Every now and then, I'll play a game a few years after it releases. Maybe I wasn't interested when it came out and my tastes changed. Maybe I didn't have the money and wanted to prioritize other things. And then sometimes I can't justify why it took me so long, and I get super upset with myself for not having tried the game sooner, because it's just that good. Celeste is that game. I can't believe it took me 5 years to get to this, and while I've still got to collect the B side tapes, strawberries, unlock the final chapters and collect some of the other myriad collectibles this game has, right now I can confidently say that I am dumb and should feel bad for having missed a game this emotionally strong, mechanically tight, and passionately made. If you have not, please don't pull a me any longer, and do yourself the favor of playing this wonderful game.

Castlevania makes its jump to the Super Nintendo, with Super Castlevania IV!
In spite of its title, this game is more of a re-imagining of the events of the original Castlevania, rather than being a sequel or anything of the sort.
There are some similarities with the original NES title, but a lot that you'll see here is brand new, and also showcases the power that the Super Nintendo has.

Super Castlevania IV is perhaps one of the best showcases of a console I've seen. Like yeah, it's not perfect, and there's plenty of slowdown when there's many things of screens, or when you're in one of those Mode 7 sections, but graphically, this game is very impressive.

Sprites are very detailed, backgrounds have many colors to them, and you can instantly recognize what type of stage it is by them, and there's so much variety in the places you traverse.

Just like Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, it takes a while for Simon Belmont to get to the actual castle.
You go from forests, to caves, to aquatic ruins up until you reach Castlevania itself in Stage 6. Then certain things will play out like the original game, but only really in concept, like falling down a hole to reach an underground layer of the castle, but the stage here looks much different than last time, and it takes a while longer for Simon to reach to the top of the castle.

While this game has some hard parts here and there, like Slogra being the bane of my existence, or Stage 8 having many spikes that are one-hit kills, Super Castlevania IV is much easier than Castlevania I and especially Castlevania III.

Not only is the level design this time around much less punishing, and there's way less bullshit enemy placements, Simon himself not only has mid-air control, but he can also whip in multiple directions, and jump off or on stairs with ease!

In addition to him being able to use the Vampire Killer to swing from specific chains, this game has some of the best controls in a Classic Castlevania game!

And the soundtrack, oh baby, that soundtrack!
Even though I never grew up with a Super Nintendo, I've always been a fan of its sound chip ever since I was young, and Super Castlevania IV puts it to good use, being able to pull off atmospheric music, while being pretty catchy!
There are so many themes I like, from Stage 2's theme, to the Prologue theme, to the theme that plays at the end of Stage 5, to Stage 9's theme, to of course, Simon's theme, which makes you feel like a badass, especially when it plays during the final part of Dracula's fight!

As you can probably tell already, while it's not perfect, Super Castlevania IV is my favourite Classic Castlevania game, and one of my favourites in the franchise. For being a game that came close to the Super Nintendo's launch, it's amazing how well this game has aged, and how fun it still is to this day!
It's a high recommendation from me!

Stardew Valley feels like coming home.

I can't remember which playthrough I'm on, which is a rarity for me. I've revisited childhood favorites like Zelda and Mario countless times, cherishing each experience. However, as an adult, this happens less frequently. Maybe it's because modern games don't resonate with me as deeply, or maybe my gaming habits have simply changed over time. Yet, whenever I boot up Stardew Valley, it hits all the right notes. Whether I've talked with the residents of Pelican Town dozens of times or played through its events repeatedly, the game retains its magical allure. It feels like a nostalgic return to childhood gaming, a comforting experience I can enjoy every time of the year.

What's truly remarkable is the developer's commitment to continually expanding the game with substantial updates and expansions, all provided for free. Stardew Valley brims with passion and love. Despite its status as one of the most successful indie games of all time, the developer continues to pour his heart into it, enriching the experience for players. I deeply respect and appreciate this dedication, which unfortunately is no longer a given in today's gaming industry.

I could ramble endlessly about this masterpiece of a game, but let me simply express my enduring love for Stardew Valley. Nearly a decade after my first playthrough, it still holds a special place in my heart and it probably always will.

