When Capcom announced the trailer for Devil May Cry 5 back in E3 2018, I as someone who grew up with the franchise was like the happiest person that day. The 10 years of waiting process is not easy, especially considering that Capcom went through a "strange" phase where it seemed like they didn't believe in the potential of their own old franchise or presented a new series that deviated from the roots of its main identity. But the madlads decided to released the long awaited sequel and made one of the greatest comeback ever.

I think there is no needs introduction of what Devil May Cry is especially with the fifth installment so i'm just gonna keep this one short. It's a fantastic sequel that makes the process of waiting 10 years worth it. Seemingly wanting to prove that they are now back to their best, Capcom knows exactly what fans want for Devil May Cry 5 and made sure every element is filled. We are talking about action gameplay that is still full of style, intense and engaging action sensations, collection of badass and cool music, and stunning RE Engine-based visualization. Everything is wrapped up with the opportunity to enjoy and master it at a higher difficulty level, get equal rewards, while enjoying amazing cut-scenes that are ready to spoil the audiences eyes. One that I would recommend even if you're not familiar with the franchise and wanting to get into it. Capcom has succeeded in concocting a series that will satisfy two types of gamers like this through a variety of on-target executions on all fronts.

You ever just like, have moments of nostalgia grief where your brain kind of latches on to whatever you were fascinated by in your childhood and never really let's go of? I go through bouts of this every now and then, maybe it's just a symptom of growing old or feeling general lack of comfort in present life. I have no idea, I'm not a philosopher, but what I do know is that Nintendogs was such a highlight of my childhood that when I ended up getting a REAL!! dog, I begged and pleaded to my mom and sisters to name him after the virtual Shiba Inu that I adopted in this game.

And no, Nintendogs does not prepare you for any actual responsibility. I was not aware of the fact that you actually needed to pick up after your dog when walking them outside. Pissing off my in-game neighbors without understanding why. In fact, I'm sure my virtual Nintendog is actually pretty starving by now since I lost the game at some point and haven't been able to check on him in years.

But, it's days like today where I really, really wish that I still had it, but it's gone. I would check in on my Shiba and toss some frisbees with him for a bit. I really wish I could watch him run through loops on the competition track while reading the funny announcer banter. Maybe abuse the hell out of the records like I used to for hours. See the light in the dog's face that'd appear whenever you shouted it's name, even though it only ever heard complete undiscernible gibberish from the DS microphone. I would emulate the game but I just don't think it would feel the same and therefore, it'll just be stowed away in the back of my brain.

Since today my childhood buddy, Scout, is no longer on this Earth, and just like Nintendogs I cannot give either anymore praise other than thanking them so much for being a light of joy during the most tumultuous time of my life. It was never the pinnacle of gameplay, or the next generation's graphics, but a capsule of time that I will forever be reminded of whenever I hear the Nintendogs walking theme, which is a bop and a half. All it ever needed to be was an escape from reality for a kid who lived through a house full of screams and anger. Now it is a nostalgic memory that I will mourn for the rest of my life.

After taking a break from the series for quite some time, I had made my return to TwinBee through the second game, Stinger, and as a whole, I thought it was good, but nothing more than that. Since I was so new to shmups back when I reviewed the original TwinBee, I ended up liking that game a whole lot, but now that this genre is part of my DNA, I could see that this game, while still being solid enough for shmup fanatics to have a good time with, isn’t really doing anything too new or crazy not just for the genre, but also for the TwinBee series, aside from turning the screen to a different angle for some stages. Despite that though, I guess the game was successful enough to where it would see a sequel after a 2-year hiatus, and unlike the last two, we wouldn’t end up getting this game over in Western territories, which means they can get as weird as they want to with this next entry, which is perfect for this series. Japan would eventually get this next entry in the form of TwinBee 3: Poko Poko Daimao, or as the English translation calls it, TwinBee 3: The Terror Trunk.

I wasn’t expecting too much when I went into this game, as based on what I was seeing, I had a good feeling about what I was getting into. Since this was released exclusively for the Famicom once again (and I guess for the I-revo too, but let’s be real, what the fuck is an I-revo), it probably wasn’t gonna do that much to change up the gameplay, and was just gonna be another good round of TwinBee goodness for big fans of the franchise. One quick playthrough later, my theory was then proved correct, as the game does make some slight changes to the formula that had been established before in the first game and Stinger, but for the most part, what you see is what you get here. Nevertheless, it was still another solid entry in the TwinBee series, and ones that fans of the series and shmup fanatics in general could get enough out of for how short it is.

