It may be a bit premature to say, since I haven’t really thought about it all too much, but out of all of the shmups that I have played and reviewed so far, the original Aero Fighters was definitely one of my favorites that I have covered. It definitely had its fair share of quirks that I wasn’t a fan of, such as how short the stages can be and how the game makes you beat it twice in order to beat it completely, but it had multiple characters to select from, plenty of fun shot types to mess around with across each characters, and enough explosive action to make my brain go brr in excitement, which was all enough for me at the end of the day. And hey, it was enough for plenty of others as well, to the point where it would end up getting a sequel not just for arcades, but also for the Neo Geo systems, to ensure that the series would join the SNK Cinematic Universe, or SNKCU, which is totally a real thing. So after two years went by, we would then get the sequel to the original game in the form of Aero Fighters 2.

Repetition is the name of the game when it comes to most shmups, and if there is anything SNK was good at back in the day, it certainly was repetition. While this hasn’t been the case for all of their titles (from what I know anyway), a lot of SNK’s major releases around this era, especially when it comes to their fighting games, have very little differences between them to make them stand out from each other, so it only makes sense that they welcomed a series like Aero Fighters into their family. What I am trying to say here if you haven’t picked up on it at this point is that Aero Fighters 2 is a very “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” title, which in this case is a good thing, because Aero Fighters 2 turned out to be yet another pretty good game, one that doesn’t quite surpass the original game, but one that still manages to be fun and frantic for any shmup enthusiast to enjoy.

The story is, what a shocker, aliens are attacking the world again, and it is up to you and an even bigger cast of even more colorful characters are the only ones who can take them down, which I would say is extremely lazy, but the pretty colors and explosions are distracting me and making me forget about all of that. The graphics are almost identical to the previous game, which I would be a teensy bit upset about, but it is an SNK game after all, so there is no use in complaining at that point, the music is pretty good, having plenty of great tracks to listen to while blowing shit up, even if nothing really stuck with me after the playthrough, and the gameplay/control is also identical to that of the original game, which some people could be tired of at this point, but again, I can’t focus on that because of the pretty explosions.

The game is your typical arcade shmup, where you take control of one of eight different characters in different fighter jets, go through a set of ten different stages through locations around the entire world, and even in the depths of space, shoot the fuck out of everything on screen, even if it isn’t trying to kill you at all because you need them bonus points, gather plenty of different powerups to assist you along the way and gather plenty of money icons to increase your points so you can dominate those other chumps in the high score table, and take on plenty of big, bad, and overly-detailed bosses that are a blast to fight, both figuratively and literally. It has just the right blend of familiarity and adrenaline that can be imprinted into your head and make you not want to stop playing, as it remains really fun, despite how, at the end of the day, not too much has changed from the original game.

To summarize this game as a whole, it is basically just Aero Fighters but with more stuff. Not only are all of the stages, bosses, and obstacles that you find new, but there is also more content as a whole, and more fun quirks added to make it that much more memorable and enjoyable. You can even see that as early as whenever you are selecting which fighter jet that you are going to use to use, as not only is there a greater selection then in the last game, but the pilots themselves also have a lot of personality to them, with some of them consisting of an actual baby, a robot, a ninja, and even a motherfucking DOLPHIN! Seriously, how can you not like that? Not to mention, there are more stages, more weapon types to mess around with, more explosions to be seen, and more fun to be had, so if you have a friend that is also a big shmup person like you, you two can jump in and have a really good time with all that is given to you here.

However, for those of you who aren’t so entranced by the art of bullets making contact with objects and watching them burst in an explosive way, then you will probably not find too much enjoyment out of this game, as it is not only yet another typical arcade shmup, but it also has basically zero changes from the original for the most part. Not only that, but the game doesn’t fix any of the problems that I had with the original, with it still being too short, only around 20 minutes or so, and you still have to play through the game twice in order to get the true ending. This isn’t too much of a big deal, especially since the stages themselves are really short, and not to mention there are these new types of stages that just pour power-ups down your throat like it’s candy, but it still doesn’t warrant a second playthrough just to see the stages again with maybe one or two new bosses. Or maybe it does for you, I dunno, but I’m a real one-and-done guy when it comes to shmups, so this is disturbing my natural flow, and I hate it.

Overall, despite its lack of change and its refusal to fix any of the issues I had with it from last time, Aero Fighters 2 manages to still be a really good shmup from the mid-90s, one that gives you all the explosive, fast and fun gameplay that you expect from this series, and one that is just baaaaaaaaaarely better then the original, by a small margin. I would definitely recommend it for those of you who were fans of the original game, as well as those who are shmup fanatics in general, because while you may be short changed of new content, you certainly won’t be short changed of that good ol’ fashioned arcade fun. Again, I have to ask, how can you hate a game where you fight a giant space monkey as a boss? Not only that, but they even one-up themselves here by having a giant eyeball with human hands, and a… weirdly anime-esque octopus boss………….. Japan is weird.

Game #544

This game is absolutely stunning visually!
Combat and movement is fluid and speedy!
Depiction of Gotham City is eerie and clearly crime ridden mainly due to the event of the story.

But I couldn't see myself enjoying this as much as the others in the series, noticeable crashes at random parts, feeling way too overpowered at times, to a point that I did not even play predator sections how they were intended because it was so easy to go guns blazing!

Best thing about this was the story tbh, I was shocked with it! The whole Arkham Knight reveal got me! and seeing Batman struggle to process Joker is dead is a sad one to see.

Although I have yet to do Knightfall protocol, Im kinda sick and tired of Riddler so I cba to do it, might just look it up.