(Part 4 of 4)

Y’all ever heard of this weird-ass thing called the Sega Channel? It was apparently this service that was around in the mid-90s that allowed owners of the Sega Genesis to play games on an online service for a monthly fee, which eliminated the need to go out and get the game for yourself if you don’t want to pay a full $60 for a game that was complete trash. It was a neat little idea, and it did last for a good while before shutting down, but while it did have plenty of benefits for owners of a Genesis, it also had plenty of costs as well. On one hand, you do get access to plenty of new Sega Genesis games and demos to play to your heart's content, but on the other hand, there were certain games that were made for the Sega Genesis that were released EXCLUSIVELY for the Sega Channel… for us Americans, anyway. This made it so that, once the Sega Channel was ultimately shut down in 1998, you could never play these games anymore, unless you wanted to go out of your way to buy a foreign copy of the game along with a Mega Drive, but who has the time, patience, and money for that? This meant that plenty of people would miss out on some truly great Genesis titles for the longest time, including today’s subject, Mega Man: The Wily Wars.

Nowadays, there have been several re-releases of this game to where you can easily play the game if you have access to it, but for the longest time, fans in America wouldn’t be able to officially play this game for the longest time, and I remember that this KILLED me inside back in the day. Knowing what this game was, I desperately wanted to get my hands on it for the longest time back then, but I couldn’t, seeing how it was only available in a completely different part of the world. It was only around when I was 15-16, I wanna say, and I went to a video game convention happening in my town where I found someone was selling bootleg cartridges of The Wily Wars that I finally managed to snag a copy for myself, and all was right with the world. It was worth it too, because even after so many years, The Wily Wars is still a pretty great game, one that gives plenty for fans of the series to play through and appreciate, while also providing new content and ideas that were great to see in action.

For those of you who are unaware, this game is pretty much the Mega Man equivalent of Super Mario All-Stars, where it takes the original trilogy of Mega Man games from the NES and completely remakes them for the Sega Genesis, featuring a new coat of 16-bit graphics and music right alongside it, as well as save points, which are not only pretty helpful, but they also make those dumbass grid passwords obsolete (and the whole world cheered). All of the games present here work pretty much exactly like they did back on the NES: they are all still 2D platformers where you run, jump, and shoot your way through plenty of different foes, obstacles, and bosses, gather plenty of different special weapons and upgrades to assist you on your journey, and question how this super-powered fighting robot is somehow unable to stop this crotchety old man from doing evil things. So, needless to say, if you enjoyed your time with any of the original NES versions of these games, then you will most likely enjoy these versions as well.

Really though, there’s not much else I can say in terms of the improvements between these versions of these games and the originals. Unlike with Mario All-Stars, The Wily Wars doesn’t really change anything too drastic about the games themselves in terms of save points, win conditions, or the content that is present, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but for those that are looking for more stuff to mess around with in these three original games, they aren’t going to get that here. They are just 16-bit versions of those original games, which, in my opinion, is still pretty great, because not only can I still enjoy these games in the way that they are supposed to be, but now they look much nicer than before, and looking at all the different sprites for all the characters, enemies, and bosses is nice to day the least, even if some… aren’t quite as good as others (Rock should really put sunscreen on before going out in the sun for that long).

However, despite how much I still enjoyed these renditions of the classic games, I can’t say they are perfect, as there are several issues that do hold them back from being the definitive version of these games, such as the music. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily say that a lot of the music remixed in this game is bad, and there are some pretty great tracks to be heard in this game, but since they are on the Genesis, most of them are accompanied by that good ol’ Genesis twang, so if you aren’t a fan of that, then you will hate listening to this game. Secondly, there is the issue with slowdown, which has been a recurring issue ever since the original Mega Man, to be fair, but here I think is where it is the absolute worst. There are plenty of sections in these remakes where it will slow down where it was never meant to, and while in some instances like with the Yellow Devil fight, it makes things easier, most of the time it isn’t pleasant to look at. Not to mention, there are also some little things that bug me as well, such as there being no difficulty option for Mega Man 2, and whenever you beat any boss, after the jingle plays, Mega Man stands there like an idiot for a good 10 seconds before teleporting out of the stage, almost as if he is waiting for his cue card.

Of course though, for those of you who know The Wily Wars by heart, then you would know that these remakes aren't all that this collection has to offer. Right alongside the remakes of Mega Man 1-3, there is also a new game mode known as Wily Tower, which can only be accessed after you have beaten the main three games. Let me tell you right now, THIS right here is the main reason why anyone should play this version of these games, as Wily Tower is the best part of the entire package. It is essentially a smaller Mega Man title bundled in with the other three, as it features its own entirely new story (and by that, I mean Wily is a dick, and you gotta stop him again), new stages, new challenges, and new bosses that you won’t find in any other game in the series. All on its own, it is really fun, not only because of all the different challenges you take on and the gameplay still being as tight as ever, but seeing all the different enemies and hazards of the main three games clashed together in this mode is pretty neat to see. Not to mention, since this mode was specifically made for the Genesis, the music doesn’t suffer from the same issues that the main games suffer from… at least, not by much, anyway.