The story is very simple here, where one day, GwinBee was out running an errand and presumably enjoying life, when suddenly, he is kidnapped by the evil Poko Poko, and imprisoned in a far away land, so it is up to GwinBee’s older siblings, TwinBee and WinBee, to step up to the plate and take down Poko Poko once and for all, which is not only a very relatable plot (don’t ask), but it is one that is likable enough to get you out there shooting down ships….. even if the plot is never explained in the actual game, but eh, who cares. The graphics are pretty much the same as Stinger for the most part, although the sprites for TwinBee and the others have seen some improvements, and the bosses in particular have fantastically weird designs, so it all looks pretty good, the music is good, having plenty of standard sounding tunes that you would typically find in any NES/Famicom game, but none of the tracks stand out as memorable, and the gameplay/control is pretty much unchanged from that of the previous games, which makes sense given what kind of series this is, and it still ends up being fun enough regardless.

The game is a vertical shmup, where you take control of either TwinBee or WinBee, go through a set of five stages that take you through many fantastical generic worlds, shoot down everything that you see using either your standard shot or by throwing bombs onto the ground, gather plenty of different power-ups by gathering bells and shooting them up to get the specific power-up that you oh so desire, and take on several bosses that will definitely weird you out way more than any of the standard enemies will, but will also be fairly easy if you have the right tools in order to take them on with. It is a third serving of good ol’ TwinBee goodness, taking what had been done in previous games and slightly enhancing them to where I would say this is the best in the series, if not by that much at all.

Unfortunately, this game returns to the strictly vertical style that it had in the original TwinBee, getting rid of the horizontal stages that were seen in Stinger, which I would be more upset about, but given how there were barely any stages like that in the previous game, I didn’t mind it all too much. What you need to be focusing on instead is the main gameplay, which, while remaining mostly the same as the previous two games, does add some new features that hadn’t been seen previously. The game as a whole is still a good amount of fun, shooting down plenty of these bad guys in the air and on the ground, doing your best to avoid any projectile coming towards you, and trying to get as many great power-ups as you can, such as the returning options and LASER that I love so much, and even new additions like the shield that will protect you from quite a few hits, which is REALLY helpful, especially against bosses. Additionally, there is also an options menu that you can check out before the main game, where you can adjust your difficulty, who you play as, how many lives you have, and even what stages you wanna tackle first. It doesn’t change the gameplay up too much as far as I know, but these options are very much appreciated, especially for newcomers who may not be so used to TwinBee or the shmup genre as a whole.

Aside from all that though, again, what you see is what you get with this game. Ya fly around, ya shoot and bomb stuff, ya get bells that will make you more powerful, ya combine power-ups together, and ya get terrified by this abomination that you have to fight at the end of the game. It is a very standard shmup experience, one that doesn’t offer too much change or variety throughout its stages, which I’m perfectly fine with, but others probably would get bored pretty quickly. What I am not fine with, on the other hand, is how short this game is as a whole, with there being only five stages as opposed to the previous two games, which had ten and seven stages respectively. Sure, neither of those games were that long either, but I just wonder why the number of stages keeps decreasing the further and further we go, giving us less game to enjoy here. Don’t worry though, because from what I’ve researched here, the next game in the series does make up for this by increasing the number of stages from five to……… six. Hey, better that then nothing, I guess.

Overall, despite a major lack of change and the shortened length compared to previous titles, TwinBee 3 is still yet another solid entry in this niche series of shmups that we have here, keeping the gameplay as solid and fun as before, giving you plenty of sweet power-ups to try out and keep ahold of, and plenty of weird things to see before you eventually beat the game. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the previous two games, as well as those who are big shmup fanatics in general, because it is a decent way to kill a half-hour or so, and you will most likely have a good amount of fun doing it. So now, if you excuse me, I am gonna go try to find out how the hell TwinBee and his siblings are living creatures, and how ship people can have siblings and families. See you all next time!

Game #621

[ZeusDeeGoose's Virtual Boy Review Series: Part 1 of 24]
Virtual Lab is like one of those weird games you see in your nightmares that turn out to be real. That’s the best way I can describe this game. Everything about it feels surreal to me. I watched Nathaniel Bandy play this game in his video on the Virtual Boy, and it looked really off to me. So off that I stopped the video and started playing it for myself. First off, why is there a girl with massive bouncing breasts on screen? I’m glad I played this on an emulator, because apparently it bounces in 3D on real hardware. Second off, good god, the controls are laggy like no other game I’ve played. You have like 1 second of delay before you actually move a piece. Why this delay exists is beyond me. Emulator lag? Doubt it. VB emulation has existed since the late 2000’s. And thirdly, good god, the game is nearly impossible. You have these weird tube thingies, and you have to close them off, either with the wall, or a cap tube. You CANNOT cap it with another tube, and this ultimately kills what could've been a fine timewaster. Very often you'll just die because you fucked up ONCE. Combined with the awful controls, don't be surprised if you hear the game over music several times. Hell, the game just randomly decides you'll die because it doesn't give you a cap piece. So don't be surprised if you go back to the first stage SEVERAL times before seeing any success. Oh, and the graphics? I appreciate the IBS reference from the Binding of Isaac, but this game is gross as fuck. The “worms” are like some weird sperm-like monster. The only redeeming quality about this game is that the song in the background is actually kinda catchy. The arrangement sucks, but the composition is actually pretty decent. But overall, this might actually be one of the worst games I've ever played. But hey, props to the dev. Apparently they're a VTuber now, and they're having a great time. Unfortunately for me, I didn't.

