people who like these kind of games.
I'm not going to go too much into the plot but I didn't really put too much attention on it. It's weird to me because I have played this game like three times and I still don't feel like I fully understand it. I will say the awful dub does make feeling anything from them basically impossible, it's just as awful as it was in 8. I'd recommend playing Rockman X4 if you want to get more out of the story with its much better voice acting. (If you can even understand japanese that is.)
Screw the story though let me actually talk about what makes this game very good, the gameplay. So the biggest innovation is that Zero is now a fully separate playable character, which is a big improvement from what they did in X3. This means you can have two different experiences with X or Zero though they still will go through the same stages. The biggest change is how they go through the story and they also both get a unique boss later in the game.
First let me talk about X. He is pretty much everything you expect if you have played any of the previous 3 games. The only new thing added for X was the new armor X can get which is called the Fourth Armor. Getting each part can give you abilities like a hover, an air dash, double defense, infinite energy on special weapons as long as you don't charge them, a special attack called the Nova Strike and you can even choose from two buster upgrades. One of them lets you store multiple charges and the other lets you shoot an even bigger charge shot that I'm personally more a fan of.
The special weapons didn't really have too much use for me sadly, maybe I should experiment more in a future playthrough but as of right now I felt more comfortable just using the buster.
Another thing you can do is if you do several button inputs before selecting X and then get an armor piece, you'll be awarded the Ultimate Armor. This armor is busted, not only do you get all the armor benefits already but you get infinite uses of the Nova Strike making the game pretty much no challenge. Use this armor if you want to feel unstoppable for most of the game.
Now we have the "new" playable character Zero. He introduces a new way to combat enemies. This is with the help of the Z Saber. Now while past games in X and Classic have used melee weapons before, this is the first time where its the huge focus of the gameplay. Zero can do a 3 slash combo and slash in the air as well. Zero can also dash and wall kick like X can. He will also need to collect heart tanks like X to raise his health though Zero has no way of getting armor upgrades so make sure you get heart tanks if you can.
What really makes Zero fun is when you beat bosses, you can get abilities that affect your movement like double jump and air dash or some new moves to your saber like being able to spin in the air with it and a long range electric move that stays out for a few seconds. You'll be making lots of uses for these as not only do they not use energy, they are as easy as holding a direction or just pressing the special attack button to do them. Zero can also get this giga attack and is the only move that actually requires energy. This makes Zero a really capable fighter in the later half of the game and it can sometimes make him even more fun then X.
Like the previous games you'll be fighting 8 mavericks going through each stage beating them one by one and then being able to go to the last few levels in the game. The levels in this game can be pretty fun though it's more of the same for the most part. There are some pretty fun levels like Cyber Peacock's first half is going as fast as you can to get fast times to get the upgrades awarded for the S rank times. In fact the only level I don't really like is Jet Stingray's level. It's this level where you use this hovercraft like vehicle and it feels very trial and error and I never enjoy it when I have to play it. It's arguable that some of the levels play a bit too safe like Web Spider's stage but to me I don't mind because the levels are just so much fun to just play in.
Sub tanks from past games also return though there's only 2 in this game with the other 2 being replaced with new tanks called a Weapon tank and Mystery Tank. The weapon tank refills any weapon energy depleted back to full similar to the one from the classic series. The mystery tank will make it so you'll start with 5 lives instead of 3. Though these won't really be that useful due to this game's difficulty.
The game is actually pretty easy this time, even game over's in this game aren't punishing since getting one on the second half will now just restart you on the second half. The game will even refill your weapon energy if you happen to die. A lot of the levels also just aren't hard to begin with either excluding Jet Stingray's level where I probably died like 15 times.
Then you have the bosses, if you disliked how easy they were in past games, you won't like them here either. A lot of them reset their pattern when hit with a weakness making them real easy to get stuck in a loop. Granted you could just defeat them without the weakness, I still was never huge on them being a joke with the weakness. The only boss in the game that really gives me trouble is the final boss. It has 3 forms and while I can beat the first two forms easily, it's the stupid last form that gets me so much, I think it's more me just playing bad but it took many tries to beat it but damn it feels nice winning the fight.
The game's presentation is pretty good, the jump from 16 bit to 32 bit really shows and lots of environments look really nice. Though not all of it is great, the 3D stairs area in Split Mushroom's stage hasn't really aged that well but still most of the other stuff is still great. The music also shines well here too. There's some great theme's for Cyber Peacock, Frost Walrus, Web Spider, and many more. There's even two japanese songs for the intro and ending if you play Rockman X4 and they sound nice though I feel like the ending music feels kind of unfitting for what the ending of this game is.
Overall Mega Man X4 is a very good game that you should consider playing if you haven't at this point. As of right now it's my second favorite X game and while it does have its problems for me to give it a 10 or even a 9, it's still a must play for people who like these kind of games.
