cheeriersandals
1997
Yoshi’s Story has an intriguing enough game progression. Levels are unlocked through Story Mode - quite literally a story book retelling of events.
Gone are the start to finish level progression, Yoshi is free to roam around through branching paths with levels reaching finality when 30 pieces of fruit are collected.
Additional levels become available when Hearts are collected in each stage - so while you can finish the game once without exploration you’d only be playing through a quarter of the game. Explore levels and collect hearts to unlock the whole game. Levels are numbered 1 to 4, this is dependent on how many hearts you find, find 2 and you will have access to Level 3 of the next Stage.
Once you’ve unlocked all levels the game is reliant on pulling you back for completing high scores for individual level in Trials or Story Mode for a combined score across the 6 Stages.
It’s an interesting approach to accessibility, beginners may do the bare essentials to finish the game whereas more advanced gamers may take the time to collect all Hearts and 30 Melons to attain a high score.
I actually really enjoy Yoshi’s Story and think it gets unfairly compared to Yoshi’s Island, it probably ranks just below Mischief Makers in terms of 2-2.5D platformers on N64
Gone are the start to finish level progression, Yoshi is free to roam around through branching paths with levels reaching finality when 30 pieces of fruit are collected.
Additional levels become available when Hearts are collected in each stage - so while you can finish the game once without exploration you’d only be playing through a quarter of the game. Explore levels and collect hearts to unlock the whole game. Levels are numbered 1 to 4, this is dependent on how many hearts you find, find 2 and you will have access to Level 3 of the next Stage.
Once you’ve unlocked all levels the game is reliant on pulling you back for completing high scores for individual level in Trials or Story Mode for a combined score across the 6 Stages.
It’s an interesting approach to accessibility, beginners may do the bare essentials to finish the game whereas more advanced gamers may take the time to collect all Hearts and 30 Melons to attain a high score.
I actually really enjoy Yoshi’s Story and think it gets unfairly compared to Yoshi’s Island, it probably ranks just below Mischief Makers in terms of 2-2.5D platformers on N64
1990
Really enjoyed this seemingly random title for the Switch’s Mega Drive service. My understanding is M2 has acquired the rights to the Aleste series and MUSHA is a spin-off of sorts. It’s a really smart vertical shooter that yes, at times can seem monotonous as you blast down wave after wave of enemies.
But the nuance exists in the two shooting buddies by your sides, commanding them to shoot forward, at a 45 degree angle front or back, rotating, in reverse to your movements or free form. As well as upgradable specials and main shot. These are all managed dependant on the needs of each stage.
The game looks vivid on Mega Drive and runs smooth as butter. There is some slowdown time but it occurs maybe once or twice a play and is entirely necessary. The soundtrack is also strong as.
I felt it was especially smart that at the end even with the basic shooter you can take down the final bosses - which is a very likely result on I found even on Normal this is a struggle. A classic, loved it.
But the nuance exists in the two shooting buddies by your sides, commanding them to shoot forward, at a 45 degree angle front or back, rotating, in reverse to your movements or free form. As well as upgradable specials and main shot. These are all managed dependant on the needs of each stage.
The game looks vivid on Mega Drive and runs smooth as butter. There is some slowdown time but it occurs maybe once or twice a play and is entirely necessary. The soundtrack is also strong as.
I felt it was especially smart that at the end even with the basic shooter you can take down the final bosses - which is a very likely result on I found even on Normal this is a struggle. A classic, loved it.
1989
Strider on Mega Drive is a faithful adaptation of the Capcom arcade hit, down to the level of difficulty and short duration.
It’s a side scroller with futuristic Russian stylings, Strider himself is very aerobatic, climbs on walls, ceilings and even has a laser sword!
The conversion was handled by Sega and Strider definitely feels like an early showcase title for the Mega Drive - like Altered Beast and Golden Axe. The sprites are big and expressive and some bosses easily take up major sections of the screen.