WHEN WE LAST LEFT OFF ON THE PUTT-PUTT DOES THINGS SAGA…

We saw our great hero gather up many items so that he could join a parade, because that is a thing that people generally do in order to feel happiness in their lives, and not only was that parade QUITE the spectacle to see, but it also let Putt-Putt make plenty of new friends along the way, including his new trusted companion, Pep. But, things weren’t all so great in the world of Putt-Putt, because shortly after that, Putt-Putt and Pep were both BRUTALLY MURDERED! They were shot out into space by Crazy McScienceCar whose name I am too lazy to bother looking up, and they were sent to the moon to live out the rest of their lives, but it’s ok, because they managed to find a way back home, so they can live out the rest of their lives on a planet that has oxygen instead, even though cars don’t need oxygen to live, but IT WAS ALL FOR THE DOG! And now, as we approach the next chapter in the epic Putt-Putt Does Things Saga, we will find Putt-Putt taking on his greatest challenge yet…. SAVING AN ENTIRE ZOO…………………. yeah, it’s Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo.

Gonna be real with y’all, it has been a LONG time since I played this game, so I barely remembered anything about it. I do know there was a zoo, there were animals and cars in said zoo, and there was indeed a saving of said zoo, but aside from that, I don’t remember much else about this game. So, after one quick YouTube video later, I then realized that “Oh yeah, this was actually pretty good, wasn’t it?”, and you know what, I think I would have to agree with myself from 10 seconds in the past, as this is yet another solid entry in the Putt-Putt Does Things saga. It may not be as exciting as going to the moon, and it may not do…. anything different from other games to make it stand out, but it still manages to be a very solid adventure game for kids, and it may just be the best game in the series we have had so far.

The story is, once again, spelled out in the title, where Putt-Putt and Pep take a trip to the Cartown Zoo, which is about to have it’s big, grand opening for all of the people, but unfortunately, things aren’t going so hot, as six baby animals have gotten out of their habitats and are now lost somewhere in the zoo, so logically, it is up to this random kid and his dog to go exploring the zoo, find all of the baby animals, and make sure they are able to open in time, which is a decent enough set up, and it does make you wanna save the baby animals, cause you don’t wanna see them sad, afraid, or possibly dead! That would be tragic. The graphics are pretty great, getting rid of the hideous art style of the previous two games in favor of a new fancy hand-drawn animated style, and it works a hell of a lot better here, making the characters look much more appealing and alive rather then the soulless husks they were before, the music is… kinda whatever, just being full of a bunch of tracks that I just could not give a shit about, but I can’t possibly forget the greatest song in video game history, so it at least has that going for it, and the gameplay/control is……… well, if you don’t know at this point, then you have, like, four reviews that you gotta go catch up on, so get to that.

The game is a point ‘n click adventure game, where you take control of Putt-Putt once more, go through the many different standout locations in this zoo, as well as one or two areas outside of the zoo, interact with the many different cars, animals, and random things that you will find throughout the zoo to either learn about the place, help them out with their issues, or to get a new item to help you proceed forward, click on every single thing that you see to either get a new item or collectible, or just to see whatever whacky shit that this zoo has going on inside of it, and also play a couple of minigames on the side as well, just in case you are too bored of the EXCITING adventures to be found in the main game. It is definitely a Humongous game alright, and while this is definitely one of the best ones they have put out so far in terms of presentation, it is permanently trapped in a gameplay loop that may work out for them now, but will probably end up killing them fast.

Once again, we are back to boring car land with boring car people, which almost managed to make me fall asleep, but what helped keep me from doing that is, once again, the visuals. This is, without a doubt, the best looking and sounding Humongous game that we have played so far, as while the animations are still pretty limited, and the movement can be janky at times, everything is really colorful, the designs on all of the characters are very fun and charming, and the environments you travel through are very colorful and detailed. Plenty of effort was put into all of this, making it perfect for any younger players checking the game out, and the gameplay is still solid enough as well. There are plenty of things you can interact with, plenty of places to go, plenty of naturally goofy animations to witness, and even some instances of puzzle solving and quick-reaction times are put into here, making you finally use that brain of yours that you haven’t let be active for the past however many years.

