Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Playstation 2, 2001)

 

With an MGS3 remake coming up and me having done posts for MGS1/4/5 in the past, it seemed like an appopriate time to fill in the other missing one. This game was pretty divisive in its day, but it holds a lot of nostalgia for folks who grew up with it. I always liked this one, and thought it was WAY ahead of its time.

As for why it was divisive... having Raiden take over as the main character was a terrible idea, like selling drugs in the hood without the CIA's permission.

Highlander III: The Final Dimension (1995)

 

Released during the latter half of Season 3 of the TV show, this has us revisiting our friend Connor Macleod for the first time since Season 1 Episode 1. Putting this out instead of the Four Horsemen episodes is sort of like when Dragonball Z's original run got to the hotly-anticipated arrival of the Ginyu Force and then showed The Tree of Might instead.

I don't remember being all that crazy about this as a kid, thought it was mid at best. Will I gain a new appreciation for it as an adult? Let's find out.

The Best and Worst Thing In Each Soulsborne Game

 

Been wanting to do a list like this for a while. What we have here are seven of the best games of all time (plus a remake, a DLC, and a spinoff). Having played all of them now, I might be able to zero in on the best and worst aspects of each game with some degree of accuracy. Let's go.

Star Fox 64 (Nintendo 64, 1997)

This is quite the evolution of the shooter genre. Say what you will about Nintendo, but they're the masters of having first-party franchises that people really care about... even if that isn't as much the case in the modern era. For the N64, all they had to do was bring back beloved SNES franchises, add a 64 to the end of the title, and they had a guaranteed hit. This is one of the more shining examples of this practice; Star Fox 64 is a fine game. And it adds the Charged Homing Shot, which is a game-changer that makes it so much more fun to play.

Originally posted March 2013, now with more of the game added

Star Fox 2 (Super Famicom, 1995)

 

Everyone knows the story by now. This is the missing link between the original and Star Fox 64, and never made it out of Japan. Much like Earthbound Zero, the game was finished, but just didn't get published, so it was easy for Nintendo to dig it up and put it on their modern classic consoles. I'm playing it on Switch Online, and this is the first time I've ever played it in complete form. Even the complete form seems kind of incomplete though, lul.

Star Fox (Super NES, 1993)

 

Major Super NES classic here and the first game I think of when I think of their 1993 lineup. (The system would absolutely explode in 1994, the year I got it, with a litany of incredible games that defined the whole gaming generation).

Star Fox is mostly a showcase for the Super FX Chip, which let the SNES make use of three-dimensional polygon graphics for the first time ever. ...and this particular tech didn't really stick around, so it's a bit of an artifact now. While the 3D effect is quite rudimentary, and the system was in most regards better off sticking to 2D (which it largely did after this), there's still a place for this game in the SNES lexicon. Nothing else was like it at the time.

As for my own experience with it, this was one of the many SNES games I rented circa 1995 or so. Had a great time with it as a kid. However, I was only able to beat the first of the three level paths. That first path is the one the vast majority of players did, so only beating the game on easy mode (ostensibly) is nothing to be ashamed of. However, I've been wanting to revisit it and finish the other two paths ever since. Now I finally have an excuse to.

Playing this on Nintendo Switch Online. It's cool how things like this and Capcom Arcade Stadium are making emulation less necessary to revisit retro games, as well as letting me revisit them on a TV.

Stunt Race FX (Super NES, 1994)

 

A game I've never played before, and it's on Nintendo Switch Online. The Super FX Chip (of Star Fox fame) makes a comeback here, this time in racing game form. Will this game stand the test of time, or will it demonstrate why the Super FX Chip didn't really get any use in the last couple years of the SNES? Let's find out.

Vice: Project Doom (NES, 1991)

An NES game that a lot of people have sung the praises of over the years, most notably James "AVGN" Rolfe. It's a cinematic action game that is 80's as F, despite dropping in 1991. It's been on my list for a while, and I was way overdue to hit up something on the NES, so it's time. I'm just trying to figure out if that guy on the cover is based on Reb Brown or a younger version of John Kreese.

Highlander 5x10 - The Valkyrie

 

It's Kanye West's favorite (...or least-favorite?) episode, with Duncan rocking Hugo Boss Drip as he tries to stop Hitler in 1944 and end the war (which, at that point, the winner had already been decided and it was just dragging on). Of course, what ended up being called "Operation Valkyrie" would fail, and millions more people died needlessly while Germany got folded up like an accordion. Eventually the high command ran out of morphine pills and realized they had made a mistake.