But none of that even comes close to what is the main draw of this mode, and that would be how weapons and special items are handled. From the beginning of the mode, you are given access to all of the weapons and special items from Mega Man 1-3, but of course, since there are so many, you aren’t given the ability to carry all of them at once. Instead, before each stage, you are given the option to customize your loadout, choosing which weapons and special items that you can take into a stage, while also being able to swap out your options for whatever stage comes next. This, in my opinion, is a GENIUS mechanic, because not only does it give the player plenty of opportunities to experiment with the items they have access to, seeing what loadout is best for them, but it also allows for plenty of replayability, just to see what works best in what stages. It really does suck that this kind of feature never returns for any of the other games in the series, because it is that good, and I would say that I hope they bring this feature back for a future game in the series… but that would imply that Capcom would make another game in the series at all.

Overall, despite some issues with the music, some instances of slowdown getting in the way, and how I wouldn’t say these are the definitive versions of the classic three games, this is a fantastic collection of remakes of the original trilogy, one that any Mega Man fanatic like myself would love to play not just because of how well these games still hold up, but also because of the equally fantastic Wily Tower mode, not only providing a fresh, new experience for fans of the series, but also by doing things that the series had never done before and since this game. I would absolutely recommend it for those who are fans of the Mega Man series, or even for those who couldn’t really get into the original versions of these classic games, because while the games themselves remain mostly unchanged, the new 16-bit coat of paint and the inclusion of saving may just be all you need to give these games another proper shot. It’s just a shame though that this was initially locked into a subscription service for us Americans for so long… but hey, they at least brought it back!.... and locked it behind another subscription service……. but hey, it’s on the Sega Genesis Mini!...... that is only available in limited quantities…………………. I hate video games.

Collection #2/Game #536

A considerable improvement over the first one! The two big issues I had with the first game are completely gone. Granted, there’s still an Energy Crystal requirement for the permanent Cyber-elves, but those amounts are all significantly reduced, so it’s a lot easier to get them activated. Although the newly-introduced Chain Rod felt unintuitive for swinging across gaps and there were a few rather unfun moments (Phoenix Magnion my DETESTED), it was still a fun game with a pretty good antagonist for something that’s rather short. And yeah, I probably won’t have as much to say about most of the games here as I did for MMZ1.

Mega Man Zero is certainly a good start for the series, but there are some blatant flaws here that can’t be ignored. I’ll start with the Cyber-elves. You’ll find them throughout the missions and most of them give you a temporary boost of some sort (stunning enemies, healing Zero, etc.), but some others will provide permanent upgrades for Zero. However, you’ll need to feed them each some Energy Crystals before being able to use the permanent Cyber-elves. This sounds fine, but the problem is that the necessary amounts of Crystals are staggeringly high. You will really have to grind for these things, and that’s not fun. I suppose they didn’t want to make it too easy to fully upgrade Zero, but they definitely didn’t have to go that far with the Energy Crystal costs. Next up, we’ve got a big one: the lives system, and I have one question about it: who the fuck thought it was a good idea? For those who don’t know, this game really broke the mold by not giving you some extra lives back after losing all of them, therefore you can only get more of them as they’re scarcely scattered throughout the levels or very rarely dropped by defeated enemies. This issue is coupled with the fact that you are locked out of a mission if you fail it without any lives left. Yeah, I guess you could say it makes sense in terms of story, but you could apply that logic to so many other games, just about all of which don't have these kinds of features! Thankfully, this bullshit can be avoided in the Legacy Collection with the Save Assist feature, which gives you checkpoints throughout the stages. You’re automatically sent back to the most recent one upon death without any lives lost. While such a feature might not be necessary for the other games in the collection, it’s absolutely essential for at least your first playthrough of this one. Once you have Save Assist enabled, you’re in for a fun action platformer. It has the same fun, fast-paced movement of the X series, pretty good music, and generally solid level design. The bosses are kinda hit or miss (The second phase of the final boss is an absolute miss), but I felt like the good outweighed the bad. Also, while the story is rather simple in this game, it provides a nice foundation for what’s to come and has some really cool moments (rot13 spoiler: V ernyyl yvxr Mreb erzrzorevat ubj zhpu orggre gur erny K jnf hcba qrsrngvat Pbcl K) Overall, despite its blatant issues, Mega Man Zero 1 is absolutely worth playing if you enjoy challenging action platformers.