Normally I like to write long reviews when possible but for here I'll keep it brief because I rather do it for whenever I review the US versions or Yellow.
Pokémon Red & Green finally became 25 years old this year, which made me think of an idea to just play this version and see if anything was special about it. For those who don't know which I'm guessing is none of you, these versions in japan are not exactly like what our versions are. For example there are different sprites for pokemon and yeah it really shows, apparently they had no artwork to base most of these sprites off of so it's why they look the way they do. They would later release a Blue version in Japan which is what we got minus the pokemon locations, they were swapped back to what the previous versions were.
So playing this game was a rather odd experience, I actually had to look up names of things like the items because unfortunately I don't know japanese but I do remember the original well enough the language barrier never bothered me. I played it rather safe this time using a team I knew I wouldn't struggle with. It helps that the game is pretty easy like I was 14 levels under the final opponent and yet I still won which should give you an idea for how easy it can be. In fact there was only time I lost but I only did it intentionally because losing to Sabrina just gives you the badge when you go back to the gym in only these specific versions, I don't know how they missed that and I just find it hilarious.
Some might question my score for this game, yeah it's definitely a bias. I just really like this first gen even with all of its issues. It might be just due to how easy it is but it just makes for a quick easy game to breeze through. I probably have beaten the US versions about 6 times before this playthrough happened.
The only real big complaint I have with this version is some moves can just hurt my eyes and could probably give people seizures easily, I know they were changed in later versions so I'd suggest playing those if you really don't want to deal with that. I also have no idea if the 3DS virtual console fixed this seeing as I have no Japanese 3DS.
That's really about what I have to say for this game, happy 25th anniversary Pokémon! You may not be a series I really care for nowadays but I still have a huge love for a lot of your games regardless.
Pokémon Red & Green finally became 25 years old this year, which made me think of an idea to just play this version and see if anything was special about it. For those who don't know which I'm guessing is none of you, these versions in japan are not exactly like what our versions are. For example there are different sprites for pokemon and yeah it really shows, apparently they had no artwork to base most of these sprites off of so it's why they look the way they do. They would later release a Blue version in Japan which is what we got minus the pokemon locations, they were swapped back to what the previous versions were.
So playing this game was a rather odd experience, I actually had to look up names of things like the items because unfortunately I don't know japanese but I do remember the original well enough the language barrier never bothered me. I played it rather safe this time using a team I knew I wouldn't struggle with. It helps that the game is pretty easy like I was 14 levels under the final opponent and yet I still won which should give you an idea for how easy it can be. In fact there was only time I lost but I only did it intentionally because losing to Sabrina just gives you the badge when you go back to the gym in only these specific versions, I don't know how they missed that and I just find it hilarious.
Some might question my score for this game, yeah it's definitely a bias. I just really like this first gen even with all of its issues. It might be just due to how easy it is but it just makes for a quick easy game to breeze through. I probably have beaten the US versions about 6 times before this playthrough happened.
The only real big complaint I have with this version is some moves can just hurt my eyes and could probably give people seizures easily, I know they were changed in later versions so I'd suggest playing those if you really don't want to deal with that. I also have no idea if the 3DS virtual console fixed this seeing as I have no Japanese 3DS.
That's really about what I have to say for this game, happy 25th anniversary Pokémon! You may not be a series I really care for nowadays but I still have a huge love for a lot of your games regardless.
2001
So I wanted to beat this game and talk about it here but wow this game goes from OK to awful so quickly by the second world. I got around the halfway point of the game. I'm sorry but I just can't do it, it's so annoying.
Was Season of Flame this bad? I remember thinking that game was very good. It's just why is this game so frustrating I'm actually losing it just typing this. Maybe one day I'll come back and beat it but right now that aint happening.
It's a shame cause this game can be decent but once you get to that Hummingbird level it goes to shit! Also you have to get every fairy to beat this game, why even let you go to other worlds without getting every fairy if the end game is just gonna make me get all of them before the final boss? Also if you do play this game, play it in japanese, it may have ugly cutscenes but it has a map feature and apparently it has checkpoints so yeah try to get that version.
Was Season of Flame this bad? I remember thinking that game was very good. It's just why is this game so frustrating I'm actually losing it just typing this. Maybe one day I'll come back and beat it but right now that aint happening.
It's a shame cause this game can be decent but once you get to that Hummingbird level it goes to shit! Also you have to get every fairy to beat this game, why even let you go to other worlds without getting every fairy if the end game is just gonna make me get all of them before the final boss? Also if you do play this game, play it in japanese, it may have ugly cutscenes but it has a map feature and apparently it has checkpoints so yeah try to get that version.