Expect hardship, I used save states and some rewind on Switch since a single hit from projectiles is enough to take down Strider and with finite continues it’s even more difficult to complete legitimately. Controls can be wonky and titles with tighter controls are still a little ways off, there’s slowdown and the last stage is a brutal boss gauntlet. For a 1990 Mega Drive game, it’s accurate to the experience.
It’s a side scroller with futuristic Russian stylings, Strider himself is very aerobatic, climbs on walls, ceilings and even has a laser sword!
The conversion was handled by Sega and Strider definitely feels like an early showcase title for the Mega Drive - like Altered Beast and Golden Axe. The sprites are big and expressive and some bosses easily take up major sections of the screen.
Expect hardship, I used save states and some rewind on Switch since a single hit from projectiles is enough to take down Strider and with finite continues it’s even more difficult to complete legitimately. Controls can be wonky and titles with tighter controls are still a little ways off, there’s slowdown and the last stage is a brutal boss gauntlet. For a 1990 Mega Drive game, it’s accurate to the experience.
1994
Kirby’s Dream Course is like a mini-golf or putt-putt sim from an isometric viewpoint. Kirby is the ball and the goal is to knock out the enemies bowling style, the last enemy becomes the hole.
There’s some abilities to play around with and obstacles to keep it fresh, the later courses are real puzzling - finding the right shot to make a hole in one is liberating and genuinely feels great.
My general tips are using the right and left buttons to align Kirby’s shooting angle, pressing down opens up a stronger shot as an option. Curve shots are your friend. Like any golf game it’s a matter of practice and intuition to tackle the game.
I played just the base game, maybe I’ll talk my partner into the multiplayer courses and I can try for Silver… I’m very doubtful that I can get Gold and play through the expert courses but I’m sure I’ll come back to Kirby’s Dream Course for a muck around every now and then.
There’s some abilities to play around with and obstacles to keep it fresh, the later courses are real puzzling - finding the right shot to make a hole in one is liberating and genuinely feels great.
My general tips are using the right and left buttons to align Kirby’s shooting angle, pressing down opens up a stronger shot as an option. Curve shots are your friend. Like any golf game it’s a matter of practice and intuition to tackle the game.
I played just the base game, maybe I’ll talk my partner into the multiplayer courses and I can try for Silver… I’m very doubtful that I can get Gold and play through the expert courses but I’m sure I’ll come back to Kirby’s Dream Course for a muck around every now and then.
1991
Earth Defense Force on SNES is a port of a horizontal arcade shooter. Before each stage you choose one of 8 weapons to use and there is a levelling system dependant on how many enemies you take down.
A key feature is changing the use of your small companion ships with the later levels gained give the addition of shadowing your ship and a broken homing option. Once you max your levels you can get more shields above the highest default option of 3.
With only 3 continues you’ll need to prioritise your strategy so you can gun down as many enemies as possible. Some weapons are great for early game without many good upgrade options and some weapons without much use at all until upgrades come available.
The game looks pretty good for an early release SNES title, it uses some minor Mode 7 effects in the background to convey movement between levels. I love the little mobile suit enemies but they joined far too late into the game. The story is near invisible apart from the opening sequence, again this is where reading instruction manual scans can be of great benefit. I thought for the inclusion of the SNES online package you really can’t complain. I’m curious to check out more of Jaleco’s offerings.
A key feature is changing the use of your small companion ships with the later levels gained give the addition of shadowing your ship and a broken homing option. Once you max your levels you can get more shields above the highest default option of 3.
With only 3 continues you’ll need to prioritise your strategy so you can gun down as many enemies as possible. Some weapons are great for early game without many good upgrade options and some weapons without much use at all until upgrades come available.
The game looks pretty good for an early release SNES title, it uses some minor Mode 7 effects in the background to convey movement between levels. I love the little mobile suit enemies but they joined far too late into the game. The story is near invisible apart from the opening sequence, again this is where reading instruction manual scans can be of great benefit. I thought for the inclusion of the SNES online package you really can’t complain. I’m curious to check out more of Jaleco’s offerings.
1992
Psycho Dream is an absurd addition to Switch Online, my rough guess is as a Telenet Japan property somehow a deal was made for this and Super Valis IV to join the platform.