Drugs: They'll make you feel like YOU can defeat the Soviet Union and British Empire at the same time!

Not real crazy about doing this episode. In this era of people calling everyone they don't like a "nazi" (and occasionally actually believing it) it just seems like a minefield to even talk about the subject. However, as a person in full-on "doesn't really give a shit anymore" mode at this point in life, I suppose I'll just go ahead and do the episode.

I was just going to do the previous three episodes for the moment, but I'm throwing a bonus episode onto this arc because there'll be a break before the Horsemen Arc drops on here. It'll be a little while before that, and the back half of Season 5, so I can savor all of it before Season 6 falls off a cliff like Debra Campbell.

Final Fantasy Legend 3, Finale - Salida Del Sol

 

The SaGa Trilogy roars to an end. The last stop in Pureland is the Mountaintop of the Giants ice land in the north, which consists of a few small dungeons and one big dungeon. The small ones are generally unnecessary and won't have anything you need at this point, outside of this eastern dungeon, which contains the last upgrades for the Talon. This will let me get to Mt. Goht, home of Xagor.

Final Fantasy Legend 3, Part 6 - Masamune Okazaki

 

Today, I go after the remaining Mystic Swords, the big super-weapons of FFL3. Also I'm going to get into the origins of these weapons, since SaGa of course is going to draw on mythology.

Final Fantasy Legend 3, Part 5 - Meltwater Pulse 1A

 

Under the iron stare of Mr. S, our motley crew heroes arrive in Pureland. So far, it doesn't seem so pure. The people here have been petrified by a compelling unknown force, and vicious mummified cats are roving the lawless landscape.

Final Fantasy Legend 3, Part 4 - The First Bodhisattva

 

Today on FFL3: The Future. There isn't much left here because the Water Entity has engulfed most of the already-tiny overworld.

Silver Surfer (NES, 1990)

Before there was the T-1000, Marvel was making gleaming silver metal dudes cool with Silver Surfer and his rad to the max space-surfboard. This game has been on my radar for a while, as it's said to be one of the worst games on the NES. So of course I had to play it. Let's see how bad it really is. Will it be "bad" in the Power Glove sense, or "bad" in the "BAD DUDES" sense?

Final Fantasy Legend 3, Part 3 - Ashura's Last Stand

Today on FFL3: Ashura returns! Again! This guy really is the recurring bad guy for the whole trilogy. However, here it's more of a cameo appearance, like they dragged him out because they needed a recognizable face, and ended up with a bit of a hollow character. Like Cell Max from the one Dragonball movie I didn't review on here. I should get on that.

Final Fantasy Legend 3, Part 2 - Taking Shape

 

Whoa, is that a playground slide? Pretty cool to see a town in a retro RPG have something out of the ordinary like this. You can even go up and slide down it yourself. While the world design/dungeons/combat/classes in this game aren't measuring up to the previous one, the amount of detail in towns and other maps are way beyond it.

Final Fantasy Legend 3 (Game Boy, 1993)

 

SaGa 3 is upon us. This game was made by an entirely different team from the first two. While the SaGa1+2 team graduated to the SNES to make Romancing SaGa, a new and less-experienced team was brought in to do SaGa 3. That team ended up only making two games: This one and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

Looking at the box art here, an 80 page manual is pretty intense for a Game Boy game. I wish I had it. This was the last game I ever bought/played on the original Game Boy before putting it to rest. I think I got the reprint of it because I don't remember it having an 80-page manual.

Most of what I remember about this game is squinting to try and see it on the original Game Boy, and the very weird-ass enemy groupings. I really wasn't a fan of this as a kid, so I'm expecting to like it a lot more by default just playing it on a nice screen. Finally, FFL3 gets a fair shot.

What? There was no DK post here earlier. People are drinking too much Cider.

The Death and Return of Superman (Super NES, 1994)

 

Interesting game here that I've been wanting to look at for ages. It's basically the Superman equivalent to Maximum Carnage, a beat-em-up with a super high difficulty level. Not a particularly great game, not a particularly fun game, but dammit it existed. I played it like 25 years ago, so I barely remember what happens. Let's find out.

Final Fantasy Legend 2, Finale - Apollo's Creed

 

This is it, the final segment of FFL2. With Apollo stealing almost all of the Magi, I have to find the secret 78th Magi and take on the Center of the World.

Final Fantasy Legend 2, Part 5 - Odin Sphere

 

The next world...is just this one cave. It has all of one Magi to get and then it's off to the next world. However, there's a lot more to it than that. This place is a sprawling optional dungeon that has a bunch of things crucial to beating the game.