I've played through the first episode of Doom many times in the past, but have never truly gave it a chance until now, and yeah, it's just as good as everyone says it is.

Even 31 years later, Doom is still just as atmospheric, labyrinthine, and fun as it was in 1993. Hell, it's even a bit scary at times, especially in Episode 3.
It has stood the test of time brilliantly.

fuck limbo though, all my homies hate limbo

The one that started it all. The Backloggd-buddies @QuentTheSlayer @Phantasm and @Ptcremisi and I are partaking in a Zelda marathon organized by @NOWITSREYNTIME17.We are going through each mainline game in The Legend of Zelda franchise one by one and at the end of our playthrough we'll write a review on the game. I've always wanted to participate in a 'bookclub-esque' activity but with videogames and this is the perfect way to do it. If you are interested in reading in reading their reviews, here are the links to their pages:
Quent's review
NOWITSREYNTIME's review
Ptcremisi's review
I will be adding the other reviews once they become available.

Allow me to reminisce a bit first.
I first played a version of this game on my brother's PC sometime in the 90's probably. Much later I found out that I played the SatellaView version. I played a bit of this game as part of the Zelda Collection for GameCube. After that I bought the GBA version. I never got remotely far in any of my playthroughs but I did have a good time with trying to progress. But in all of my playthroughs, the cryptic nature of the game got the better of me. I almost never want to make use of guides for videogames because 'getting stuck' in a videogame is part of the fun for me.

The game starts and we're greeted by a pretty spiffy title screen. The logo is bright and colorful and beneath there's a waterfall going down, very cool. It's accompanied by the first rendition of the Legend of Zelda theme, of course the most iconic piece of music in the entire franchise. There's a title crawl that explains the story, really helpful. We're basically out to save the princess from the big bad.
Fun fact, Nintendo originally wanted to use Maurice Ravel's Bolero for the title screen but found out rather late in development that this music piece was not in the public domain yet. If they wanted to include it they had to wait an entire month to release the game and that wasn't happening so the composer basically pulled an all-nighter and churned out this gem of a theme song.

So we push start, pick a save file, name our character and we're off to the races. We're thrust into the land of Hyrule. We can go left, right or up but there's also a cave we can enter. Of course we enter the cave. We get the sword from the old man but we have to keep it a secret.

And now we go! The game begins! Go save the princess! Just do it! Where do we go? Figure it out!

So unless you know what you're doing or are playing this game with the help of a guide, you're lost. You have a big open world to explore, in the top left corner there's a map that basically tells you nothing except where you precisely are in the world. There are 8 dungeons, called levels in this game, all of them have a number so there's a way to tackle them chronologically. There are plentiful secrets in this game, a select few Heart Containers to find to expand your health, Warp Points, rupee stashes etc. But alas unless you have a guide you'll probably won't be able to find these goodies. Most of these collectables are hidden in walls that you have to bomb or underneath bushes (or are they trees?) that you have to burn but there are little to no contextual clues in the game as to which bushes or walls you have to burn or bomb respectively.

That is not to say that the developers didn't at least try. Sometimes rocks or statues with staircases beneath them that are conspicuously placed in a way that beg you to explore a bit.
Sure there are lot of instances of "how the hell was I supposed to figure that out by myself". But it's important to not get lost in these feelings of frustration. The first Legend of Zelda has a lot more to offer the player than simply granting them a glimpse of a bygone era in gaming or being viewed as a crusty old time capsule of a popular franchise. For a game that is so old, difficult and to be frank, obtuse, it still offers a sense of childlike wonder and curiosity. It's also the introduction of classic Zelda's addictive gameplay, something we'll discuss further in a bit.

It's important to mention that the developers were onto something here with this level of exploration but it would take a couple of years and a brand new console before these ideas would come into fruition in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo.

So by now I think I've made it clear that you need a guide in order to progress and finish this game. It's a "guide game" but not necessarily in the derogatory sense. Back when this game came out, they had old-fashioned guides and manuals to help players with this game. It's basically a part of the experience so there's no shame in using a guide. The videogame 'Tunic' tries to drive this point home by being a game that's clearly being inspired by The Legend of Zelda and you have to collect pieces of a manual in order to make sense of the game's rather cryptic nature.

If we're talking about gameplay, it's the first time we're introduced to the Zelda-formula. Explore the land, tackle dungeons, collect items which you can use for combat and/or explore. The whole world is basically at your feet but the more upgrades you collect, the more the world opens up to you. It's a really fun gameplay-loop and it remains incredibly satisfying to progress despite the fact that the game is showing its age.