The story follows a fairly cool sci-fi premise where a girl has fallen into a coma whilst using VR technology. This has then embedded itself into her dream world. The two characters you can choose from Ryo and Maria are both technology debuggers of sorts who set out to save her.
Ryo using a sword and Maria using a whip, there are gems that upgrade each character to a good fighting standard. Yellow is more melee driven while Blue are ranged. Red is health and purple… I’m not too sure.
Each character has a final form - Personally I preferred Maria, her final fairy demon-style form is excellent. Whereas Ryo is like a cyborg using cyclonic blades.
The gameplay is probably most similar to a side-scroller action platformer like Castlevania but much more repetitive. Even those the visuals are really cool, varying from cityscapes to bodily pulsations with many effects at play, such as smog and a Sakura tree in bloom as foreground elements, it’s realism meets psychedelia.
The bosses are excellent, taking up full screens with bold designs. It’s a pity that it is only 6 levels long and overall really repetitive slog - it’s hard to recommend beyond admiring the aesthetic choices when it comes to visual design.
The story follows a fairly cool sci-fi premise where a girl has fallen into a coma whilst using VR technology. This has then embedded itself into her dream world. The two characters you can choose from Ryo and Maria are both technology debuggers of sorts who set out to save her.
Ryo using a sword and Maria using a whip, there are gems that upgrade each character to a good fighting standard. Yellow is more melee driven while Blue are ranged. Red is health and purple… I’m not too sure.
Each character has a final form - Personally I preferred Maria, her final fairy demon-style form is excellent. Whereas Ryo is like a cyborg using cyclonic blades.
The gameplay is probably most similar to a side-scroller action platformer like Castlevania but much more repetitive. Even those the visuals are really cool, varying from cityscapes to bodily pulsations with many effects at play, such as smog and a Sakura tree in bloom as foreground elements, it’s realism meets psychedelia.
The bosses are excellent, taking up full screens with bold designs. It’s a pity that it is only 6 levels long and overall really repetitive slog - it’s hard to recommend beyond admiring the aesthetic choices when it comes to visual design.
1990
Pilotwings usually falls into the demo category of Nintendo titles. This showcases Mode 7 scaler technology that gives the impression of 3D gameplay with technical wizardry.
Broken into missions using the jet pack, glider, parachuting and piloting both an airplane. Missions are marked on accuracy when running through rings, landing and speed.
You’re given a mark out of 100 with a score to aim for to progress through piloting ranks. On original hardware I’m sure it’s a massive pain, score poorly in a mission means failure of a rank and will require repeated tries to pass. I tended to cheese it by playing individual missions and replaying if I screwed up, instead of restarting the ranks clean.
I’m sitting at a 3 or 3.5 on this. I thought for a early SNES title it’s a great showcase of Mode 7 technology with a charming mission mode it does well - I think the Helicopter missions could be its own game or elements of this could have been made into a full game with more cohesion. Repetitive missions hinder the capacity of the game.
Broken into missions using the jet pack, glider, parachuting and piloting both an airplane. Missions are marked on accuracy when running through rings, landing and speed.
You’re given a mark out of 100 with a score to aim for to progress through piloting ranks. On original hardware I’m sure it’s a massive pain, score poorly in a mission means failure of a rank and will require repeated tries to pass. I tended to cheese it by playing individual missions and replaying if I screwed up, instead of restarting the ranks clean.
I’m sitting at a 3 or 3.5 on this. I thought for a early SNES title it’s a great showcase of Mode 7 technology with a charming mission mode it does well - I think the Helicopter missions could be its own game or elements of this could have been made into a full game with more cohesion. Repetitive missions hinder the capacity of the game.
I just had a quick play through of the Arcade mode with my partner and I really enjoyed this mini game compilation, I’d say it’s in the same realm as WarioWare when it comes to game design. For the asking price, and considering that the Sega Ages titles do go on sale from time to time I’d say it’s a worthy value title.
