Saturday, December 30, 2023

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#92 - 110)

 

#92 Xenogears (Playstation) – Winter 1999

This one I have a semi-complicated history with. It's one of my favorite RPGs of all time and one that I consider to be one of the great true epics out there... but I thought it was really bad the first time I played it. I had the PS1 connected to the TV with an old RF switch, and over time the sound kinda got iffy. I remember first noticing this with FFT whenever thunder would crash, it would overpower the sound. I figured this was some sort of PS1 quirk. When I got to this game, the gear sounds overpowered everything else and made the game kinda suck. I also had to restart the game after ten hours or so due to getting trapped (more on that later) and that didn't help the game's chances either.

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#57 - 91)

 

#57 Final Fantasy VII (Playstation) – Fall 1997

This was me finally breaking with Nintendo tradition and jumping ship to the Playstation. It wasn't an easy decision to make. The N64 was a pretty rad system too. Nothing was competing with Final Fantasy VII at this point though. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI were my top two games for the previous couple of years, and combine that with the futuristic steampunk aesthetic that I was REALLY into as a 13 year old, and I had to have this. So I got a Playstation just for this game, and the game along with it. This is to this day the most excited I remember ever being to buy a game system. (Yeah, even more so than the Super NES).

Monday, December 25, 2023

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#37 - 56)

 

#37 Final Fantasy IV (Super NES) – Spring 1996

The funny thing about this game is that I didn't get it because I loved Final Fantasy VI. Nope, I got it because of Mario RPG. Thanks to EGM and a few other publications, I was under the impression that Culex was a boss from FF4, maybe even the villain of the game. Heck, Mario RPG itself gave me that impression with him being all "perhaps in another game we were enemies". What's with all the Culex subterfuge? Turns out he wasn't from anything and was a Mario RPG creation. Vanda isn't a thing in any game. What a rip.

Saturday, December 23, 2023

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#21 - 36)

 

#21 Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy) - Summer 1995

Now this is a real classic. I mentioned how when I rented Link to the Past, I wished it was this game, and then later vice-versa when I got this. Putting all that aside, this game was all over Nintendo Power for a while. Screenshots and maps and everything. So I knew the game very well before I ever even played it.

The situation here is that my mom requested it at Media Play, and they had to get it in stock which took a couple weeks. When they finally got it in stock, she told me we had to go there to get something unrelated, but I figured it was probably this, and sure enough, it was! I attempted to play it basically in the dark (had meager nightlight light) when I was supposed to be sleeping, and that didn't work. I also had Space Megaforce rented at the time, and...well, that didn't get played anymore that week.

Thursday, December 21, 2023

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#1 - #20)

 

Coming up on my 1000th game finished, so I'm going to make an attempt at doing a big list. Going to give a quick rundown of my memories of each game, how tricky or interesting they were to finish, etc. 1000 sounds like a lot, but keep in mind that the 30th anniversary of me getting Kirby's Dream Land was earlier this year. So that comes out to about... 33 per year or so. Which I guess IS a lot. Most of them are pretty short.

Things that I played on multiple systems only count as one game. If I finished a port of something that doesn't add any appreciable amount of new stuff or have any major visual overhaul, it didn't count as a new game. A remake of a game that totally reworks the visuals or adds a bunch of new stuff (or both) could totally count as a different game. Or a port that is very very different from another version, that could count too. Like Mortal Kombat on Game Boy is different enough from the SNES version. Same goes for T2 The Arcade Game on Game Boy versus the Arcade.

Some entries might be long, some entries might be short. Some will have screenshots, some won't (maybe, I'm going to try to make sure they all do). For some of them I'll get into whatever the toughest part of beating the game was. Some I might not remember what the toughest part is, or maybe there wasn't one. The early entries are probably going to be longer than the later ones. We'll see how this goes.

Monday, December 18, 2023

Castlevania - Circle of the Moon (Game Boy Advance, 2001)

 

Four years after Symphony of the Night, we got a sequel of sorts. This is the next "Metroidvania" in the series. It doesn't measure up to its predecessor very well at all, but it's still a pretty good game. This also kicked off the series' second golden era (the first being their 16-bit triumphs). It's the first of a Game Boy Advance trilogy of Metroidvanias that was immediately followed by a DS trilogy. They're all good (though some much more than others). A few bullet points first off:

-This was a Game Boy Advance launch game. I totally missed out on that era myself, but it's pretty awesome that people got this as a launch game.

-The European version was just called "Castlevania" which is kind of funny. Made it look like (yet another) remake of the first one.