Of course we have enemies to fight. The main attack you have is a forward stab, enemies are sometimes quick, nimble and unpredictable so be careful when and how you attack. There's quite a bit of delay between attacks so every sword stab matters more than you think. You can acquire a lot of upgrades like extra Hearts so you can take more hits, better armor, deadlier swords and health potions. Even though these are optional, you're going to need these, trust me.
You really need to prepare for the journey or else, get ready to get your shit kicked in. By the time you've reached Level 6 the game doesn't fuck around anymore. Enemies begin to swarm you in large numbers and hit like trucks. The game starts nice and easy before becoming absolutely relentless in its difficulty. Maybe I'm not a True Gamer™ but these difficulty spikes really threw me for a loop for some reason. It's to be expected of course, it's a game from 1987 and videogames were extremely difficult back then, be it for the sake of padding the game for home consoles or for gobbling up your quarters in the arcade. Anyways, read the guide and get these upgrades as soon as they become available.

As for the music, what's there to say, it's all so iconic. We got the title theme, the overworld theme, the treasure jingle, sound effects and compositions that are still being used to this day in Zelda games. Yeah it's archaic, sure, but it still manages to set itself apart from other NES soundtracks and you really get the feeling that you're setting off on a grand ol' adventure.

Would I recommend this game to any? Not necessarily, unless you have an interest in the Zelda-franchise and want to discover its history. Maybe you have an interest in game design and you want to know how things worked back in the day. Maybe you like the idea of working through a game with a guide or maybe by other means, like playing this game with friends and working through it thanks to each other's help.

For me personally, I always wanted to finish the first game of a franchise that I absolutely adore. And this marathon gave me plenty of reason to finally do it. And I'm glad I did but I'm also content that it's finally over. Now unto another game I tried multiple times but never finished: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link!

(I'm going to be so fucking relieved when we get to Link to the Past.)

I'm not going to mince words here, this is by far one of the worst, most frustrating games I've ever played. There are plenty of NES games that have stood the test of time and remain playable and fun till this day, still regarded as classics of the medium.

This game isn't one of them.

This is cock and ball torture.

The biggest problem this game has is it's enemy design. Enemies hit hard, fast and randomly, seldomly giving you a chance to get a clean strike on them. You'll almost never escape an encounter unscathed.

I had a brief moment in the game were I was enjoying myself, having just finished the first Palace and gaining my first item, the candle. Now I could finally explore dark caves! Then I got to Death Mountain, probably the hardest section in the game and the frustration began anew. Even though you'll progress and "grow stronger", you never feel like you're well- equiped for the journey ahead.

Glad this one's over with.

You cannot imagine how happy I was when Zelda II was finally over. An abysmal game with marginal ties to its predecessor. Luckily, Nintendo went with what worked in the first Legend of Zelda and understood what made that game enjoyable in the first place.

A Link to the Past was one of the first games I truly fell in love with. It is my happy place. We had plenty of videogames in our household, mostly 2D-platformers like Mario or home ports of arcade titles like Space Invaders or Pac-Man. But A Link to the Past was very different. No longer was I tasked with running from point A to point B, mostly from left to right. Getting the highest score was not the primary goal anymore. The goal was to save the princess, beat the game, by any means necessary. It truly felt like I was in control of the hero’s destiny. I must have completed this game more than twenty times since I first played it in 1996. And how happy I was that Nintendo released a port on the GameBoy Advance. Now I could play my favorite game anywhere and any time I wanted.

The game’s story is actually surprisingly fleshed out. Seven Wise Men magically sealed Ganon away in the Golden Land during the Imprisoning War. Hyrule was safe for many centuries until the coming of the wizard, Agahnim. He eliminated the king of Hyrule and sought to break the seal that kept Ganon imprisoned. One by one, the descendants of the Wise Men vanished, weakening the seal until one descendant remained: Princess Zelda. The princess contacts you telepathically, pleading with the nascent hero to rescue her from her perils. And an epic quest ensues.

As mentioned before, the game took what was good about the first Legend of Zelda and pushed everything up a notch. The jump from the NES to the SNES is staggering, everything looks a lot more colorful and detailed and all that extra horsepower comes in handy to truly differentiate each and every environment. We have the Desert of Mystery, the small and quaint village of Kakariko, The Lost Woods enveloped in fog and mystery for an incredible atmosphere. After a while you will venture into The Dark World, a parallel world to Hyrule. Almost everything is the same but darker, more somber, foreboding. From Dark World you can travel to the Light World but not vice-versa, creating some interesting puzzles and exploration opportunities. It is amazing how Nintendo basically doubled the size of the world with this technique.

The game entices you to explore constantly, the overworld is packed with collectables and secrets that often lead to other secrets. There is a certain indescribable flow to the entire structure of this game. This is also thanks to the numerous items you can collect that allow you to open up more parts of the map, kind of like modern-day Metroidvania’s. This is by far Zelda’s most diverse and eclectic collection of items. While Zelda 2 used a lot more ‘’passive items’’, things you cannot actually tangentially use but their use is triggered via certain actions on the overworld, Link to the Past has far more items to equip, for use against enemies or on the environment. For example, the boomerang returns which you can use to stun enemies momentarily but can also be used to activate switches. The Hookshot functions similarly but it has an extra use, grappling yourself to chests or wooden poles to yoink yourself to another part of the screen. You can acquire magic rods for ice and fire magic with predictable results once they get used on enemies. Some items are required to be used only once or not all. Some are entirely optional but it is cool that they’re there. You can acquire a cape that is invisible or a cane that makes you impervious to attacks. They are not required to beat the game but hell, they’re cool collectables and fantastic rewards for those who want to eagerly explore Hyrule.