But of course, this is still a Humongous game that we are talking about here, meaning that in terms of gameplay, what you have seen before is exactly what you get here. Ya run around, ya poke things with your mouse, ya watch the funny cartoon do things, and ya wonder how the hell this zoo is gonna be able to stay afloat with such horrible safety regulations on display. If you have played one Humongous point ‘n click adventure game, you have played them all, and this one is no exception, with it being able to appeal to the younger crowd that it was made for, but for literally everyone else, you aren’t gonna be getting any new experiences here. But hey, just like with most of those other Humongous games, the charm and appeal of these games are usually what elevates them in the first place, and this one definitely does that, so I see it as a memorable title regardless of all that.

Overall, despite the ever-occurring lack of change that has become common in these games, Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo is still yet another decent entry in this franchise, one that manages to take the series to new heights with its art and animation, keeps the main gameplay focus just as fun and charming as ever, and has plenty of personality all throughout. I would recommend it to those who were big fans of the previous two games, as well as those who have children who you wanna get into games in some way, because right alongside all of the other Humongous games, this would be a great place to start, and a memorable time for them all around. But anyways, NEXT TIME ON PUTT-PUTT DOES STUFF… Putt-Putt and Pep are going to go on their most dangerous, horrifying, and deadly adventure yet…… TRAVELING THROUGH TI- wait, that is actually all of those things……. huh. Well done, Humongous.

Game #620

After enjoying the first Last Bible game so much, I was super stoked to be able to find this copy (which I'd read was just all around better) for so cheap locally. It took me a while to get to it, but I eventually did! XD. It took me around 17 or so hours (no in-game counter, so I gotta guess) to beat the game on real hardware via my GameBoy Player.

The story of Last Bible 2 is in the far, far future of the first game's world, but ultimately not meaningfully connected beyond some related terms. One day, the return of the monster (not demon, monster) king, who was sealed away 2000 years ago, is foretold, and in order to stop this, the kingdom kills all newborn children in an attempt to keep his herald from fulfilling that prophecy. 15 years later, you, a boy named Yuri, and his childhood friend in their monster village go off to the capital to seek adventure and join the army, ultimately (of course) being pulled into a big fight to save the world. There are a lot more characters, both playable and non-playable, who have better motives and development than the first game. It's still not anything truly amazing, but it was certainly a much more technically put together story than the first. The actual facts of what was happening were much more clear, as well as to why characters were doing what they were doing. I think ultimately the story's setup hurts rather than helps the game in other ways, but I'll get to that later ^^;. The story is pretty darn good and text-filled for a GameBoy game, and with the topics its dealing with really does feel closer to what you'd imagine an "SMT game but for kids" would be.

The mechanics of the game are very much like the first one but expanded and enhanced all around in many ways. You still are a main human character with a pool of other human party members, and you still can recruit un-leveling monsters to your side via conversations and fuse those monsters into stronger ones. You can still do monster fusion anywhere via a spell, but the save system has been toned back from "anywhere" to "anywhere that isn't in a dungeon". Those base mechanics have been modified a lot as well. Party members now come and go as story beats dictate, meaning that you need to be careful and modify your supplementary monsters as needed to be able to keep progressing. Monsters are of course fuse-able, but now they can all hold and use items and many can even use equipment too! The monster conversation system has also been significantly enhanced, and it actually feels much closer to the genuine conversational system of its SMT sister games instead of feeling like random A and B choices like Last Bible 1 had. Even the UI is improved, and while still not perfect, it's a lot faster and more convenient to navigate than it used to be (for the most part at least).

While those points are all well and good, but unfortunately Last Bible 2 ends up tripping up pretty hard in some places. A lot of it has to do with item management. There are a lot more banks, so it's a lot easier to manage your key items this time, but not only do human party members keep their inventories when they leave the party, but monsters also completely LOSE their inventories upon being fused. This means you've gotta pay attention to what you want whom to have when you're thinking of doing monster fusion. While it's impossible to lose key items this way (the way the game solves that problem is that monsters simply can't hold key items at all), it's very frustratingly easy to forever lose unique equipment because you forgot to de-equip a monster with it, and it's similarly frustrating to lose a key item or unique piece of equipment because someone you didn't realize was about to leave has left for a good while.

