Xpert74
1992
It's fine. Main appeal is the presentation, and the spectacle attached to it – a graphical adventure game with lots of voice acting, some CD music, and plenty of colorful, detailed art that straddles the line between cute magical girl fare and badass mecha action. Story had its entertaining moments here and there, but parts of it fell a bit flat. I mostly just wish the story was a little more compelling, and that the characters were more interesting. Also I wish the turn-based combat wasn't just strategy-less RNG mashing – at least you can redo failed fights immediately after losing them, so it's not a huge inconvenience – mostly just a time-waster. All in all, this is an okay game for what it is, but it could have been better.
1995
What the fuck. This game is incredible. Why does no one talk about this? Oh my gosh. I would put it up there alongside games like Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood as being one of the absolute greatest action-platformers I've ever played in my life. Great balance between challenging platforming, methodically-paced combat, and boss fights that demand both a mastery of the mechanics, as well as the patience to learn their attack patterns. It's a disservice that more people don't talk about this one.
I 1CCed this game. mwehe
I 1CCed this game. mwehe
2020
Interesting indie FPS. Kind of a mash-up of multiple gameplay elements and ideas; the aesthetics and level design are very clearly inspired by classic FPSes like Wolfenstein and Doom, yet there are several modern FPS elements in this game's design, such as aiming down sights, holding down a button to sprint, leaning, etc. Kind of a curious hybrid of ideas, but I think it generally works, in spite of itself. I mostly just wish the stamina/food/etc. meters weren't a thing, here.
Game is very gory, and almost all of the enemies are anime girls. This tends to lead people to feel uncomfortable with the game's level of gore and violence toward them. I wasn't really bothered by it personally, but I guess it's worth being aware of.
Game is very gory, and almost all of the enemies are anime girls. This tends to lead people to feel uncomfortable with the game's level of gore and violence toward them. I wasn't really bothered by it personally, but I guess it's worth being aware of.
My second Shinobi game I beat. This feels more in the vein of the arcade original, but it does feel more fair in its overall design. You still die in one hit here, so it does demand a certain degree of memorization and quick reflexes. It's a fine game. Worth playing, but not necessarily the best Shinobi out there.
Better than the Genesis Valis game, for sure. I still found myself a little bit underwhelmed, but it's a decent enough action-platformer. Definitely do not neglect the magic spells - the shield spell in particular is pretty essential for making the later levels more bearable.
2000
Really solid take on space shooter gameplay. It feels kind of like Asteroids, but spread across multiple tiny stages that take seconds to beat, which you select from a hexagonal map screen, as a global timer is constantly counting down. The mix of shooting gameplay with an overall strategy layer (deciding which spaces to tackle at the right time is key to victory), and a brisk WarioWare-esque pace, makes for a genuinely pretty cool time. This would work quite nicely as an arcade game.
I think this is one of the worst Nintendo games I've ever played, easily. I'm struggling to think of anything positive to say about it. Terrible pacing, clunky combat that lasts way too long for its own good, overworld traversal that feels like a chore, a perspective that's too zoomed in for a low-resolution Game Boy Advance display, a ton of tedious minigames that contribute nothing to the overall game - and also maybe the worst escort mission I've ever experienced in a game. I'm astounded by how awful it is.
1996
This is a very fun, charming horizontal shmup, and definitely worth giving a try. But my gosh it is hard. Almost every Gradius or Gradius/adjacent game I've played has been absurdly difficult for me – I have no idea if I'll ever come close to 1CCing any of them. But regardless of my lack of ability to do well at this game, it's at least fun to mess around with.
1990
Interesting belt-scrolling run-and-gun from Konami. I feel like it's too repetitive and dull to really be all that fun to play, though. Japanese version is better than the World/US version (the latter mostly just makes it more tedious), but even that one I'm not a huge fan of.
Really solid methodically-paced action-platformer. Really demands patience of the player. I don't think I'd put it as high as Shinobi Legions, but I am definitely enjoying my trek through the Shinobi series as of late. These games are generally really really awesome.
2019
fun Pac-Man-inspired game. I beat it in under an hour.
I like this more than Pac-Man proper - I think mostly because I don't have to deal with Pac-Man's ghost AI, which always trips me up. The multiple different stage layouts and obstacles add some nice variety.
I like this more than Pac-Man proper - I think mostly because I don't have to deal with Pac-Man's ghost AI, which always trips me up. The multiple different stage layouts and obstacles add some nice variety.
Much better than what I've played of the early Commander Keen episodes. Nice music, fun exploratory platforming gameplay, and fun cartoony vibe. Glad I got the chance to play through this
More of the same as Secret of the Oracle. This one is more linear, and feels more like a final stretch before saving the day for good, as opposed to the more open-ended adventure feel of Secret of the Oracle, but it's fun nonetheless. Some nice level designs here.
1990
Fun reimagining/companion piece to the original Snatcher. Definitely took me by surprise on a few occasions, as someone who recently played through the Sega CD game for the first time. Main pitfalls to the design are that it can be pretty grindy at times (though the fact the combat system is so unique and fun does help), and the constant disk-swapping can be a bit tedious, but I generally was quite impressed with how solid the experience was. Definitely worth a look.
beat with the Unworked Designs patch.
...it's not really very good, lol. It's basically a clunky awkward action-platformer with some adventure elements, as localized by Seth MacFarlane. It had its moments, but gosh there was a lot wrong with it. I think I like it more than Ys V, but I would put pretty much every other Falcom game I've played so far over it.
If the other versions of Popful Mail ever got translation patches, I would be curious to try them. The Sega CD version is apparently pretty different from the older computer versions, and those are all apparently pretty different from the Super Famicom game as well.
...it's not really very good, lol. It's basically a clunky awkward action-platformer with some adventure elements, as localized by Seth MacFarlane. It had its moments, but gosh there was a lot wrong with it. I think I like it more than Ys V, but I would put pretty much every other Falcom game I've played so far over it.
If the other versions of Popful Mail ever got translation patches, I would be curious to try them. The Sega CD version is apparently pretty different from the older computer versions, and those are all apparently pretty different from the Super Famicom game as well.