Sure, compared to the first Zelda, Link to the Past is far more linear. For me, that is not a bad thing. This game still has some cryptic nonsense that require you to either talk to every NPC you can find or just look up a guide but for the most part, you know where you need to go and you know what you’re doing. There are some instances where the game stops you dead in your tracks because you need some random item, usually found while exploring the overworld. Did not get the book from the library? Too bad, you cannot access the 2nd dungeon. Don’t have the Flute? Cannot access the sixth dungeon in the Dark World. Most egregious is the last dungeon in the Dark World. In the beginning of the dungeon, Zelda tells you that you’re better off taking a Medicine of Magic with you because the dungeon requires a lot of items to progress that use magic. What she should have told you is that you’re required to have the Ice Rod in order to beat the boss in this dungeon. The Ice Rod can be obtained very early on in the Light World is some godforsaken cave.

The music is, again, incredibly memorable and iconic. The old Legend of Zelda theme got a massive glow-up through the new SNES soundchip. A lot of songs return in later Zelda-entries and even got glorious remixes in games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and onwards.

That’s some of the cryptic bullshit that A Link to the Past has to offer, these are a few examples where I can relate that this game isn’t always welcoming to newcomers who want to play this game blind and without a guide. However, I do think that one of the core tenets of a Link to the Past is to explore the world to it’s fullest extent. But not everyone has the patience to scavenge the entire map after that one MacGuffin required to progress the game.

All in all, I love this game. It shaped my sense of imagination, wondering if there are any secrets and magical artefacts hidden in caves or woods. My friends and I used to write fanfiction on Zelda in elementary school. The game showed me what the medium of video games was all about. That you could instantly go for the goal or just fart around a bunch, that the journey was far more important than the destination. I love the game’s aura of mysticism, that things were set unto motion far before you were there. That you’re the Hero of old. That you can get a cool weapon the Master Sword to smite evil. To me as a kid this really spoke to me, kindled my imagination. The world was at my feet.

I’ve completed this game more than twenty times. I will probably complete it a hundred times before my life is over.

This is all part of the Zelda marathon that the Backloggd Fellas and I are partaking in. Please check out their reviews at your convenience!
Reyn's review
Dunebot's review

Out of all of the platformers that I have played from the Sega Genesis, naturally, Sonic manages to be my favorite ones that you could choose from, but the original Rocket Knight Adventures is a VERY close runner-up, because it is genuinely a fantastic game. Despite how incredibly difficult it was, along with how it does that typical Konami Best Ending shit from back in the day that I really don’t like, I managed to have a lot of fun with it regardless, with it’s fast-paced and really fun platforming, wonderful visuals and music, a constant energy that just won’t let up, and mixing up the gameplay with instances of shmuping (it’s a word now) and fighting people in giant robots, making for what I would consider to be one of the best games that you could ever play from the system all together. And thankfully, many people back then were also a big fan of it too, with the success of this game leading to not just one, but TWO new games released just one year later, with the first of these being Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2…… or just Sparkster for people in the west, because “lol, get fucked, America”.

Naturally, after I had finished the second game, I was very excited to get to the second game, but at the same time, I was kinda worried about it too. I had seen several reviews of it floating around on here that said that the game was bad, and just from a few screenshots that I had seen, it didn’t look quite as impressive as what we got in the previous game, leading me to grow suspicious. Of course though, I ended up going into with an open mind like I always do, and now that I have beaten the game, I am saddened to report that this game isn’t anywhere near as good as the original game…….. but I still liked it, so that’s good. It’s a good game all around, carrying the same spirit and energy as the original, but it has much more frustrations to go along with it as well.

The story is pretty much the same as the original game, where after the defeat of Devontidos Empire in the previous game, the world remains at peace for a long time, until the evil Gedol Empire rises in its place, taking over the land and having Axel Gear kidnap Princess Cherry once again, so it is up to Sparkster to set off once again to defeat the empire and save the princess from her ultimate doom, which is about as much as I would expect from a sequel in this series. The graphics are pretty good, having a lot of the same charm, color, and personality from the original game, but it does look a little more generic in comparison, and that makes me sad, the music is pretty good, having plenty of energetic and fun tracks to hear all throughout, but I would say it just falls short of the original game for me, and the gameplay/control is almost on the same level as the original game, except it doesn’t quite feel as fun to go through, while also bringing that difficulty back in a less than pleasant way.