But my god the whole setting and the way the story overlaps with the side quests was a welcome one, even if Deathstroke was underwhelming. Kinda makes the tease for him being part of the suicide squad irrelevant Fuck you Arkham Origins!

Over the course of time, specific genres in video games have become staples of the industry, to where we wouldn’t be able to imagine it without them nowadays. Platformers, adventure games, metroidvanias, first-person shooters, visual novels, and of course, role-playing games, or RPGs are just a few of the genres that continue to be relevant to this very day, through brand new releases that either try to reinforce what the genre is capable of delivering, or even ones that try to elevate the genre to new heights that weren’t thought possible before. However, it wasn’t always like this, for some genres like RPGs weren’t always as big of a staple on the industry as they are now, in America anyways, being outshined by other genres like platformers, shmups, and fighting games at every turn. Some developers would take notice of this, and as a result, they would try to make these types of games more “accessible” to audiences in these territories, all for the better… and for the worst. One such instance of this would be with one odd-ball of a title known as Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

At this point in time, Squaresoft, the primary developers of the Final Fantasy series, had been working towards making RPGs more accessible through audiences in several ways, such as with the release of Final Fantasy IV in the US being noticeably much easier than the original version, because Americans just can’t handle a game with normal difficulty! They are too stupid, obviously! With this mindset in mind after changing up that title like that, they would then go onto making Mystic Quest, the first side game in the series that was specifically made with the U.S. market in mind, which, as we have seen from games like ActRaiser 2, isn’t exactly the best mindset to have when you are making anything. But nevertheless, the game was released, and has gone onto having a divisive reputation ever since. I only played through the game for the first time a few months ago, and from that experience, I can say that, as a whole, the game is… ok. It definitely has some interesting ideas and quirks that do make it stand out from the rest, but it is primarily a repetitive and sluggish experience, one that never elevates much further then what you are presented with.

The story is, appropriately, extremely basic, where a young adventurer by the name of Benjamin has his village destroyed seemingly out of nowhere, and he is informed by a strange old man that, because of this, he must fulfill the “knight’s prophecy”, where he must travel across the four continents, gather the four crystals, and use them to defeat the demon king, so Benjamin then sets out to do just that, which is a very basic premise, one that is way simpler then what FFIV gave us, but it does fall in line with previous FF games, and it is as simple as they are wanting, so I guess I can excuse it. The graphics are good, having plenty of good monster and dungeon designs, but a lot of it does feel uncreative and artificial, much like the rest of this game, the music is pretty good, having plenty of great tracks that I enjoyed listening to like the battle theme, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of previous games’ soundtracks, and the gameplay/control is very familiar to those who have played any other Final Fantasy game before this, except now it is much more simplistic to the point where a toddler could play this game and have an easy time with it.

The game is a traditional turn-based RPG, where you primarily take control of Benjamin, go across a vast overworld through four different continents, talk to the many inhabitants of the world who will either give you helpful hints/advice or help you on your journey in some way, find plenty of items that you can use to either upgrade your defense, mobility, or attack, purchase items from the shop, or heal yourself whenever you need to, and naturally, get into random battles, where you will attack your opponent using either your main weapon or whatever spells or items you have lying around in your pockets, gain experience points, and level up to increase your stats. Any RPG veteran knows this set-up by heart, and they will be able to get used to how this game works pretty quickly… in fact, too quickly, if you ask me, and while a lot of it is passable and appealing to said veterans of the genre, it is also completely shallow in its execution in many areas.

If I were to describe this game in one sentence, I would say it is a Final Fantasy game made for babies. Everything about the game, which we have seen time and time again from previous games in the series, has been extremely simplified and dumbed down for the player, which could aid less experienced players along, yes, but it also becomes mind-numbing and unengaging as a result, therefore making it tedious to trek through. Some stuff in the game remains the same, such as walking through towns and dungeons, talking to people, buying items from the shops, and sleeping at inns, so that is all well and good, but in terms of the raw gameplay, the meat and potatoes of what any player would come to an RPG for, that has all been completely changed around for the worse.

Starting off, we have the overworld of the game, which is no longer a vast open land that you can explore freely to see what kinds of locations and creatures you can find, but instead, it has turned into a world map from a Mario game. You travel from location to location with nothing in-between, which does make things faster and more convenient, yes, but it also completely removes any sense of an adventure or its grand scale from this entire journey, making it feel empty and lifeless. The same can be said about the battles themselves, which are no longer random, but instead, every single enemy you can fight in this game appears on the map, to where a lot of the time, you can simply avoid them if you don’t feel like fighting them. Not only that, but instead of encountering enemies while walking along the overworld, you now have these designated enemy spaces, where you can fight 10 different battles in the row to get a certain reward.

Once again, this is a very beginner-friendly approach to something you would typically find in one of these games, which I am all for, but the problem with this is, to make up for this, they spam the fuck out of these enemies, especially in later parts of the game. If you choose to fight every single creature so that you can get as strong as possible (which I tend to do in most RPGs), then you will be spending hours just fighting these random enemies over and over and over again, each one dealing out the same EXP every time, and it is, once again, an absolute slog to go through. Yeah, you can avoid plenty of these fights, but there will be many instances where you CAN’T avoid these fights at all, and will be forced to take on every single thing in your way, and you can imagine how fun that would be.