There are also some very confusing design aspects around the human characters in particular. There are six main human party members who cycle through your party throughout the game, and overall they're not very good. Humans are always the weak link of the party, and the fact that they don't level up when they're not in the group means that you're even more likely to ignore them in favor of monster party members when they come back into the party after having been gone for story reasons. This is doubly true given how this game, like the last one, has a lot of unique special monsters you can find who are REALLY powerful and awesome to use. The game then twists in the final act, and actually robs you of ALL of your monsters by giving you all six human party members who cannot be removed from the party (so incidentally, if you have any items on reserve monster party members when you get that sixth human, their items are now inaccessible since only active party member's items can be accessed). I had to grind for hours to get my all-human party to a place where they could actually fight the final boss because they were all so wimpy, as this game is a good deal harder than the original overall. It's not a game-breaking decision, but it definitely left a sour taste in my mouth after a game that was up to that point better than the first game in basically every way.

One aspect that does not disappoint, however, is the presentation. I'd heard the music was just all around better in the second game, even after being so good in the first, and that statement was absolutely right. The graphics have also been improved a bit, still looking quite "GameBoy JRPG"-like, but with the environments and monster sprites looking just a bit nicer than before. They also do a better job of not putting monsters that share a sprite in the same area anymore, so that's one more really nice feature.


Verdict: Recommended. Last Bible 2 is another really good GameBoy JRPG. Overall I'd say it's stronger than its predecessors, but a few too many mistakes in its design philosophy regarding its human party members makes it impossible for me to recommend that highly. If you're a fan of JRPGs, you'll probably quite like this game, and it's well worth checking out if you can read Japanese and like some monster-catching action.

After playing the first two Last Bible games a couple years ago, I had been meaning to get around to their Super Famicom successor ever since then. But then I got kinda burned out on SMT and monster collecting games, and I got super addicted to Super Robot Wars games for nearly a year straight, so that didn’t end up happening until now XD. Still on my RPG kick, I decided to finally complete the old LB trilogy, and I’m really glad I did! It took me about 40 or so hours to beat the game in Japanese on emulated hardware.

The story of Last Bible 3 follows a young boy named Ciel, growing up in the tiny secluded village of Raga. He has his best friends Mochowa and Aaron, and he has his little brother Rudy, and they live a relatively normal life, going to school and playing together. But then one day, a few wild things happen in quick succession. They stumble across some ancient ruins, they find and revive an ancient warrior android named Duu, they hatch the egg of a baby Tetradragon, and they learn the government is going to ban the use of Gaia (the sort of magic/life force thing they practice at school). No sooner have their teachers left to petition the Senate to reverse their decision when a government-sent drop ship full of troops come to wipe the village out in their efforts to kill Ciel’s father, Glen. Fighting off the attack, the villagers all decide to flee the village rather than stay, and that’s only the too-short summary of the beginning of a much wider and deeper story than I would’ve ever expected on the Super Famicom.

The writing in Last Bible 3 genuinely blew me away in just how well it’s done, and it really feels like a video game version of a fantasy OVA from the period. Not only are the character interactions very funny and well done, but god damn does this game have a political narrative I’d consider daring even for a game now, let alone nearly 30 years ago. A story in a console RPG from this era being in some greater or lesser terms about how unjust hierarchies are worth toppling is one thing, but I was hella surprised at just how bold LB3 goes with it. Not like so many other games of then and now does it use a religious institution as the stand-in for real-world institutions, but the game’s secular government itself. It even goes so far as to make it a democratic institution, a Senate, rather than some kingdom or what have you. It really goes out of its way to show the disinterest of the state in anything other than its own survival, and holy crap are they not shy about racking up a body count in pushing that point.

I don’t want to give away too many spoilers here, but even for an Atlus-published game of the time (as they didn’t make it, the guys who made the other LB games did), this game is really pushing the boundaries of the kinds of stories video games can tell. It isn’t perfect, sure. I think the way the game handles race (Duu, a nearly speechless android, being the only person of color in the game) is certainly less than ideal by modern standards, but in both lacking any villages/locations based on racial stereotypes as well as having a person of color in the main cast at all puts this well above most other RPGs of the time in many respects. All in all, this is easily one of the best, if not the best full-stop, written RPGs on the Super Famicom, no question, and absolutely one of my new favorite games on the system.

The mechanics are where LB3 starts to get really decidedly less than perfect, however. It is an evolution and refinement of the SMT-lite turn-based RPG system of RPG + monster recruitment that the previous LB games use, but it also maintains some of their most strange and frustrating design choices. You can recruit monsters who can fight for you via dialogue in battle. In a nice improvement from previous games, you actually get an affection meter for just how well you’re convincing them, as well as an emotion indicator for how they’re happy, angry, or neutral towards you. It’s kind of a more simple system of what the PS1 Persona titles would do for their monster recruitment very soon after this. They also keep the system previous LB games use where monsters will never deceive you like they will in SMT. If a monster asks for money to join you, they mean it, and paying them will make them join you 100% of the time. The one rotten new addition to monster negotiations is that you have a time limit of only a few seconds to decide a reaction to what they just said, which can make negotiations kinda frustrating if you misread what they’re saying or get distracted for a moment (not to mention it’s a real pain in the butt for a language-learner like me ^^;). Very much two-steps forward, one step back.