The game is yet another 2D action platformer, where you take control of Sparkster once again, go through a set of six different stages through plenty of different environments, from grassy plains to industrial fortresses, slice and dice your way through plenty of different enemies with either your trusty sword by itself or with your trusty rocket pack, gather plenty of fruit along the way to heal yourself, along with plenty of gems for some extra surprises along the way, and take on plenty of bosses that range from being either relatively difficult, to ridiculously difficult, which feels like it fits in well with everything else going on here. Those who played the first game will be able to jump into this one immediately, blazing through and slicing dudes just like they were able to before, but not with some noteworthy hindrances holding them back, even if the game is still good as a whole.

Not much was done to change up the formula from the original game, which is definitely for the best, if you ask me. Ya run, ya jump, ya slash things, ya hang onto stuff with your tail, and ya kill a poor defenseless tree that was just minding its own business before you showed up: it’s all the same great stuff you have come to expect. In terms of what is actually new though, the only two new things that you will find will be a slot machine, which will activate whenever you collecting 10 gems or more, and based on what it lands on, it can give you plenty of fruit to help you out, or even drop bombs on you, because this game is an asshole, and right alongside that, we now have new collectibles that you can get, known as the Keys to the Seal, which can be found in every level of the game, even in the opening intro level. These don’t do much, but they do count towards getting the best ending of the game, so if you want to get that best ending, make sure to look around as much as you can to find them all.

Aside from that though, it all plays pretty much how you would expect to see a game like this play, and many of the trademark elements that made the original so great, such as boosting around on your rocket pack, slashing through dudes, and overcoming satisfying challenges, are all accounted for here, and for the most part, it works pretty well. However, if I have to be honest, something about the way this game feels to play is kinda….. off when compared to the original. It’s not bad by any means, but it does feel like the game puts less focus on fast, skill-based platforming, and more so on getting past some very precise obstacles, especially in later parts of the game, which when combined with the level design for a lot of these levels, makes trying to get a handle on it somewhat of a challenge. Needless to say, this game is a lot harder than that of the original, which was already pretty hard to begin with, so you will definitely need to bring your A-game when it comes to getting through this title.

Not to mention, some of the levels that you go through in the game, or some of the sections that you go through, just aren’t that fun to play at all. For instance, in the third stage, you spend most of the time trying to go up these tubes at the bottom of this ship in order to find all of the pillars on top to defeat all of the enemies, and while this may not sound like that much of a big deal, there are bombs that are constantly being thrown down on you that will not only hurt you if you don’t react fast enough, but will also destroy the terrain below you, meaning that you have to be quick on your feat in order to survive and get this shit done quick, even if it isn’t quite clear on what takes you where and how you are supposed to go about this. Right alongside that, there is also this one part in Stage 5 where you will be going through these hallways filled with buttons, while all of these metal fists are being shot towards you, with you needing to hit the buttons in order to stop the fists momentarily. That in itself doesn’t sound too bad, but these buttons are pretty spread out, and there are barricades all throughout this hallway, meaning that if you aren’t lightning fast, you will get pummeled by these things, to the point where there will be, like, a million of them flying at you at once.

And on top of all that, all of the ridiculous and bullshit parts and the different way the game plays, this game also continues that WONDERFUL tradition Konami loves to put in these games where you have to play the game on the hardest difficulty in order to get the best ending. This is also on top of having to find those Keys of the Seal I mentioned earlier, so if you really wanna get the best ending to fully complete this game, you will need to be quick on your feet and exploring all over the place, which I didn’t bother doing, because I don’t feel like this type of game fits that kind of gameplay element. Mix all of that with the fact that this game takes away features from the original, such as the different types of stages (with one exception), and you have a game that falls real short of its predecessor, and that does make me sad, even though I still ended up having a good time with it either way.

Overall, despite all of those frustrating and dumb elements I just mentioned holding the game back, RKA 2 is still a decent enough game to play through, one that gives you enough to work with and have fun with on some of the lower difficulties, and plenty of challenges that are satisfying to overcome on the higher difficulties. I would definitely recommend it for those who LOVED the original game, as well as those who do love old-school platformers in general, but for everyone else, there isn’t much reason to play this one if you didn’t really get into the original, as this one probably won’t change your mind either. Ah well, hopefully the next game will be able to prove to be a worthy successor to what came before it, but I guess we will just have to wait and see about that in due time. Until then, here is a picture of the first boss of the game…………. is what I would say, if this site would let me show the picture... average Backloggd moment.

Game #615

Veredito: É bem bacaninha e fora da curva, eu inclusive jogaria feliz uma continuação.

Quando pesquisei Tails' Skypatrol, logo de cara achei que seria um jogo de navinha. Tipo, olha essa capa. Procura qualquer foto do jogo. Joga no Youtube. O que me levaria a crer que ele não seja um jogo de navinha?

Bom, ele é um jogo de plataforma. Um autorrunner, aliás. Cada fase é uma pista de obstáculos: você precisa chegar vivo no final passando por todas as armadilhas e inimigos pelo caminho, usando suas habilidades de movimento pra isso. Ou seja... um jogo de plataforma. Com a diferença que você está sempre voando.