I’ll update the review if I ever give the Japanese language only Mega Drive game a go… I hear it has a RPG-lite mode and a 4-player board game. Probably more likely to play the RPG than anything, just hoping the language barrier isn’t too substantial and the game itself is just a gradual climb in terms of mini game difficulty.
I’ll update the review if I ever give the Japanese language only Mega Drive game a go… I hear it has a RPG-lite mode and a 4-player board game. Probably more likely to play the RPG than anything, just hoping the language barrier isn’t too substantial and the game itself is just a gradual climb in terms of mini game difficulty.
1991
Uhh I keep telling myself I’ll play some classics on Nintendo Switch, instead I end up playing through straight forward and basic side scrollers with a podcast blasting in the background.
Yeah it’s a decent looking game, of course the Japanese name of Cavemen Ninja is hilarious. But yeah it’s just repetitive gameplay, I just blasted through on Easy, the high point is a final boss that has a cutesy and fun design.
Hit boxes can be off and jumps can be super odd. I can’t really recommend this much.
Yeah it’s a decent looking game, of course the Japanese name of Cavemen Ninja is hilarious. But yeah it’s just repetitive gameplay, I just blasted through on Easy, the high point is a final boss that has a cutesy and fun design.
Hit boxes can be off and jumps can be super odd. I can’t really recommend this much.
1991
Spanky's Quest is inspired by classic action arcade titles like Lode Runner and Bubble Bobble. Following a simple level progression, Spanky the monkey must collect a number of keys to unlock the door to the next stage, there are many enemies with different movements styles - learning their patterns is important.
The quirky part of Spanky is how he damages enemies, Spanky volleyballs bubbles that you can pop in mid air to send a projectiles - ranging from a meagre baseball to several soccer balls, a volleyball that rotates in place when striking a foe and a wide spread of basketballs down on an enemy.
The challenging part of this is predicting enemy movement, the downward projection arc of the bubble you plan on bursting while simultaneously avoiding getting hit. I found volleyballs could paralyse bosses, while basketballs were great screen clearers. The bubbles can also uncover hidden stages in walls - much like Milon's Castle or Castlevania as well as collect keys and money granted they're not held by an enemy.
There is also some hats for Spanky to wear, a sunhat has a glide if the jump button is held, spiky hats destroy enemies when jumped under (like Mario Bros.) and the top hat raises a Baseball bubble to a fully fledge Basketball bubble in one volley.
There's some nuance in the actions, however the game just feels dated given the old school arcade pedigree they're aiming for. Visually the game is charming and the many fruit and vegetable enemies look cute and appealing alongside the backgrounds of each world.
The game has a password system for each world, but getting through all 10 levels in a world and a Boss with 3 lives can be a chore, sometimes it is beneficial to start from an earlier world to accrue lives before slogging through. I of course just used save states and rewind but I can see how this would be a slog on original hardware.
This style of gameplay seems more at home on the Game Boy (which also received a version). On SNES it is a little out of place, yet here I am saying it's a competent and sometimes enjoyable action arcade game to sink half an hour or maybe more if you're a fan of classic arcade titles.
The quirky part of Spanky is how he damages enemies, Spanky volleyballs bubbles that you can pop in mid air to send a projectiles - ranging from a meagre baseball to several soccer balls, a volleyball that rotates in place when striking a foe and a wide spread of basketballs down on an enemy.
The challenging part of this is predicting enemy movement, the downward projection arc of the bubble you plan on bursting while simultaneously avoiding getting hit. I found volleyballs could paralyse bosses, while basketballs were great screen clearers. The bubbles can also uncover hidden stages in walls - much like Milon's Castle or Castlevania as well as collect keys and money granted they're not held by an enemy.
There is also some hats for Spanky to wear, a sunhat has a glide if the jump button is held, spiky hats destroy enemies when jumped under (like Mario Bros.) and the top hat raises a Baseball bubble to a fully fledge Basketball bubble in one volley.
There's some nuance in the actions, however the game just feels dated given the old school arcade pedigree they're aiming for. Visually the game is charming and the many fruit and vegetable enemies look cute and appealing alongside the backgrounds of each world.