Monsters can also still use equipment, and damn is that valuable because the inventory management is not only nowhere NEAR as bad as past games (like how monsters no longer just absorb the equipment they’re wearing if you fuse them with another monster while they have things equipped, like LB2 did), but monsters are also once again your biggest heavy hitters. While they mercifully don’t make you fight the final boss with a party of only humans like LB2 did, the most frustrating aspect of LB2’s larger design is still here: Humans are pitifully weak and useless compared to monsters you can get. Thankfully, LB3 is never a terribly hard game. I had to grind for a couple hours to be strong enough and have monsters strong enough to beat the final boss, but outside of that, most bosses and encounters will likely be pretty trivial. Humans being weak is a frustrating aspect of the design, but it mercifully never makes the game feel particularly difficult as a result.

Another annoying Old RPG Thing this game has is that magic is VERY weak and far too expensive most of the time to justify using compared to just saving your MP for healing magic. This makes virtually all random encounters pretty quickly just an exercise in pressing the auto battle button and letting it resolve over the course of a few seconds. Conversely, enemy magic is often VERY powerful, but as long as you either befriend monsters with particularly annoying spells (so you can just tell them to leave you alone, just like SMT) or use the accessories that neutralize the element of magic most commonly used in that dungeon, you can avoid the meanest of enemy magic pretty safely.

This random encounter rate is also pretty high, but that does thankfully mean that you pretty rarely feel under leveled or underfunded as a result. Dungeons are also thankfully nice and short, with even the final dungeon not being terribly long either. Between that and the relatively easy difficulty, the narrative is always moving at a brisk pace, which I definitely appreciated. I don’t think the faults in the system make the game particularly worse to play or are particularly unique or noteworthy for RPGs of the time (of the mid-/late-SFC era or early PS1 era), and the strengths definitely outweigh the weaknesses for me, but the mechanical stuff is definitely where the game is at its weakest, unfortunately, even if that “weakness” is still like, 7/10 quality for a SFC RPG.

The presentation of the game is very nice, and Atlus really gave MIT (the development studio, not the university :b) the budget to make a game that looked and felt like a late era SFC game. Monster sprites are a wonderfully detailed collage of parody of familiar SMT monsters, and the environments and NPC sprites area also very well done. The NPC stat screen full portraits also have a ton of character to them, and they communicate the art style very well. The music isn’t particularly great, but it’s still pretty darn good to someone without a particularly tuned ear for music like me. They use it well to underline scenes, and they also introduce new musical scores for battles and locations to help set new atmospheres well. You can really tell these devs have made plenty of RPGs before, since their comfort with the genre really shines through with just how finely tuned an experience it is.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. As I said before, this is easily one of my new favorite SFC RPGs. I get why these devs never made any more of them after this for the PlayStation or whatever, as the introduction of Pokemon the following year really changed the face of monster collecting games, and Atlus as a whole really began shifting gears after this with how their Devil Summoner and Persona series began evolving. But even if there were never any followups, MIT really gave us an exemplary game for the genre and the console with LB3. It does have an English fan translation, and while I can’t speak to the quality of that (or lack thereof), it does at least exist! If you’re a fan of turn-based RPGs of the era, this is absolutely not one to miss out on, because there isn’t much better to be found on the SC as far as I’m concerned.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is weird. On one hand, it’s an impressive launch title for the Game Boy Advance that successfully captures the scope of Symphony of the Night on a handheld system. On the other hand, it completely fails to live up to SotN in many ways. On a third hand that I grew after swimming too close to the power plant near my house, it’s still pretty fun despite its flaws.

I’ll just get this outta the way: the story is practically nonexistent. Like, it’s technically there, but it’s so sparse and minuscule in the grand scheme of things that it’s barely worth mentioning.

Anyways, gameplay! The map design, while a little basic, is still pretty fun to navigate. As with every other Castlevania game of this era, it’s a blast to go back to old areas with new items to unlock more items and power up your character. There’s also a lot of breakable walls that lead to secret rooms, which is a great nod to the Classicvania games that encourages thorough exploration. Very fun stuff.

The Dual Set-up System (DSS) is a great idea, albeit with flawed execration. Throughout the game, you collect these tarot cards that grant Nathan (the protagonist, who surprisingly isn’t a Belmont) different abilities when combined together. This system is, indeed, as awesome as it sounds, but unfortunately, card drops are rare and entirely dependent on RNG, which has led to much frustration for many players. That being said, I got lucky, so I ended up with some pretty useful card combos (my favorite is the Jupiter-Salamander fireball circle).