E pra ser sincero, ele é bem bom. É curto, rápido, direto. São 4 fases só, cada uma leva poucos minutos. E o mais estranho para um jogo de 1995: ele é difícil pra cacete sem NUNCA apelar para mortes baratas. Não tem level design bosta, inimigos apelões, nada. Quando você perde, a culpa é 100% única e exclusivamente sua. O visual é bonito, os controles são redondinhos, as músicas são boas, e os chefes são interessantes.

O que mais eu poderia pedir de um spinoff no Game Gear para um personagem secundário da franquia?

Veredito: Mario 2D chegou ao ápice aqui.

Existe um motivo muito simples para este jogo ser reverenciado ao infinito e além por qualquer fã de Mario: é porque ele é bom pra cacete. A meu ver não tem nem discussão, nenhum plataforma 2D tradicional supera Super Mario World, e fim de papo. No máximo Super Mario Bros 3 consegue empatar. E olhe lá.

O nível de criatividade e de polimento em TUDO aqui é absurdo. Fases, poderes, inimigos, caminhos alternativos, visuais, músicas, mecânicas, chefes, controles, NADA neste jogo consegue ter um rival à altura em qualquer jogo do tipo. E não foi falta de tentar. Super Mario World é um dos maiores responsáveis por plataformas 2D terem sido o gênero gamístico mais popular do mundo por boa parte dos anos 1990.

Eu tenho muitas e muitas críticas ao Shigeru Miyamoto, o cara consegue ser um babaca de marca maior quando ele quer, mas é inegável o talento, dedicação e competência que ele sempre teve. Não é à toa que ele virou o maior game designer da história, não é a toa que ele está para o videogame pós-Atari assim como Fernando Pessoa está para a poesia portuguesa ou como Milton Santos está para a geografia da virada do milênio. Se Shigeru e Takashi Tezuka não formassem uma dupla tão incrível, é provável que os videogames tal como conhecemos hoje simplesmente não existissem.

Obrigado, Shigeru. Obrigado, Takashi. Obrigado, Koji Kondo e Hideki Konno e todas as outras pessoas envolvidas nesse projeto tão maravilhoso.

Obrigado, Super Mario World. O mundo gamer te saúda.

Ah Mortal Kombat II... here we go.

Meu primeiro contato com a franquia foi o MK: Trilogy de PS1 seguido pelo incrível (pro meu eu de 7 anos) MK: Mythologies Sub-Zero, acredito que esse seja o motivo de eu ser tão fã do personagem, inclusive preciso pegar algum dia pra zerar essa pérola, já que eu só apanhavakk, então apesar do meu primeiro videogame ter sido o Mega Drive, eu não joguei nem vivenciei o auge desse jogo, já que nem era nascido ainda. A estética edgy e violenta é o que tornou a franquia famosa, e muito da memória afetiva vem da violência e do fato dele ser um sucesso nos arcades, seja jogando com os colegas ou só vendo o sangue jorrar na tela e ficando encantado. Muita gente tem a nostalgia e memória afetiva dos primeiros jogos da franquia baseados nisso, porque esse rapaz aqui no single-player... meu Jesus Cristo, é uma experiência pra dizer no mínimo.

O gameplay é extremamente datado e obviamente não flui bem, sendo bem travado, e hahaha é uma pena que o MK II tenha uma IA que prevê cada movimento seu. O bizarro é que as vezes ela simplesmente desliga, você acerta uns 3 golpes e acha que vai vencer o round e do nada ela vira, desviando e bloqueando de tudo com uma precisão e reflexos que só uma máquina poderia ter, mas assim que você aprende a lidar com ela na base da maldade... fica mais fácil. A luta com o Kintaro...ficou facil depois do cheese, Shao Kahn idem. Não é como se existissem combos e ainda contando com uma IA acertando e desviando de tudo com uma precisão pixel perfect, o que resta é abusar dela. Mesmo com esses contras, até que gostei mais do que esperava, as lutas do meio da torre pra frente viram literalmente um Dark Souls de luta, saber a hora de pular e acertar o chute forte com pulo e queijar a IA, ou congelar com o Sub-Zero quando ela não desviar de todos os seus projéteis. O bizarro é que mesmo no easy parece que a dificuldade é resetada passada algumas lutas, então no fim a dificuldade é redundante. Eu testei as versões de Mega Drive (a que zerei), SNES, Sega 32X e uma versão de PlayStation que só foi lançada no Japão da qual eu não sabia da existência, graficamente a de PS1 é melhor, mas tanto ela quanto a de SNES só oferecem 5 continues pro jogo todo, enquanto a do Mega é bem generosa com seus 30, e já que eu sou bem orgulhoso pra usar save states salvo casos extremos, zerei nela.