2017
Kirby Battle Royal is a rather forgettable game in the series if I'm honest. As someone who really likes some of the spinoff games this feels like an overpriced game that just feels like filler to remind you the 3DS still was having games.
With some very low depth in the copy abilities and some events just not being fun at all, it makes Kirby Battle Royale a hard game to recommend. Even the story mode is a repetitive slog. With it's cheap price on ebay making it a bit easier to consider, I still would just say pass on the game.
With some very low depth in the copy abilities and some events just not being fun at all, it makes Kirby Battle Royale a hard game to recommend. Even the story mode is a repetitive slog. With it's cheap price on ebay making it a bit easier to consider, I still would just say pass on the game.
2005
I really liked this game, I played the wii game when I was young. Thought that was a very good game and despite it probably being the better game, I like this one more for some reason.
It's a shame the game has gotten more pricey since the past years, got mine for $30 last year and now its like $90? Kind of ridiculous. But if you ever see this for cheap or if it ever gets rereleased, get it. It's one of my favorite spin offs from Mario. I still wish I was actually good at this game though.
It's a shame the game has gotten more pricey since the past years, got mine for $30 last year and now its like $90? Kind of ridiculous. But if you ever see this for cheap or if it ever gets rereleased, get it. It's one of my favorite spin offs from Mario. I still wish I was actually good at this game though.
1992
I find Trip World a very interesting game after I played through it. I feel like I didn't get it at first until I was thinking about piece by piece but I actually really like how much of a "trip" it felt. A lot of the enemies don't even hurt you and some you have to provoke to even have them attack you.
The game is so short and easy, hell even the level select cheat is easy to use that honestly I would recommend just giving it a playthrough. Sadly what really keeps this game from going higher is your main attack which is the kick is pretty bad imo.
I guess another complaint I have is I felt like the abilities could have been used better, especially the flying one. I will say at least the game is great in terms of presentation, give the soundtrack a listen if you are ever curious. Overall, fine game give it a shot though there's better Sunsoft games out there.
The game is so short and easy, hell even the level select cheat is easy to use that honestly I would recommend just giving it a playthrough. Sadly what really keeps this game from going higher is your main attack which is the kick is pretty bad imo.
I guess another complaint I have is I felt like the abilities could have been used better, especially the flying one. I will say at least the game is great in terms of presentation, give the soundtrack a listen if you are ever curious. Overall, fine game give it a shot though there's better Sunsoft games out there.
1993
I played this game cause I thought the cover was cute and what I got out of it was a very by the numbers platformer. This feels like a game someone was like "Make a game out of this" and then the people did the most minimum work they could do. Honestly the score I gave it might be too generous.
Maybe I should have watched the source material but I have no motivation to watch it sadly. It's not even a bad game it's just I have almost nothing to say. There isn't even bosses to fight, you just play these boring minigames and there's like 2 different ones depending who you play as.
I will say I'm surprised throwing candies to stun and get on top of enemies works as well as it does because I feel like it would lead to a disaster of a game if done wrong. Despite it's short run though I can't really say you should play it. It does have a fan translation if you are curious though it's easy to get through without it.
Maybe I should have watched the source material but I have no motivation to watch it sadly. It's not even a bad game it's just I have almost nothing to say. There isn't even bosses to fight, you just play these boring minigames and there's like 2 different ones depending who you play as.
I will say I'm surprised throwing candies to stun and get on top of enemies works as well as it does because I feel like it would lead to a disaster of a game if done wrong. Despite it's short run though I can't really say you should play it. It does have a fan translation if you are curious though it's easy to get through without it.
Ah this game, it's an experience I won't forget. It was really fun experiencing one of Arle's first adventures and just seeing what it was like before Puyo (even if this version was after Puyo). I really did enjoy what I played, though it does have its issues like I really didn't like the stuff that involved ice, was kind of frustrating.
There's not much grinding you have to do in this game though I still did some in the beginning and around the end to prepare for the final boss but I'm glad it's not too bad about it. The game isn't that hard either even if I got a few game overs. You can also save anywhere outside of battles which is really nice.
The writing also has charm like Puyo does and it even has a lot of voice samples that sound decently nice for the Game Gear. It also looks pretty good for a Game Gear game too and the music is also very good. While Madou Monogatari I is not a perfect game by any means, I still really enjoyed my time and would recommend if it interest you, it does have a fan translation though it is sometimes glitchy but nothing that will ruin the game.
There's not much grinding you have to do in this game though I still did some in the beginning and around the end to prepare for the final boss but I'm glad it's not too bad about it. The game isn't that hard either even if I got a few game overs. You can also save anywhere outside of battles which is really nice.