-Koji Igarashi didn't work on this at all, and later kind of disavowed it as not being canon. He was back for the next one, Harmony of Dissonance, to "fix" things. IMO that game is the weakest of the six GBA/DS Metroidvanias, though, so not much fixing went on. This game is easily the second-weakest, with the other four being well above the first two.

-Playing this on the PS4 Castlevania Advance Collection which is a pretty nice value (and again, means I'm not forced to emulate, so I'm glad they're making an effort to re-release these things). That said, the GBA trilogy found on said collection is much easier TO emulate or even buy than the now-rare DS trilogy that followed it, so I was really hoping they would do a second collection with the DS trilogy. No such luck. Where's the DS trilogy, Konami?

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Castlevania Chronicles (Sharp ZX68000, 1993 / Playstation 1, 2001)

 

This is the 4th out of the five 'Vanias that I wanted to play for Halloween. I got to two of them at the time, Kid Dracula was the 3rd.

I'm playing the PS1 version (which is $6 to download on PS3 and well worth that). That said, technically this game actually came out in 1993 on the Sharp ZX68000, a system I've never heard of and chances are you've never heard of either outside of when people are talking about this game. The ZX was more of a computer than a console, and got a few revisions/updates between 1987 and 1993. 

The system also only got released in Japan, so most people didn't get to play this game until it got a PS1 port in 2001. That's right, this series got four different huge games on four different systems in the early-mid 90's. It was everywhere! Though this is probably the least by a good margin of the Rondo / Castlevania IV / Bloodlines grouping, I still had to check it out.

Before anything else I'd like to pour one out for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. RIP E3. It now joins its fallen brothers E1 and E2. That's right, Expo and Entertainment Expo.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-Kun (AKA Kid Dracula) (Famicom, 1990)

 

That's right, it's KID DRACULA. It's a Parodius type spinoff game that kind of makes fun of the Castlevania series, but in a good-natured way. The Famicom version never made it to the U.S. (until the recent Castlevania Anniversary Collection) but we did get a Game Boy version, which is probably what most people remember when they think Kid Dracula.

...somehow I doubt very many people think of Kid Dracula at all, but I digress.

The Game Boy version is both a remake and a sequel to this one, with new levels and so forth.

Fun Fact: This game was called "Castlevania Jr" in Brazil.

Monday, December 11, 2023

Parodius (Super Famicom, 1992)

From the makers of Gradius, a game that will change the way we look at shooters! Also, what's going on in this box art? Is that octopus on meth?

(Originally posted in 2014. Reposted for reasons)

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (Atari Jaguar, 1994)

A movie licensed game that's actually pretty decent. It's a fighting game from the era of very stiff fighting games, but you can crank up the speed in Options (and I definitely recommend that). It also got versions on the SNES (which I had as a kid) and Genesis. Though the Jaguar version is a lot prettier.

This game meant a lot to me as a kid. I loved the movie (which contrary to what you may read on the internet, still holds up, IMO) and how Bruce triumphed over adversity while standing up to tradition and racism, both against him and against other people. Guy brought martial arts to the US and was willing to teach people he "wasn't allowed to" regardless of the rules. It's an inspiring movie to say the least.

Kinda rustles my jimmies that a lot of young people might only know Bruce Lee as "that joke guy who got destroyed in a fight by Brad Pitt in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" while being unaware of his vast real-world contributions to things like making martial arts mainstream and helping Chinese actors actually be portrayed in a non-insulting way in film.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is just a bunch of bullshit in that sense. Man, that movie can f**** off. Does Brad Pitt have a clause in his movie contracts that say he can never look remotely bad in a fight? Because he never does. What an asshole.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe (Playstation 3, 2008)

 

After Armageddon, the devs weren't sure what to do. The story was basically over. Maybe another spinoff? Perhaps MK Mythologies: Noob?

Eventually they settled on doing this crossover game that has pretty much nothing to do with the main MK story and exists in its own kind of pocket universe.  This is indeed what people refer to as "MK8". Technically it is a mainline MK and not a spinoff.

Fun Fact: This is the first game in the series not rated M for Mature. They dropped to Teen for this game only, and it suffered a bit in the reviews as a result. The fatalities and moves / blood are all toned way down for ths one. Likely because they figured the DC fanbase coming in for this game would skew younger.

Not so Fun Fact: There are no subtitles in this game and no option for subtitles, so playing on mute at all and having any chance of following the story wasn't happening. Pretty bad accessibility for a game from 2008 too. The previous several games did have subtitles so I don't know how this kind of oversight even happened.