MK II é mais um fenômeno cultural do que um jogo bom em si, os cenários, personagens e trilha sonora são incríveis então vale a conferida, seja por curiosidade histórica ou pra zoar com os amigos.

From my own personal experience, there aren’t too many good things that I can say when it comes to the company Ubisoft. I haven’t played too many of their games, as a large amount of them don’t really hold that much appeal to me, but even as an onlooker, I can tell just how soulless and mind numbing a lot of their titles are just by glancing over them, seeing them put little effort into making these games different from one another, or let alone putting any real quality into any of them whatsoever………….. it also doesn’t help that the company itself is one huge piece of shit, but that’s a story for another review at another time. With that being said though, if there is one thing that I can praise the people at Ubisoft, specifically Ubisoft Montpellier, for doing, it would be giving the world the gift of the Rayman franchise, a series that has been on and off (mostly off) ever since the mid-90s, and has more often than not delivered some truly amazing platforming experiences that few other games can replicate, especially with Rayman Origins and Legends, being not only some of the best games that Ubisoft has ever made, but also some of the best platformers OF ALL TIME, if you ask me. However… I can’t lie and say that this series is absolutely flawless, because that isn’t true in the slightest, and you can easily see why when you go back to revisit the original game that started it all, Rayman.

This was actually the very first Rayman game that I ever played, which makes sense, seeing as my chronology mindset won’t let me do anything out of order in the slightest. I recall seeing other Rayman games plenty of times before that point, thinking that they looked neat enough, and I had heard enough great things about them to where it made me want to give the series a try at some point. So, I went ahead and downloaded the original title off of the PSN, booted it up, and proceeded to go through one of the biggest rude awakenings I have ever had whenever playing any video game whatsoever. Any of you who have played the game for yourself know EXACTLY what I am talking about, hence why I rated this game as low as I did. Rayman for the PS1 is one of the most conflicting games that I have ever had the “pleasure” of playing through, providing plenty of enjoyable and downright INCREDIBLE elements that one could ever find from a platformer at the time, but at the same time……….. GOD DAMMIT.

The story is one we have all heard in some form or another, where in the mystical land of the Valley (wow, what a great name), everyone is living in peace and harmony thanks to the efforts of the Great Platoon, a magical artifact that protects the inhabitants of the world, but all of a sudden, the evil Mr. Dark (wow, what another great name) appears to steal the Great Platoon, defeating the guardians of the Valley and sending all of the Electoons living in the land to be imprisoned for all eternity, so it is up to Rayman to set out on a journey to save the Electoons, defeat Mr. Dark, and return the Valley to its normal state once again. It is a fairly simple plot, but what makes it work here is with how it is presented, not only helped by the game’s visuals, but also with cutscenes detailing the events of what goes on in the game in a simplistic, yet effective manner. I mean, come on, when you see the Electoons crying the cages, you can’t help but want to go save as many of them as you can.

The graphics are absolutely phenomenal, being one of the best looking platformers to ever comes from not just the early PS1 era, but from any game in general at the time, having plenty of beautiful environments to go through and wonderful designs and animations for all of the characters, the music is fantastic, having plenty of wonderful tracks to vibe to all the way through, from calm and pleasant tracks like this one, to more jazzy and upbeat tracks like this one, and the gameplay/control is pretty simple enough, with you being able to get a grasp on it pretty easily a good amount of the time, but then you get further along into the game and……….. sigh, we’ll get there soon enough.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of Rayman, go through a set of six worlds, each with a unique theme that separates them not just from each other, but from plenty of other games as well, run, jump, and punch your way through plenty of different enemies while avoiding some pretty deadly hazards and traps, gather plenty of different items to make you slightly stronger and to heal yourself, while also saving as many Electoons as you can, and take on plenty of whimsical and entertaining bosses, who range from being pretty simple, to making you wanna TEAR YOUR FUCKING-.......... inhale, hold off on it, Mega, we will get there….. sigh, but yeah, for the most part, you got a pretty basic platforming adventure here, nothing too unique from what we have seen before, but the visuals, soundtrack, and unique aspects of gameplay alone make it stand out from any other game released at the time, and it makes it very fun to play through…… for a good while.

From the beginning, you get accustomed to how this game plays pretty quickly, walking around and jumping through these colorful lands, while also gaining plenty of abilities to help you along the way, such as the ability to glide with your hair, or even to… punch and hang from ledges. Because apparently Rayman is a fucking idiot who can’t do those things on his own. However, as the game goes on, it will introduce plenty of new ways to switch up the gameplay, not only to challenge the player in new and creative ways, but also giving a new gameplay style that you will have to experiment with. Even in the first world alone, there are levels where you will be planting plants to help you ascend up this canyon to avoid the water rising from below, and there’s another level where you will be flying on a giant mosquito that you just previously beat the shit out of! Like with Donkey Kong Country, this game knows how to keep the player engaged from start to finish, making sure to make each level feel unique and different from each other in some way, making you want to see what it all has to offer….. for a good while, anyway.