The writing also has charm like Puyo does and it even has a lot of voice samples that sound decently nice for the Game Gear. It also looks pretty good for a Game Gear game too and the music is also very good. While Madou Monogatari I is not a perfect game by any means, I still really enjoyed my time and would recommend if it interest you, it does have a fan translation though it is sometimes glitchy but nothing that will ruin the game.
1991
Sonic 1 on the Game Gear is a nice start to what would be a mixed bag of games on the system. It's got some nice fun zones like Jungle zone but it does sadly falter in some areas.
One interesting thing about the game for me is that the platforming feels like a different take on the series, like because it was so early on it felt like Ancient didn't fully know what made Sonic level design the way it is. Like there is even a auto scrolling level that doesn't involve the tornado, I don't think that concept was ever done again until Lost World on Wii U.
One thing to give credit to this version is they did compensate for the smaller screen by giving Sonic a smaller sprite, adding warning signs in the first zone and even different bosses from the SMS version. Though speaking of bosses they are pretty poorly designed especially the first two. The only boss I actually die on is the one in Jungle zone and that's just because I suck.
Chaos emeralds having to be found in stages is also a good idea but sadly I feel like they aren't well placed, one's even in the open in Labyrinth zone. You don't even really get much of an ending for getting them all either. At least you get more points for getting them all. There are still special stages but they basically are just there to help you get more lives or even get continues.
One last thing I was to mention because I doubt most people know about it is 1-up monitors. While they do exactly what they did in the Mega Drive game, there is actually one in every single level. If you happen to get every single one, a 1-up monitor will actually show up before you fight the final boss and I think that's really neat.
Overall, its a good game with flaws of it being so early in the series but it still is very enjoyable and it's definitely one of the better games on this handheld. Play it if you ever get the chance!
One interesting thing about the game for me is that the platforming feels like a different take on the series, like because it was so early on it felt like Ancient didn't fully know what made Sonic level design the way it is. Like there is even a auto scrolling level that doesn't involve the tornado, I don't think that concept was ever done again until Lost World on Wii U.
One thing to give credit to this version is they did compensate for the smaller screen by giving Sonic a smaller sprite, adding warning signs in the first zone and even different bosses from the SMS version. Though speaking of bosses they are pretty poorly designed especially the first two. The only boss I actually die on is the one in Jungle zone and that's just because I suck.
Chaos emeralds having to be found in stages is also a good idea but sadly I feel like they aren't well placed, one's even in the open in Labyrinth zone. You don't even really get much of an ending for getting them all either. At least you get more points for getting them all. There are still special stages but they basically are just there to help you get more lives or even get continues.
One last thing I was to mention because I doubt most people know about it is 1-up monitors. While they do exactly what they did in the Mega Drive game, there is actually one in every single level. If you happen to get every single one, a 1-up monitor will actually show up before you fight the final boss and I think that's really neat.
Overall, its a good game with flaws of it being so early in the series but it still is very enjoyable and it's definitely one of the better games on this handheld. Play it if you ever get the chance!
2001
I really wanted to give this game a chance but I just didn't like most things about it. I wasn't a fan of X5 but at least that had good moments but here there is none of that. The levels aren't fun, the nightmare effects are really annoying and the amount of times I went into one of those secret stages and had to kill myself 10 times to leave drove me mad.
Like at least it had a nice presentation, especially the music like damn is it good. Look just don't play this, it's not worth your time I could go more into this but if the game doesn't want to try I'm not going to either. Also screw the Nightmare Mother, worst boss in the whole game, it took so many tries to beat that stupid thing.
Like at least it had a nice presentation, especially the music like damn is it good. Look just don't play this, it's not worth your time I could go more into this but if the game doesn't want to try I'm not going to either. Also screw the Nightmare Mother, worst boss in the whole game, it took so many tries to beat that stupid thing.
After getting this game on sale for $30 being very curious about the game beforehand. I really liked my time with Atelier Ryza, yes it does have its issues but that didn't stop it being a very good game to me. I did like the battles and alchemy stuff presented in this game.
I also just want to say I like actually playing a game on Switch and it actually runs good enough, it's not perfect but it works and that's all I can ask. The music gets a special shoutout for being amazing like omg it's so amazing! I do hope that if I ever play the sequel it'll fix some of the issues I had with it but I'm glad this game got me at least curious in trying the other games in the series. Give it a try if you haven't though I should warn that physical copies on Switch are sadly overpriced so get it on PS4 if you can or just buy it digitally on Switch.
I also just want to say I like actually playing a game on Switch and it actually runs good enough, it's not perfect but it works and that's all I can ask. The music gets a special shoutout for being amazing like omg it's so amazing! I do hope that if I ever play the sequel it'll fix some of the issues I had with it but I'm glad this game got me at least curious in trying the other games in the series. Give it a try if you haven't though I should warn that physical copies on Switch are sadly overpriced so get it on PS4 if you can or just buy it digitally on Switch.