The RPG elements feel neutered, especially compared to Symphony. There’s no shop, meaning that you’ll end up stockpiling useless items, and potions are incredibly hard to come by (they’re also basically useless since they only refill like 20 HP). Leveling up is a pain in the ass and takes way too long, with the EXP requirements becoming ludicrously high (upwards of 50,000 to 100,000) by the endgame.

However, all of that pales in comparison to Circle of the Moon’s biggest flaw: those FUCKING controls. Specifically, you have to double-tap in order to dash. I cannot even begin to describe how unnatural this feels, and I never got used to it. Walking isn’t an option, as Nathan’s base speed is ridiculously slow and terrible for combat. You need to dash, but it’s just so fucking awkward and unintuitive. The controls were one of Igarashi’s biggest problems with this title, and I can see why.

But Circle of the Moon is still a fun game that’s worth checking out, especially for Castlevania fans, so I don’t wanna end this review on a sour note. Instead, I’ll point out that, as with nearly every other title in this series, Circle of the Moon’s soundtrack is a banger. It mostly consists of remixed tracks from previous games, but damn do those remixes go hard, especially for a GBA launch title. Do your ears a favor and take a listen.

This is a surprisingly good port of Street Fighter IV to the 3DS, however there is also surprisingly little to talk about here. It is essentially just Street Fighter IV but on the 3DS. The main issue people tend to have with this game is the fact that your only controller happens to be a Nintendo 3DS, but after playing the mobile version of this game I'm grateful to even have a joystick at all, and it honestly doesn't feel that bad. My inputs were pretty consistent and even most combos were pretty easy to pull off. The only thing that I found slightly annoying was inputting super/ultra moves, but the ability to do special moves by tapping the touch screen completely fixes that, even if it is a little busted on characters like Gief. There is also new headache inducing 3D mode that I would never recommend playing, but otherwise this is a pretty solid port.

This is my first time beating Zelda 1, thanks to NOWITSREYNTIME17 for starting up the Zelda marathon. The other people participating in it are QuentTheSlayer, Phantasm, Steinco, LunaCan2, and Ptcremisi. If anyone joins after my review is posted, tell me and I’ll add them into the list of participating members. Without further ado, let’s get into the review!

I'll start the review with things I like about Zelda 1. I like the enemy design and how I can recognize some of the enemies in this game from their version in BotW (Octorok, Lynel, and Kesee). It just goes to show how good the designs have been from the beginning. I also like the overworld design, the map is woven well together, every place feels like it belongs there. with the graveyard and Death Mountain being my favorite places to visit because of their atmosphere (the graveyard is gray, and Death Mountain has boulders falling from it). I also like all the different items in Zelda 1. You have the rod, boomerang, and bow for long range attacks, the sword and bomb for short range attacks, and the candle for attacking yourself (I always run into the fire after using the candle, so annoying)!

The best part of Zelda 1 for me is how it made me feel. I started Zelda 1 guideless and I’m genuinely happy that I did. I explored the first dungeon, beat the first dungeon, exploited the gambling old man, found and got stuck in the fifth dungeon (I didn’t have the ladder to climb over the lava). I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to go (mostly because I kept going back to the top right side of the map) so I used a guide. I said I was happy I didn’t use the guide, but I was even happier when I was using the guide. I was having fun, exploring and getting good upgrades like the blue ring and white sword, and speeding through dungeons 2 and 3. Now I’m going to talk about my least favorite part of Zelda 1, the dungeons (past 3).

I reached dungeon 4 and started to feel like it was getting annoying to do the same thing over and over again, which was fight a hard enemy , get a key, proceed to the next room, push block down to get a secret staircase to appear, rinse and repeat. This loop was especially worse in later dungeons since the brilliant minds at Nintendo realized they could reuse bosses and make them regular enemies in later dungeons. The abundance of enemies got annoying too, all I did was hang back and attack from afar since there is no reason to get up close and risk getting hurt. There honestly isn’t much reason to fight enemies in rooms that don’t have a key or hidden passageway. When that happens, I’ll just skip the room because there is no point in defeating the enemies (10 rupees or a few bombs aren’t good incentives). Also why were the only puzzles in dungeons pushing blocks and bobbing walls (and using the candle if we really want to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt).

I’m thinking about why I’m rating this game so highly, and it’s really unobjective. Zelda 1 has a good core for a puzzle adventure game, but it falls flat with its lack of interesting and fun puzzles. I do enjoy some parts of this game, like the overworld and enemy design, but most of it just gets boring half way through. I wasn’t expecting to like Zelda 1, but I did (even if I didn’t enjoy it that much later on). I’m not expecting to like Zelda 2, but who knows Nintendo has already surprised me once. Now onto Zelda 2!