And speaking of which, the battles themselves aren’t that much better than what you find outside of them. The Active Time Battle system is gone from this game, and we are back to the traditional turn-based system, and it works pretty much how you would expect it to, with the only real difference in this being how the perspective is shifted from the back rather than the side. That is cool and all, but what makes these battles so boring would be because of, again, how simplistic they are. The enemies barely do anything that’ll cause too much harm for you, and even if they do, you can just easily remedy that in a matter of seconds, given how much money you are given to purchase potions and elixirs for healing and revive spells, and the only thing you need to do in order to win these battles is just to spam the attack button and then wait until you win. Not all battles are like this, but it is rare you will find a fight that needs a little more strategy then that to win, and while this is, again, beginner friendly, it is still extremely mind-numbing and boring, especially with the previously mentioned abundance of foes that you will need to take on, a lot of the time at once.

However, with all that being said, I can’t say in good conscience that this game is bad, because it really isn’t. It lacks any of the complexity and innovation that previous Final Fantasy games had, and it can be a chore to go through, but it does manage to accomplish the one goal that it sets out to accomplish: being an RPG for beginners. I could definitely see someone who isn’t really familiar with RPGs at all being able to sit down, play this game, and have a good time with it, even if it wouldn’t be my first recommendation for someone who isn’t all too familiar with the genre. In addition, while a lot of the gameplay features here have been dumbed or are just not that fun to deal with, I do like some of the mechanics and ideas that this game tries out.

For one thing, in a lot of the dungeons and towns you go through, you can interact with various things using your weapons that will help you proceed forward, such as with cutting down trees with your axe, pressing buttons with your sword, or climbing along walls using your claw. It doesn’t offer too much variety, but it does offer some more mobility through these dungeons that hasn’t been seen previously, which is nice. Not to mention, you can jump as well, which also increases the mobility you have in a lot of areas, and as a personal note, I also like how, whenever you are dealing damage to an enemy, their appearance changes depending on how much health they have. It isn’t much, but it is a neat little touch that makes battles somewhat more enjoyable.

Overall, despite its beginner-friendly nature and some interesting ideas that I enjoyed messing around with, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is one of the most bland and basic RPGs that I have ever played in my life, one that doesn’t offer anything revolutionary or interesting for this series or genre as a whole, and instead ends up being a repetitive slog that you can beat in a single day if you spam through a lot of the fights by just attacking over and over again with no thought. I would recommend it for those who are HUGE RPG fanatics, or for those of you who aren’t familiar with them and want to give the genre a shot, because despite all my gripes with it, who knows: it could potentially become a new favorite of yours. Although, if you are asking me, I would recommend a Pokemon game for your first RPG, preferably FireRed or LeafGreen. Those games at least have adorable creatures you can catch and battle with. This game has some creatures that you could say are adorable, but I can’t catch them……..

Game #543

12 years on from the strange, incomplete original, DD2 is more of the same, uneasily sitting between the uncompromising Souls series & more conventional narrative ARPGs. At times evoking a desolate offline MMO, DD2 is at its best when out in the wilds, the sun setting at your back & two or more beasts landing on the path ahead, all Arising out of dynamic systems.

The main questline unfortunately does not play to these strengths, with much of Act I confined to the capital & some really dull writing. Fortunately, writing does not maketh a game, and side-quests that take you out into the unreasonably huge map are much more interesting, and really need to be sought out in the crowds and corners of the world. Keeping track of these with the bizarre quest tracker is uneven and obtuse: you’re either reading the landscape and tracing clues or just beating your head against a wall figuring out what the game requires of you.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is singular, not quite fully realised, a beautifully rendered physics-heavy oddity. The art direction is profoundly generic, but so deceptively understated it at times resembles a Ray Harryhausen film, full of weight, movement and character. DD2 makes you feel like you have friends, albeit stupid friends, who'd throw themselves off a cliff for a view of yonder.

It's manic and babbling, full of sudden scares, serene vistas, silly little guys, and ominous poetry. It's dream-logic at its finest with an elaborate and cleverly implemented system of hidden values and un-communicated mechanics keeping players from deciphering any patterns unless they dive in full force.

The game does have a rhythm based on what you encounter and what colors flash on screen, if it's on odd or even numbered day...only look into it if you're hunting for something specific or have already gone in quite a bit blind. But this game definitely capitalizes on the unique limitations of the PSX to make an experience that's timeless. There's a reason people fixate on it to such an extent.

You know what I am a fan of? When things get WEIRD. And I’m not talking about when things get kinda mystical or fantastical, but more so when something goes out of its way to make you say “what the fuck”, but only in the best way possible. Of course, there have been plenty of games, movies, or what have you that follow typical formulas we have all seen time and time again, and we remain fans of said formulas despite how stale they can get. On the other side of the fence, though, you then get the weird stuff, the products that take what you typically expect from a setting or a scenario, twist it on its head, add a bunch of nonsense for the sake of it, and make something so utterly bizarre that you can’t help but love it and all of its strange, awkward beauty. One of the best examples of this when it comes to video games, especially those from the mid 90s, can be found with Earthworm Jim.

I have little to no experience with the Earthworm Jim franchise entirely, with the only little experience I had with the series being with when I decided to purchase myself a copy of the original game on the SNES, I played it for about 10 minutes, and then stopped to go do something else… for over half a decade. I have always wanted to give it a full shot though, not only because of how it has had quite a few titles at this point, along with a full animated series, but also because I just wanted to see if it was as weird and bizarre as many say it is. So, I decided to give the Genesis version of the game a shot on the NSO, and now that I have fully played through it, I can confirm that yes, the game is really fucking weird, but it is also really fucking good as well. There are some parts and design choices that do get on my nerves, which I can imagine get on others’ nerves as well, but it still managed to be fun, challenging, and weird enough for me to say that I had a great time with it.

