It's a pretty neat take on third-person arcade-inspired shooting, that utilizes the 3DS hardware well. I did play this with my New 3DS XL mounted on a repurposed Nintendo Switch stand, which I think helped me handle the game's controls. You move with the analog slider, and hold the left shoulder button to strafe, while everything else is handled with the touch screen. Definitely a curious take on shooter controls, but I dig it.

It's a very short game, but also incredibly hectic. The length and pacing is maybe a bit weird - on one hand it's short as far as story-focused experiences go (and there is a lot of dialogue here), but at the same time, as far as arcade-esque games go, this is kind of on the longer side, as it took me about an hour and a half to beat.

Unfortunately this ultimately amounts to a prologue to a visual novel sequel, which as of this writing is only available in Japanese. Maybe someday I'll get to see this story to its conclusion. Either way, this is worth a go.

The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is an interesting game, with somewhat dubious branding. I personally am a huge fan of the Trails series, but as a Trails fan, I was actually not all that interested in Nayuta, going into it. When you consider that Nayuta as a game is

1. a spinoff
2. a spinoff that plays differently from every other game in the series (featuring real-time action instead of turn-based combat)
3. a spinoff that has barely, if any, story connection to the Trails series at large (after finishing Nayuta, at most I have a couple vague theories as to how it could... maybe connect to the other games in the series. That's it)

...then it's not too surprising that I personally wasn't that interested in Nayuta, as a game. That said, I decided to give it a try regardless, while trying to accept that Nayuta is basically its own thing entirely.

I do think the best way to approach The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails, is as a standalone experience. It's not much of a Trails game, and it doesn't really need to be one. What this is, more than anything, is essentially the design philosophy and vibes of a 2D action-platformer... that just so happens to be 3D. It really has that classic feel to it (right down to the fact that you have a level-select screen to select each stage via), and as a fan of action-platformers, I really dug this! The platforming is satisfying, and the combat can be pretty engaging. There's a bit of a quirk with regard to how slowly the game unlocks new abilities & mechanics for the player (I don't know why it took several hours to be able to guard against enemy attacks... but once I finally learned that ability, it revolutionized how I approach every encounter from that point onward), but that's fairly minor. All in all, this is a blast to actually play. The great, upbeat music (as expected of a Falcom game) certainly helps, too.

Story-wise, this features a world and lore which seems mostly disconnected from the Trails series in general. Without going too into detail, I do think Nayuta does a fairly good job of gradually raising the stakes, while providing a certain degree of intrigue as to what exactly is going on, and what is going to happen next in the story. It's not the most thematically dense story Falcom has told, but it serves the game well, and kept me engaged. There's also an island town you can visit when not playing through stages, where you can upgrade your equipment or take on sidequests or talk to NPCs, which does feel a little bit more like a typical Trails experience. The fact you're returning to the same town over and over, actually reminded me of Xanadu Next more than anything. It's nice to gradually get to know the NPCs, and learn more about them and their stories and motivations over the course of the game - particularly as the main story progresses.

When it comes down to it... I like The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails a lot! Perhaps moreso than I was expecting, going into it. I could compare it to the Trails series at large (if I were to do so, it would maybe be my 4th favorite Trails game), but it still feels weird to me to do so. I kinda feel like judging Nayuta as a Trails game does it a bit of a disservice. Unlike nearly every other Trails-branded game, this is absolutely one that you can jump in at any time, without worrying about story connections or plot details related to any other game in the series. At the end of the day, just enjoy Nayuta for what it is - a fun action-platformer-RPG that reflects a lot of the best qualities of Falcom's other assorted series.

El Viento is a game that had always seemed kinda interesting to me, but heard mixed impressions of overall, which scared me off from trying it for the longest time. Recently, I decided I should at last give it a shot, just to see for myself how it is... and wow, I really adore this game.

A lot of Wolf Team's games are kinda rough in terms of game design, but I genuinely think El Viento rules. It's legit a great action-platformer, that I had a ton of fun with. Over-the-top action, nice balance between a regular ranged attack and an auto-recharging magic spell attack (which lets you select different spells, depending on how long you charge the button for), sometimes quite quirky level/enemy designs, an excellent soundtrack, and a really neat protagonist in Annet, make for a solid action-platformer. Easily one of my favorite Genesis games yet.

I used a few continues, as well as the auto-fire feature built into the Contra Anniversary Collection to beat this. Not the most impressive of clears, but considering it's a really bullshit game, I think I'm fine with this.

Super Contra is just kind of a bummer to think about. It did make some nice improvements over the original arcade Contra in a lot of ways, from better music/presentation, to some interesting new mechanics (like weapon upgrading, apparently; I actually didn't realize this existed this early in the series)... but there's a few key things holding Super Contra back.

One thing, is that this game introduces a really terrible mechanic, in the ability to control the height of your jump, by holding up. Keep in mind, this is a game where you are scrolling from left to right in the platforming stages, and where enemies are constantly swarming you from the sides. You have to shoot them all before they hit you, while also taking the time to awkwardly shift your aim upward in order to have a non-shit jump. What the fuck. I'm glad Contra would never again experiment with this shit mechanic, because it really brings the game down. Good thing they removed it entirely in Super C on the NES.

In addition, even if you discount the bad jump mechanic, this game is just kinda bullshit in general. It loves to swarm the player with a ton of enemies, and even with autofire turned on, it can feel nearly impossible at times. And like with some other notorious arcade games from this era (including some of Konami's own works, like the original Contra), you only have a limited amount of continues before the game forces you to restart from the beginning – even if you've inserted more credits.

It's not worth the trouble. I only went ahead and beat this so I could finally put it behind me, but unless you're a super-dedicated Contra fan who wants to see both the series' heights and pitfalls, I would stay away from this. Super Contra is easily the worst in-house Konami-developed game in the series.

Interesting interpretation of the arcade original – it follows a flip-screen structure, which was likely chosen due to scrolling being somewhat difficult to implement well on the hardware. Contra as a flip-screen game, makes for... a rather tedious experience, I would say? You generally need to take your time on each screen in order to wipe out every enemy turret, so that you can clear a safe path through. This is encouraged, due to how turrets and other enemies' fire tracks your movement in a particularly aggressive way.

Along with this approach to level & enemy design, Contra for the MSX2 has a greatly expanded scope over the original, featuring new stages, and more of them. The stage count is somewhat inflated, as some boss encounters are considered a separate “stage” here, but counting them all up, you have a total of 19 stages here. The quality dips a bit, particularly in the second half, which is unfortunate. The increased length of the game also risks wearing on the player overtime – the NES game is great at around 20 minutes or so, but the MSX2 game can take roughly 40 minutes to beat – about twice the time. So, that makes it a bit less enticing to pick up and play.

Overall, it's not bad. Not great. It has some interesting ideas (such as the “rear gun”, which fires both forward and backward, in any direction you're aiming in – that's something the series would never revisit. Spread gun doesn't actually seem to exist here... so the best gun by far is the machine gun), but this game makes for a somewhat middling experience. It's whatever.