Haunted Castle is funny, and you're probably asking, "funny hah hah" or "funny peculiar"? Truthfully I think it goes both ways. I would like to first articulate the "funny peculiar" part as Haunted Castle sticks out from the rest of the games in the series like a particularly sore thumb.

It is of course an arcade game, an attempt at bringing the gameplay of the beloved NES title to the mean streets of the coin-op cabinet at your local pizzeria. You may have noticed it is also called "Haunted Castle" instead of "Castlevania", unlike the JP title Akumajō Dracula where it shares the same name with the Famicom Disk System game (along with later the Super Famicom and Sharp X68000 games, thanks lads I'm sure that's not confusing over there). I could actually wager a decent guess as to why they did this change. You see, the director was a massive fan of the Atari 2600 classic Haunted House, they just had to get their reference in. Remember the bat and the ghost? They in fact guest star in Haunted Castle, that's actually the same characters from Haunted House. I shit you not, my logic is infallible.

The game also bizarrely begins with an obvious Ghosts n' Goblins-esque intro with Simon peacefully walking along with his bride-to-be, only for an explosion to go off in the distance with Dracula flying in out of nowhere to whisk her away to god knows where (Ohio maybe) as Simon gives off a "curse you Dracula!" pose. Official documents state this was supposed to be a retelling of the first game, but I like to imagine that Dracula is constantly trying to inconvenience Simon at every turn. In the next Adventure Simon will be peacefully enjoying a meal at his favorite steakhouse only for it to be revealed that his steak was well done, then Dracula explodes from the background revealing his new ownership of the place and proceeds to put on the most annoying song in the jukebox.

This is where I stop farting about and actually comment on things that legitimately annoy me that have nothing to do with the gameplay, and that's the fact that Simon does not do his famous strut in this game. Instead he looks like he's clutching his tummy and needs to take a massive shit. It turns out there's no bride at all, Simon is just breaking into Dracula's castle to use his bathroom and ruin his plumbing. I am continuing the charade that this is all a childish rivalry between Mr. Belmondo and Mr. Dracula. There is also a second thing that annoys me, and that's that the best upgraded weapon in the game is a sword. That's right, Simon has sold out. He throws out his trademark whip for the most dull weapon to ever hit dullsville. The reason all of these peculiar things happen is most likely because Haunted Castle was originally not supposed to be related to Castlevania at all, and everything kind of got shoehorned in during the middle of development. It was also painfully early in the series' life, so maybe they figured they could just do anything since it was the new hotness and would probably make massive bank.

However! If you wish to make massive bank at the coin-op, maybe you should allow infinite continues! For the original release of these games, one credit was one life. That's all you got, and you could only continue with an additional credit three times, and after that? Do I hear wedding bells? Oh my, another explosion has taken place and Dracula took another one of your wives! Dearest me. Apparently Konami couldn't quite wrap their heads around how to properly gouge people of their money, because I doubt new players are going to bother with this kind of brutality, especially when the North American release features an insanely high damage boost to the enemies. In the original JP release of Haunted Castle, a bone thrown from an enemy skeleton results in a bit of damage. In the American release? One of those bones is now powerful enough to level the broadside of a Nimitz-class Supercarrier. There is also no pot roast in this game, and your health is not refilled between stages. You are given very little room for error.

Astonishing.

To say Haunted Castle is a hard game would be the biggest understatement since they invented the word "understatement". It is a game designed to make you pull your hair out with how often your Boston Big™ hitbox will be nailed by everything in sight as you get to watch a bat pull some spectacular aerial maneuvers to somehow not get hit by your whip and nibble your face off in retaliation. To be frank as Frankenstein, I also think the game just looks ugly. Many sprites feel haphazardly drawn, which gives credence to the game being quickly rejiggered into a Dracula of some kind instead of whatever it was originally going to be. The rock golem that's the boss of stage 4 literally doesn't do anything after you kill it. The game just freezes as the victory jingle goes off and you're given no satisfaction for your patience, no explosions, no decapitation, no nothing. Stage 6 is literally just walking to the left and hoping you can get by all the bats flying at you without the collapsing bridge behind you catching up. It's meant to be a setpiece, but it's just painfully boring and feels like a creative setup to make the final stage quickly, and make it less obvious that this was rushed out to bank off the success of Akumajō Dracula's name.

Now you may be thinking, "where's the funny hah hah"? Well, there's these boulders in stage 2, they make an incredibly cartoonish Scooby-Doo "bonk" sound when they hit the ground.

:)

I feel like I've done nothing but drone on here, but I guess that's what happens when it's both a Castlevania title and a bad game. Now imagine if it were also a fighting game on top of that, wow I wouldn't shut up. Oh god, I just realized something and had a vision please keep it away, oh god, oh jeez, oh god, oh fuck, oh jeez.