The story is simple, yet appropriately bizarre for a game like this at the time, where a random earthworm named Jim is just doing… worm things one day, when all of a sudden, a super suit falls from the sky and lands straight on him, causing him to mutate and inhabit the suit like a regular person, gaining newfound powers and abilities. Because of this though, he then finds that he is being hunted down by several villainous fiends who wish to get their hands on the suit, so it is up to him to venture off into the dangerous galaxy he inhabits, defeat the many foes in his way, and complete his quest of meeting the fairest maiden in the land, Princess What’s-Her-Name. It is utterly strange and beyond stupid, which means it fits perfectly for the kind of game this is, and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

The graphics are pretty great, having plenty of great environments to venture through and admire, but they really shine when it comes to all of the characters, especially with Jim himself, who all have animations that looks like it came right out of a Saturday morning cartoon, and it holds up wonderfully after almost 30 years, the music is pretty great, having plenty of great tunes to listen to while blasting apart whatever alien or chicken comes your way, with several tracks like this one sticking with me after my initial playthrough, and the gameplay/control is pretty simple for the time, but it mixes things up with the many different types of challenges and gameplay segments you will run into, which makes things varied and exciting for most of the entire game.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Jim, go through many different levels that range from a huge-ass junkyard to the depths of Hell, each one changing things up to keep you on your toes, defeat plenty of strange enemies that you will encounter along the way using either your entire body as a whip or your trusty blaster that can be fired in eight different directions, gather plenty of ammo for your blaster, health pickups, and extra lives to assist you throughout your journey, and take on plenty of different bosses that will not only test your dodging and shooting skills, but will also change things up to where you will need to hit them in other ways that don’t involve shooting and whipping, which are always interesting to see. A good amount of it is standard for the genre, but the game will make sure to throw plenty of things at you to remind you that it isn’t just your typical old-school platformer, and it ends up being much more lovable and interesting as a result, making it a great time to play through.

I have mentioned it many times already at this point, but it bears repeating here: this game is WEIRD. There are so many strange, odd, and juvenile things that happen in this game, giving the game so much personality to the point where I could never imagine this series without some of the random stuff it pulls out of its ass, and I love it for that. For example, there is one part in the beginning of the game where, in order to progress through the level, you have to launch a cow into space, with you being given a Cow Launched prompt as a result of doing so. Why did you have to do that? I don’t know! You just do it for the sake of it, and isn’t that all you really need? Not to mention, this leads to a pretty funny scene at the end of the game that I won’t spoil here, along with you being able to see the cow flying across the background at certain points in the levels, which is pretty funny to see as well. This weirdness also extends to some of the bosses that you fight as well, such as a chicken operating a death machine, some random guy that barfs dead fish at you, and a booger monster (not that booger monster), each being as weird as they sound, and being pretty fun to fight.

Not only that, but the game also manages to change things up when it comes to the primary gameplay as well, making things interesting and more enjoyable as the game continues. In-between most of the levels, you have to race this bird guy towards the end, while also collecting plenty of orbs, shields, and boosts along the way, and while these sections can get pretty hard, especially towards the end, these are a nice change of pace after you make it past the main levels. In addition, there are some other gameplay changes that can be found here as well, such as one where you are bungee-jumping while fighting that booger monster I mentioned earlier, one where you are navigating through an underwater maze using a submarine, and several instances where you are actually separated from your suit, and you need to get through several obstacles so that you can get back in the suit, which are neat to see.

With all that in mind, none of the weird things and fun gameplay changes can prepare you for what is undeniably one of the biggest things holding this game back: this game is REALLY FUCKING HARD. From the start of the game, you will have to deal with plenty of different challenges that aren’t exactly easy, coupled with plenty of enemies and obstacles placed throughout the stages, and while a lot of it is doable, there are also plenty of parts in the game that are brutal to get through. Don’t even get me started on the final level in the game, Buttville, which has so many different spike traps and instances of bullshit that I don’t see how anyone would be able to beat this without using save states or cheats of some kind.

Then there are those stages that just aren’t really that fun to play through whatsoever, such as the case with For Pete’s Sake, which is just one huge escort mission. Throughout the stage, you will have this purple dog that will be happily walking along the whole way, and you have to make sure he gets through the entire level without falling down any pits. You have to do this by making sure to take care of the many hazards along the way, while also whipping the dog to get him to jump certain gaps at plenty of instances, or even to shoot at him to cause him to stop just in case you are in a tight spot. All of this is much easier said than done, and there were plenty of moments where I could just barely manage to get the dog to another ledge or further along in the stage before they could fall into a pit, turning into a hideous monstrosity and then proceeding to kill you…………….. you know, just like real dogs.

Overall, despite its brutal difficulty and several stages that just aren’t fun at all, this game still managed to be one of the most unique and bizarre games that I have ever played from this era, and I managed to have a great time with it for most of the ride, with there being plenty of great challenges that were pretty satisfying to overcome, and the kind of charm that you just cannot find anywhere else. I would definitely recommend it for those of you who love old-school platformers like this, as well as those who just like weird shit, because if this game doesn’t manage to make you laugh or smile at just how weird and dumb it is, then I don’t know what will. I just wonder how they gonna manage to one-up themselves in the next game, in terms of both quality and weirdness. But hey, for a guy that has a last name that sounds like TenNipple, I’m sure it will be an easy feat for him.