Not to mention, I can’t stress this enough, but the visuals that the game is sporting really makes it all that much more enjoyable to play through, not just in terms of how good they look, but also the creativity that can be implemented through them. You have your typical worlds here and there, like a mystical forest and some rocky mountains, but then you have other worlds that are made up of musical instruments, or ones that are made of art and craft supplies, and even ones entirely made up of candy! Sure, some of these could be seen as somewhat generic, since a lot more games have used these themes, but at the time, this had to be one of the most creative platformers out there just based on the worlds alone, and this is pushed even further with the enemies and bosses, as well as some of the obstacles, and the means you have to use in order to get through them, making it very fun to traverse through to discover just what else the game could be hiding around the corner……. for a good while anyway.

Ok, ok, now that we have alluded to it enough at this point, we should get to the real… meat and potatoes on my thoughts on this game. You see, I may have been praising this game for quite a while now in this review, talking about its wonderful visuals, creativity, music, and all that jazz, but let me tell you something right here and now……… I FUCKING HATE playing this game. Seriously, hand on my heart, swear to god, this is, without a doubt in my mind, one of the most frustrating, brutal, and UNFAIR games that I have ever played in my life! This may come as a shock to you who aren’t familiar with this game, or for those who have played any of the later games in this series, but all of you who have played this game know EXACTLY what I am talking about, but for those of you that don’t…. strap yourselves in, cause I’m about to tear this thing apart.

From the beginning, the game seems fairly simple, nothing too hard, but nothing too easy either, allowing you to get through the first world pretty swimmingly to give you a good taste as to what you will be in for. However, whenever you reach the second world, Band Land, that’s when everything starts to fall apart. Sure, Band Land itself isn’t too difficult, but you can definitely see a rise in difficulty here that you wouldn’t have expected this early on, with plenty of annoying segments and sections that you need precise reflexes on or else you will get hurt. Upon reaching the third world, Blue Mountains, that’s when all hell breaks loose, with the game taking NO MERCY on you, throwing many different obstacles at you, some of the most precise and bullshit platforming you can imagine, plenty of sections where just one wrong move will cost you a life, and some collectibles that can just FUCK RIGHT OFF with how aggravating they can be to get. The boss fights don’t get that much better either, especially with this one right here, which took me way too long to beat just because of how aggravating and unpredictable it is in general.

But hey, that in itself doesn’t seem so bad, right? It’s a hard game with plenty of BS, so what? I’ve played through many of these before and turned out fine, so what’s the big deal? Oh, I’ll tell you what’s the big deal: you have LIMITED continues. From the start of the game, you only get a couple of lives, and whenever you lose them all, you have to use five of your continues. That in itself doesn’t sound so bad, as plenty of games before that worked that way too, but what the problem is is that this game is actively making sure that you fail, with every single obstacle, enemy, and hazard that you come across on your journey far enough in meaning to get you killed in some bullshit way or another. That means that you will lose all of your lives and continues, meaning that you have to start the whole game over again. Sure, there are codes you can use to get around that, but FUCK THAT SHIT! Why should I have to use a code in order to actually feel safe and comfortable when playing through a video game?! It should be like that from the beginning!

And if that wasn’t bad enough, having to go through all of the bullshit challenges in this game, dying over and over again, and needing to restart the game because you lost all of your continues, there is one final nail in the coffin that seals this game’s fate in my eyes: you HAVE to 100% it. In order to reach the final area of the game, the Candy Chateau, you have to free all of the Electoons from the cages throughout all of the levels, meaning that you physically cannot beat the game without 100%ing it. That alone takes the game’s already high difficulty and ramps it up by 10. Sure, there are plenty of Electoons that can be rescued pretty easily, especially in the first world of the game, but most of the other ones are ridiculously hard to get, all because of the game’s tendency for putting in bullshit level design and enemies to screw you up, making you feel like you went through Hell and back just trying to rescue these damn things, all in the process to just beat the game. Not to mention, I HATE this trope in games, wherever you are playing along, just having a good time, and then the game tells you you can’t beat it unless you get everything. Some manage to handle this trope better then others, but if the game deliberately tells you you have to get all of the previously-optional collectibles in order to actually beat it, that is when it ends up on my shit list.

Now, you may be wondering, how did any of this happen? Was the game just deliberately designed to be as frustrating as humanly possible, or was there a point to all of this that can somehow make it all the more understandable? Well, surprisingly, it’s actually the latter. You see, during development of a video game, there is this wonderful little thing called “beta testing”, where beta testers will interact with everything that possibly can in a video game, not only to point out certain glitches or bugs that need to be worked out, but to also suggest altering things around in order to make the playing experience that much better for the consumer. Rayman on the PS1, unsurprisingly, had ZERO beta testing done on it whatsoever, or at least, it was very little compared to how much is usually given to a game. That alone completely clears up why this game is such a pain in the ass: they went ahead and programmed an entire game full with plenty of bullshit moments and challenges, and nobody tested it enough in order to tell the designers to go back and make it more manageable to play through. I would be mad about that, but after all of the ranting I have just done, I gotta say…… that’s just fucking depressing.