The game has a password system for each world, but getting through all 10 levels in a world and a Boss with 3 lives can be a chore, sometimes it is beneficial to start from an earlier world to accrue lives before slogging through. I of course just used save states and rewind but I can see how this would be a slog on original hardware.
This style of gameplay seems more at home on the Game Boy (which also received a version). On SNES it is a little out of place, yet here I am saying it's a competent and sometimes enjoyable action arcade game to sink half an hour or maybe more if you're a fan of classic arcade titles.
1992
A serviceable side-scroller action game, the SNES version is undercooked compared to the PC Engine originals but hey graphically it looks cool and is very aesthetically pleasing to look at with a good soundtrack.
The game has decent hooks in that bosses life bars build as time accumulates and special attacks, armour and hearts are often a little out of the way. This is very much Castlevania but not as good.
I found prioritising a stock of armour and hearts for the end of the game to be the necessary strategy, the bosses are built with repetition in mind, learn the patterns to take them down - especially the last boss who is not particularly hard he just has a lot of health and requires close combat to take down.
It’s another average side-scroller that aesthetically looks cool with the bikini warrior look to her. I hear the Valis collection is now available, I’m unsure if I’ll give it a look.
The game has decent hooks in that bosses life bars build as time accumulates and special attacks, armour and hearts are often a little out of the way. This is very much Castlevania but not as good.
I found prioritising a stock of armour and hearts for the end of the game to be the necessary strategy, the bosses are built with repetition in mind, learn the patterns to take them down - especially the last boss who is not particularly hard he just has a lot of health and requires close combat to take down.
It’s another average side-scroller that aesthetically looks cool with the bikini warrior look to her. I hear the Valis collection is now available, I’m unsure if I’ll give it a look.
1987
For a 1987 platforming side-scroller Mega Man hits the lofty heights of Super Mario Bros. and Castlevania. The game oozes personality with a cutesy aesthetic similar to Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.
Mega Man also has a great level select formula with boss fights that benefit from Mega Man's ability to utilise enemy weapons upon defeat - just like a game of Scissors, Paper, Rock.
I feel the original is unfairly pitted against Mega Man 2 and 3 which yes, greatly streamline the experience and build the real gauntlet of Wily Stages as well as Robot Master Gauntlets (it exists here, but is fairly relaxed).
Mega Man also has a great level select formula with boss fights that benefit from Mega Man's ability to utilise enemy weapons upon defeat - just like a game of Scissors, Paper, Rock.
I feel the original is unfairly pitted against Mega Man 2 and 3 which yes, greatly streamline the experience and build the real gauntlet of Wily Stages as well as Robot Master Gauntlets (it exists here, but is fairly relaxed).
1992
Unreal Game Boy game, uncertain why people are allergic to rating games well on here. For a Game Boy side scroller and a first for Kirby it’s an amazing title, albeit short but it’s Game Boy! It is made for short spurts of gameplay. There’s a “harder” mode after the first run through, I play this yearly easily. Pity the copy abilities isn’t here but hey everything else is!
2011
I bought every Picross for 3DS when they were last on sale. Making general progress, which is to say I’ve beaten Picross e, it’s definitely addictive fun and cute. The stylus controls are cool but I tend to use controls just because the weight of the 3DS with one hand while the other uses hands can be tiring using the stylus for long periods of time. Onwards to Picross e2!
1988
Don't get me wrong Space Harrier is sick, I spent many hours playing the Arcade original on 3DS. It's a really immersive 3D rail-shooter in its infancy with nods to Sci-Fi anime series such as Space Adventure Cobra and Mobile Suit Gundam.
The Mega Drive version is a little choppy, the soundtrack less emotive and the response time from enemy projectiles is incredibly sudden in comparison to what I'm used to.
It's worth trying out but the Arcade original is just that much better if you can get your hands on it.
The Mega Drive version is a little choppy, the soundtrack less emotive and the response time from enemy projectiles is incredibly sudden in comparison to what I'm used to.
It's worth trying out but the Arcade original is just that much better if you can get your hands on it.