Game #542

The first Gameboy game I ever bought for myself was this. My dad had passed down his OG gameboy along with Tetris and Kwirk, but Kirby's Dreamland was special in it was the first one I got of my own volition. I still remember buying it for $5 at the flea market back in the day. I still remember first discovering I could play original Gameboy games on my GBA because of this game. In fact, this might've been my first ever Kirby game period (it was either this or Return to Dreamland). I've played this game several times prior to this, and even now, it was still fun.

The game is quite short, only taking around an hour or less to beat, but I think that's actually really nice with a game like this. It does not overstay its welcome and if it was way longer, idk if I'd like it much. This is the first Kirby game and so it's super simple. There's only 5 stages in the game, with a boss at the end of them. It's really not that hard of a game at all, that's what Kirby is known for and it applies to his first game as well. Copy abilities weren't a thing at all until Adventure, so the gameplay in this is super simplistic. But like I said, it's short so I don't really have much of an issue with it.

For a Gameboy game, this has a super nice soundtrack. Every single song is memorable, though maybe that's also because I've played this several times, but I think a big reason for that besides them being good is the fact they get reused a lot in later games. I think the only song I haven't heard in later games is the spicy curry theme, all the rest are iconic whether it's Green Greens or the invincibility lollipop theme or Dedede's theme. Kirby has been known to never have a bad soundtrack and yeah it applies here too.

Something I'm not really much of a fan of is extra mode. I tried it out a bit again here but I still can never get far. I've never beaten it before but it's because instead of being a bit harder, it goes full into bullshit mode and not only do I not find that fun, it doesn't feel fitting for Kirby. Kirby's known for easy main playthroughs but hard side content but it's too much in this game I feel.

I never found this game amazing at all but I have fond memories with this one. It's one of the better Gameboy games I've played for sure. I plan on going through every Kirby game eventually now so consider this the start of my Kirby reviews cuz yeah I'm gonna review most of them. Don't expect it to be like my Mario Kart marathon tho since there's way more Kirby games and I don't wanna get burnt out lol.

Edit: Bumped up to a 7

Man, I really haven’t been covering that many beat-’em-ups recently, haven’t I? Those games used to be one of my go-to genres when it came to whatever game I wanted to try out and potentially review on this website, and while I have checked out one or two recently, it has been nothing like what I had checked out further back then. It makes sense, seeing as I have already covered some of the most note-worthy titles from that era, and I have been focusing on clearing out a lot of other shit, but I think it is about time I go back to talking about more of these games, including some of the more obscure ones that I have been wanting to try out. So, let’s start this train off with one that has been on my radar for a long time, Night Slashers.

Whenever I would scroll through the NS eShop, I would always see this game available on discount, and while I would never purchase it for myself, I had always been curious about it, wondering if it was any good, or if it was better then some of Data East’s previous outings in the beat-’em-up genre, like Bad Dudes or Gates of Doom. I mean, it’s clear it has some nostalgic value to people, seeing as there was a remake announced for the game not too long ago, so I figured I should probably give it a shot to see what it was all about… only to find that it had been removed from the eShop with no word as to why (thanks for that, Johnny Turbo). Therefore, I booted up the ol’ emulator, blazed through it all in one go, and ended up having a good time with it all around. It isn’t too different from other beat-’em-ups of the era, not even having too many unique ideas, but it still manages to be gratifying and fun, both in terms of the visuals and its gameplay, to where I can say it holds up.

The story is your generic beat-’em-up story with a hint of spookiness added in, where the world is suddenly overrun by monsters, mutants, and freaks alike, killing millions of people and taking down all government forces, with the carnage lasting for over three months, so it is up to the Night Slashers, a gang of vigilante warriors, to step up to the plate and stop these creatures once and for all, which is a slightly darker twist on your typical storyline for one of these games, and I like it well enough, even if we don’t get much else out of that. The graphics look pretty great, looking as overexaggerated and detailed as an arcade game like this should be, but it doesn’t look too different from other similar games at the time, the music is alright, having plenty of tracks that I did enjoy while playing through the game, but not many of them stuck with me after I stopped playing, and the gameplay/control is par for the course, featuring most of what you would come to expect from one of these games, but it still manages to be fun and engaging enough to where that doesn’t matter.

The game is your average side-scrolling beat-’em-up, where you take control of one of the three Night Slashers known as Jake, Chris and Hong-Hua, go through a set of seven different levels each taking place in a different environment, beat up every single ghost and goblin that stands in your way using plenty of regular attacks, or even some super attacks when things get too dicey, gather plenty of different weapons, gold, and food items to help you out along your way, and fight plenty of well-known monsters as bosses, each one testing you out not only on how skilled and fast you are, but also how many credits you can put into the machine before you throw up your hands and say “Fuck it!”. Any arcade veteran knows this song and dance all too well, and for what we got here, it works pretty well, and can be a great time with a friend, not just because of the standard gameplay, but the flavor it has compared to other games at the time.

One of the things that sets it apart from many other games at the time is its emphasis on horror. It isn’t necessarily a scary game, and it doesn’t try to be, but many of the enemies you will face will include zombies, werewolves, vampires, Frankenstein, and even Death himself. In addition, the game is also extremely violent, having lots of blood and gruesome death animations, not just for all the enemies, but also for the bosses, as they melt away upon defeat, or they crumble down, only to never be able to fight again… for the most part. It all feels like a cross between the gothic nature of Castlevania and the brutality of Splatterhouse, and for the most part, it works out wonderfully. It can get kinda stale after a certain amount of time, especially with the lack of variety that can be seen in the late game, but for the most part, the style and blood really does carry this game in plenty of places.