Overall, despite how wonderful the visuals, music, and ideas in this game truly are, I personally cannot stand the original Rayman on PS1, with it being so blatantly difficult and unfair to the point where I never wanna touch it again in my entire life. Sure, I did give it a 2.5 out of 5, which is pretty generous for how I really feel about it, but it is just because those visuals and bits of music are just THAT wonderful, to the point where it is so much more pleasant to watch and listen to rather then it is to play. I would recommend this game ONLY for those who are massive Rayman fans, ones who just need to consume everything they can that the franchise has to offer, but for everyone else, I wouldn’t touching this game with a ten-foot pole…………… however, what I will tell you to do is to play Rayman Redemption instead. This is a fan-made reimagining of the original game by Ryemanni, and while I myself haven’t played it cause my scars haven’t healed yet, apparently it completely revitalizes the game, fixing all of the issues the original game had, and actually making it fun and not making you wanna pull your hair out! I do definitely wanna give it a shot at some point just to see how it really is, but from what I heard, it is definitely worth it, so go give them some love. Until then though, I will just move on with my life, wondering what the hell Rayman is supposed to be, and how he can function without any limbs whatsoever, as I always do…..

Game #610

FUCK VEGA. and fuck sagat too. I hate them SO MUCH. Their AI's play like a toddler who just learnt how to do a special move. Vega jumps around like a rabid orangutan, and when you can final get a hit on him.. WHOOPS! He jumps onto the wall, and then does an unavoidable attack! Then you face against Sagat and all you hear is TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER UPPERCUT and whoops! I lost again! Man, what great game design! 😄

i feel bad giving this game 3 stars, but i genuinely think i've contracted HIV because of the amount of times i've been fucked by them.

This is probably the first game where I had to pull up a guide to beat the "name entry" menu. Bravo! Still a less tedious game than the first one :p while yall are debating whether this game is actually a hidden gem or the worse slop known to man, know that I am taking double the amount of misinformation. Link is like Robin Hood except he's stealing little kids in caves and giving them to single mothers??? Very weird. I suppose this segues into my political stance about Link wielding magic, a crystal clear case of identity crisis. But make no mistake, the game only gets real good right when you get the fire spell. Me when unlocking the full moveset actually makes the game as good as it should always have been. It's more common than you think.

While I'm a big fan of most of the game, fuck that one room in particular in the 3rd temple where you're digging stone blocks to get to a key (Minecraft reference) because these dog heads got hands damn! The point is that they don't, so I am... shocked, as they say! Now imagine my surprise when I finish the 1st temple and find out what God it reveres: it's a moyai! You're putting something in his brain... hnnng moyai brainrot... ahah I hope I'm more than a niche internet micro-celebrity to you guys, I also am a variety gamer, and that means I vary my approach to the game: nope, I'm tackling Zelda II like it's a DMC-like. It really is high octane at times, though. All is manageable, however. Even Link's crippling rupee debt. He just does not engage with the currency. Modern problems require modern solutions.

Combat is just really funny. You get pulled into the narrow streets of Kamurocho every 10 steps in the overworld that suspiciously looks like The Legend Of Zelda on the NES, and whenever you hit somebody, I can't believe how many mfs I'm using za warudo on, but I better believe. And also, the regular attack just looks satisfying for some reason. Link is poking them. But don't poke the bear, though! Thankfully, it's just a bunch of unmemorable enemies here. That Lizalfos be looking stiff as a gyatt 🥰 but yeah that's it. I'm not sure how to convey how I really feel about all this. But, know that enemy placements is pretty fair. Atleast, that's what I said as my graduation quote. ¡ No mames !

It's funny when he does the upwards thrust... because it feels like he's offering his hand in marriage. LoL ¿quieres? The way I creaaaamed when I got the opportunity to do this attacking shit down below AND above me. Although this ties in to a mucho problemo that the OG had, where the missable content is way too important, the average joe is liable to it, and I will call the manager about it. Only then will they learn Link has actually entered people's houses without their permission, marking the grand premiere of his criminal record. The only way he has to redeem himself is by vanquishing Ganon once more, as his death was GREATLY exagerated. Yep.

eu gostava quando o caos era o nivel mais dificil pq ne, o caos, algo épico. Dps virou a catedral, que foi muito épico tambem, um nivel que se passa na igreja caindo aos pedaços, passa um ar de ultimo nivel também. Depois o ultimo nivel passou a ser o jardim chinês, um contraste entre os outros níveis por ser bastante calmo, sendo outro contraste também o quão calmo e pacífico é o nivel em relação a sua dificuldade extrema. Daí o nivel mais dificil passou a ser o futebol kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. Dps virou o Alan Wake, que porra meu, o nome do cantor nem é alan wake, isso é nome de jogo.