Unfortunately though, it can’t carry it for too long, because if you take the style and blood out of the equation, then it just becomes your standard beat-’em-up from the arcades and nothing more. Nothing really new or exciting is added to the gameplay to make it stand out from others, so if you aren’t one that is interested in a horror setting like this, or the amount of blood that is present, then you won’t really be a fan of this. Not to mention, it also houses some quirks that I am not a fan of when it comes to this genre, such as repeating boss fights, and having sluggish combat. It isn’t exactly as sluggish as something like Golden Axe, and it works fine enough for the most part, but it just doesn’t feel as fluid or fast as it should be, and thus, it kinda makes the combat feel like a drag in some places. Not enough to where I would stop playing mid-way through, but enough to linger in the back of my mind while playing.

Overall, despite the repeating bosses, sluggish-ish combat, and a lack of change from other games in the genre, Night Slashers is still a perfectly competent and enjoyable romp, one that provides plenty of gothic elements and bloody brawls for those who are fans of both of those things, and the same gameplay that you can enjoy with a friend for a good half hour or so before moving onto something else. I would recommend it for those who are big fans of beat-’em-ups, especially ones from this era of the arcades, because while it isn’t anything to write home about, it still does its job, and does it well enough to where you won’t regret your time with it. And hey, maybe at some point later down the road, I’ll check out the remake as well whenever it comes out………. you know, if it doesn’t suck.

Game #541

When it comes to any racing game that was made or published by Nintendo over the years, most people would immediately think of Mario Kart for obvious reasons, but right alongside that series, Nintendo has made plenty of other racing series over time that have quite the history to them. Of course, a lot of people would be familiar with F-Zero, a series that used to be thriving until Nintendo ignored it for almost 20 years, until they decided to drip-feed the fans with a battle royale rendition of the original game (hey, better then nothing, right?......), and if you are a special little snowflake, then you may also be familiar with Wave Race, a racing series involving jet skis… and nothing else (I dunno, I never played Wave Race). Ignoring all those other ones though, there is one other racing series that is often forgotten amongst all the others, and that would be with the Cruis’n series, which doesn’t exactly look like the most original or enticing of these games upon first glance, but it has gotten a good number of games ever since its inception in 1994, so I figured I would go ahead give the series a shot with the first game in the series, Cruis’n USA.

Now, since I am incredibly stupid, I decided to play the N64 version of this game for this review, and for those of you who are very familiar with this game, you would know that this is the worst version of the game. I did try to play the arcade version initially, but like with Raiden II, I just couldn’t find several of the files that are needed to properly run the rom, so I had to stick with the inferior version. But again, like I said before, I am incredibly stupid, so when I did play through the N64 version, I did actually end up having a very good time with it. It isn’t too exciting or unique from plenty of other arcade racers, and it does have its fair share of issues, but it managed to do its job and provide me with a fast, fun, and chaotic racing experience, and that is all I can ask for at the end of the day.

The graphics look pretty great, looking a lot more detailed and crisp when compared to something like Ridge Racer, but it is obviously incredibly dated when compared to many of the other racing games that came out afterwards, the music is pretty good, having plenty of tracks that you can listen to while racing through these tracks, with the tracks in the N64 version sounding a bit… off, but I still enjoyed a handful of the tracks available, the controls are simple, yet they work well enough, with you being able to get a feel for the speed and turning easily, although it can definitely feel off at times, and the gameplay is extremely basic for an arcade racer, but sometimes that’s all you need at the end of the day, as the game still manages to be fun regardless of how simple it is.

The game is your typical arcade racer, where you take control of one of four different vehicles, each with their own individuals stats to take advantage of, race through many different tracks that stretch through a good portion of locations found in America, pass by many different opponents along the way and try to keep them from taking first place from you, avoid the many different hazards that you will find during races, such as debris or other vehicles on the road, and try to reach the finish line as fast as possible so you can make your mark on the high score board. It’s the kind of fast-paced racing action that you could get from plenty of other games out there, I’m sure, but it still manages to keep things exciting and challenging throughout all of the races, and any fan of the genre should be able to get a kick out of it.

For all of the 3D racers that I have played for this website so far, one of the biggest things dragging them down was the fact that, despite how impressive they were for the time they came out, most of them were limited to only one track, meaning that you couldn’t get much replay value from the game, and it was just more so a one-and-done deal. So it was a breath of fresh air for me to find that this game has plenty of tracks that you can race through in the game’s grand prix mode, where you will race through areas such as the Appalachian Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and San Francisco. The hazards and terrain you drive on never changes between each course, but the environments definitely do, making most of the tracks feel distinct from one another, and thus, fun to race through, even if some of them can be a little repetitive at points. Aside from that though, there are also some other neat additions that are cool to see, such as the ability to race with a friend (but not with four people at once, because what the fuck is an Ultra 64?), and you can even change the music that you are currently listening to in a race with a push of a button. It isn’t much, but again, it is a nice feature to have.

There isn’t much else that the game has going for it though, as it is still a pretty standard arcade racing game. You drive around, you don’t hit oncoming traffic, you jump over ramps, and you are greeted by a gif of a woman handing someone a trophy whenever you reach the goal. It has about everything you would expect, but not much more, not really giving you much reason to play it over other titles in the genre, or even from this series for that matter. Not to mention, in the “grand prix” mode of the game, in order to be able to make it to the next race in the lineup, you must get first place every time, which isn’t necessarily that bad of a requirement, but considering how crazy and tight some of the future races can be, it can be a detriment more than anything. It isn’t that big of an issue, but it does make my silver-medal-ass look like a chump.

Also, for those of you that plan on playing this game at some point in the future, let me tell you right now, DO NOT PLAY THE N64 VERSION. I managed to have a good enough time with this version of the game, but even with that in mind, the arcade version is MILES better than this for a multitude of reasons. Most of the game remains the same in terms of its content, but the visuals obviously aren’t as good as the arcade version, the music, while still being enjoyable, is definitely a downgrade in several areas, the collision physics whenever you hit anything are completely out of whack, and it can hinder you a lot more than it can help you in plenty of cases, and worst of all, the frame rate is SO BAD. There were many times throughout my time playing the game where it would stutter like crazy, dropping down to single-digit frames, making getting through some parts of the races unbearable due to the constant lag. Thankfully, there were plenty of times where the game ran pretty smoothly, but this becomes too much of a recurring issue that can’t be ignored.

Overall, despite how simple it is compared to other racers, and how terrible the N64 version of the game is, Cruis’n USA still manages to be a pretty great jumping point for this series, and a great racing game on its own, having plenty of races to go through, high speeds all throughout with its satisfying gameplay, and it is challenging enough to where you can’t just simply hold down the acceleration button to win in a lot of cases. I would recommend it for those who are fans of this series, as well as racing games in general, because even if future games make it look like garbage by comparison, it could’ve turned out a lot worse than what we managed to get here. But again, seriously, do not play the N64 version, it is pretty goddamn bad. I just hope that the N64 versions of the next two games manage to run smoothly enough for this system. Or maybe I can actually manage to play the arcade versions of those games. Knowing me though, I’m probably gonna end up getting the short end of the stick either way…

Game #540

While in the middle of my Cult of the Lamb playthrough, my power went out for 4 hours. In that time, I had nothing to do except go on my phone but eventually it died. I remembered my 3DS was fully charged and so I decided to look through my DS/3DS games to see if I can be productive and replay something I hadn't in a while. Decided on the original New Super Mario Bros, since I hadn't played the series in years. After playing through the first world, my power came back on not long after. Decided to continue replaying this even with the power back on so here we are.

The New Super Mario Bros games were not games I ever truly loved. Yes, by the time 2 and U came out, the series became super stale. But even with DS and Wii, I never found them amazing at all. Replaying DS, this seems to still be true for me. In fact, this may be my least favorite of the bunch, at least next to 2 for several different reasons. Even despite that however, it's still a fun time overall and worth coming back to for a certain addition I'll talk about later.

First thing you'll notice when playing the game, would be its graphics. Personally, I always thought the NSMB games had a fine enough artstyle tho I much prefer how the sprite-based games looked in the past. DS though is sadly the ugliest in the series now. It was certainly a marvel back then but nowadays, just looks kinda ugly a lot of the time compared to the other titles.

Level design-wise, the game has plenty of levels that actually are pretty memorable. The sewers level, the giant wiggler level, the pipe maze level, the fucking brutal 8-1 level with the birds. I wish more of the levels were memorable like these, since a large chunk can be forgettable but I was surprised just how many I ended up remembering. This game also added the star coin collectable and honestly, they can be a tremendous pain in this game. They don't hide them behind invisible walls like future game but some of them require a powerup from other levels or toad houses and it can be frustrating. Same with the secret exits (which came back from Mario World). Like a third of those require the aforementioned outside powerup and they're a pain. I do recommend going for 100% tho cuz once you beat the game, you can actually buy bottom screen skins with any star coins you have and I never knew this and it's awesome. Such a great reward for going out of your way to get them.

One more aspect of the gameplay I wanted to get into were the powerups. 80% of the game you'll be seeing the fire flower which is a good powerup of course. The other 20%, you'll see the three new ones (and the classic star I guess) and I gotta say they're not that great. The mega mushroom is a great concept and is fun to use but is barely in any levels naturally. The mini mushroom is also not used that much and I honestly never liked much just because it's so floaty. And the shell is just obnoxious since you start moving on your own the moment you hit top speed and you have to manually stop to get out of your shell. I'm sure it's super fun when speed running but alas, it just annoyed me more than anything. This is another thing I think future games did better, especially WIi, that one has a great selection of powerups.

I really don't have much to say about the soundtrack. It's alright at best I think and it doesn't help the 1-1 theme gets reused in Wii. I did actually like the map theme for world 7 though, something about that feels so nostalgic. This game is somewhat nostalgic to me since I remember seeing a classmate play this on field trip bus ride when I was 8 and thinking it looked so cool. Never ended up playing the main campaign until after I played the other 3 NSMB games but my memory of that bus ride is engrained in my memory, and part of me thinks that classmate was on world 7 that day which might explain why the song feels so nostalgic. Either way, besides that one song I really like, never cared for the game's ost sadly.

This is all fine and dandy, but the real reason I think someone should come back to this one is its multiplayer modes. Minigames are a blast to play, even if most of them are ported straight from 64 DS, but there are a couple new ones which is nice. I probably played these more than the actual game back in the day. The Mario vs Luigi mode was also a lot of fun back in the day too. The goal was to get the most stars and you could steal them from the opposite Mario brother. Was just really fun constantly screwing the other person over. Though I guess since (most of) the minigames are in 64 DS and future games had multiplayer in it's campaigns, these aren't amazing reasons to come back to NSMB DS specifically, but it's still a nice little package of multiplayer goodness overall.

Like I said, was never a huge fan of the New Super Mario Bros games, and while this still rings true...I'd say this was still a fun time overall. Would be fun to replay them all but I'd have to spread them out considering how samey they are lol.

Have you ever had a moment where you fuck up royally at something, and you just wish that you could go back and do it over again so that it turns into a positive memory of your life? I’m sure we have all had those instances of memories we wish we could forget, as I definitely wish I could forget about a lot of the fuck ups I made in the past, or to go back and remedy those situations. Unfortunately, unless we ever invent time travel, that will most likely never happen. With video games and other forms of media, though, that is a different story. You could release something that many consider pretty lackluster, bad, or just flat out god-awful, and the people that worked on it could live in shame for the rest of their lives because of it, or, on the other hand, you could go back to what you had before, change some things up or rebuild it entirely from scratch, and you could redeem said product by making it much better in the public’s eyes. One such instance of this happening would be with the dated title known as New Adventure Island.

So, technically, this game is not a remake of the original Adventure Island, and it is instead just another game that was made in the Adventure Island series, but from what I have played here, it may as well be a remake. It shares a lot of very similar elements with the original game, from the levels to the things that you fight, even down to the bosses, which could be seen as a bad thing right out of the gate. I have mentioned plenty of times in the past that I think that the original Adventure Island, and the original Wonder Boy to an extent, are bad games, being extremely repetitive, way too difficult, and just not fun to play through after a while. Thankfully though, this game pretty much takes a lot of the problems that the original game had and fixes it, making a pretty good game out of it. I wouldn’t say it fixed all my major gripes with that original game, but it does make things a lot more fun to play, while also being charming and fast at the same time.

The story is all too familiar for every game in this series, where Master Higgins gets married to Tina in a glorious ceremony at the church, but all of a sudden, the evil Baron Bronsky comes down and not only kidnaps Tina, but also the many island children that have come to enjoy the ceremony, so in a fit of rage, Master Higgins then sets out to once again save Tina, all of the island children, and defeat the Baron once and for all, which is about as generic as a story for this series gets, and it does nothing more then continuing to make me feel bad for Higgins, as the guy just can’t have a relationship without someone kidnapping his girl. The graphics are fantastic, having a wonderful art style that I don’t want to stop looking at, even if the animations for the enemies and bosses leave a lot to be desired, the music is pretty good, having plenty of energetic and cheery tunes, along with some more menacing ones that were also nice to hear, and the control/gameplay is… well, it is an Adventure Island game, so you should know by now what to expect.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Master Higgins yet again, go through six different worlds, each with four levels a piece, along with a seventh final stage, dodge plenty of enemies along the way or defeat them using whatever weapons that you may find on your journey, gather plenty of weapons, extra lives, and food items to keep your hunger bar from depleting completely, and take on several fun, albeit very similar bosses that will take some time to take down if you aren’t too careful. For those who have played any other Adventure Island game, especially the original game, then a lot of this will feel very familiar to you, but it does still manage to be very fun most of the time, and it does feel a lot better to play than the original game.

Like I mentioned before, the game is very similar to that of the original game, having very similar level structures, level themes, and the same type of bosses, but thankfully, this game manages to fix all of that by adding in a wonderful little spice of life known as variety. While the level layouts don’t change all too much, all the environments, hazards, and the types of enemies you can encounter change throughout the game, making things visually distinct and interesting for most of the journey and fun to play through, even if it isn’t as interesting as other games. Not to mention, while most of the bosses are the same dude with the head of a different creature, each one has a different attack, such as one that creates a wall of ice spikes to send shooting at you, or one which sends a wave of fire arching towards you. Each one is defeated the same way, but the way that you approach these fights is slightly altered each time, which does make things a lot more fun and engaging, which I really appreciate.

In addition, some elements that were brought into the series in previous sequels are also brought into this title as well. You now have multiple weapons that you can find throughout the land, such as spears, boomerangs, and fireballs, and while most of them work the exact same way, some end up doing more damage than others, making it so that you wanna stick with one weapon for as long as you can for the most effect. And finally, I know I already brought this up earlier, but I absolutely love the visuals in this game, and they help make me want to play more of it so that I can enjoy every second of this. It’s just such a cute art style, and it really shines in instances such as whenever you beat a world, and before the next one, you are greeted with a cutscene that has Master Higgins dancing in some way with some other island creatures, with me having a huge grin on my face the entire time whenever any of these popped up.

However, if none of that sounds all too enticing for you, then at the end of the day, this is just another Adventure Island game. You run around throw things, eat things, and die to that octopus that you didn’t see coming until it is too late. You know how it goes at this point, and this game really doesn’t do anything new or original when compared to every other game before it. That doesn’t necessarily make the game bad at all, but at this point, we are four games in, and the lack of any prominent new features does kinda suck, and it does make it to where I can’t say this game is any better than that of Adventure Island II or even Super Adventure Island. A cute art style can only do so much for something like this before you start asking where all the new, cool shit is.

Overall, despite a major lack of change, and while it isn’t technically a remake at all, New Adventure Island manages to take most of what was wrong with the original game in this series and fixes it to where I ended up having a really great time with it, having the same basic, yet really fun gameplay at a reasonable length, coupled with an amount of charm that made this really enjoyable to admire as I was going along. I would definitely recommend it for those who fans of the previous games in the series, as well as those who didn’t like the original game like me, because while I can’t say for sure that you will like this one much more, you can definitely appreciate the effort put into making this into what is essentially a much better version of that original title. It’s also too bad that this was only released on the TurboGrafx 16, because I would kill to be able to play this game on modern platforms. Yeah, it did get re-released for the Virtual Console and PSN a while back… you know, before those services got shut down……… I hate video game companies so much.

Game #539