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Highlander 4x22 - One Minute to Midnight

 

This would have been the 13th Day of Halloween that I didn't get to. Probably the last Highlander episode I get to for a bit, since it's been increasingly difficult to bang these out in any kind of timely manner. Time for another break like the ones I used to take between seasons, but I do intend to do the rest later.

Another episode with a slightly-hyperbolic title, and another episode that I appreciate a lot more now than I used to in the past. This duo of episodes almost takes Highlander into the realm of serialized, continuity-rich shows like Buffy that came along later. It draws on everything leading up to this point, and sets up quite a few problems for Season 5 to resolve.

Note: In the original airing of the show, this episode was actually held over to the beginning of Season 5. Not the case in the DVD sets. I think it works a lot better as the S4 finale anyway.

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

T2: The Arcade Game (Game Boy, 1992)

 

I've tried on two different occasions to cover this on the site (within posts for other games) and didn't get far either time. This time I'm going for broke. Why bother with THIS version, you ask? Well, it may not be great, but it is kind of a wonder of science that it exists at all. It's a reminder of a time when they'd try to fit pretty much ANY game onto a Game Boy port, regardless of how little sense it made or how unfeasible it seemed.


Monday, November 27, 2023

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Playstation 2, 2005)

 

The third and last side-game in the series focusing on specific characters. This one actually gets it right, unlike the Sub-Zero and Jax games, by simply being a great game. Retelling the MK2 story that already worked instead of making up something new was a brilliant touch and made the game instantly compelling.

I may have missed a whole bunch of the main series back in the day, but I did return for this game. It was the only MK that I played in-era after MK3 and before MK9. Yep, just ignored the rest, but they did such a good job with this game that I couldn't miss it.

We get two MCs for this game, Liu Kang and Kung Lao. IIRC, on the original drawing board Raiden was supposed to be the MC. In the final product he's sort of the third hero, but he isn't playable normally. I TELL YOU ONE AND ONE MAKES THREE-HEEE!

Friday, November 24, 2023

Super Mario RPG Remake: Postgame Uberboss Strategy

This was a pretty cool remake that did everything it needed to do and had everything it needed to have (except Queen Valentina's boob-jiggle). It pretty much could have just ended at the normal end and I would have been happy with what we got. So it was pretty awesome when it turned out to have a bunch of postgame fights. Here's how I beat them.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Godzilla (Game Boy, 1990)

 

Here's a game that a friend let me borrow in 1995 or so and I can't remember much about it. I had to beat the game for reasons, so here we go.

Friday, November 17, 2023

Double Dragon Gaiden (Switch, 2023)

 

A new Double Drgn? I didn't even know about this. Double Dragon Neon was pretty good, so maybe this one will be decent too. Couple things concern me about it: The graphic style is iffy and it's touted as a "roguelike" which isn't really what I want from a DD. We'll see how it goes.

Most importantly, it has PLAYABLE MARIAN and she's looking gooooood.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Game Boy, 1991)

This is a particularly special game for me, as it was very nearly the first video game I ever bought. Unfortunately (yet very fortunately) the store didn't have it, so I had to "settle" for Kirby's Dream Land instead. Thank goodness. With the new movie out, it was time for me to finally play this game. Let's find out how history might have been different if this game had reached me before Kirby's Dream Land had a chance to intervene. Would it have stopped me from ever getting into video games with its sheer badness? Would Corona Jumper cease to exist? Let's find out.

(Originally posted November 2019. Now with more shots (mainly of the late-game) added. Also added some thoughts at the end on how to fix the game and make it good, which wouldn't actually take much)

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

T2: The Arcade Game (Arcade/Genesis/SNES, 1991-1994)

 
 Here's a game that a lot of us spent waaaay too many quarters on back in the day, because it was approximately the coolest arcade game on the planet for a while. One or two players can wield light guns and battle the forces of Skynet in a first-person rail shooter.

Wait a minute...where are the PURPLE LASERS?

(Originally posted: November 2016. I've decided to give the Game Boy version its own post, for...reasons)

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Shinobi 3 (Sega Genesis, 1993)

 One of the best games on the Sega Genesis and something I've gained a lot of respect for over time.

(Originally posted: May 2014)

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Saturday Night Slam Masters (Arcade, 1993)

 

Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting!

Very Fist of the North Star looking artwork here on the Japanese cover art for the game. That's because this artwork was done by Tetsuo Hara, the legendary artist of... Fist of the North Star.

SATURDAY! SATURDAY!

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Reverse Castle

 

The Twelve Days of Halloween concludes with the end of Symphony. ...come to think of it, this probably would have made a lot more sense as the "Thirteen" Days of Halloween.

Fun? Fact: This post and the previous Symphony post both have exactly 66 images, and this wasn't even necessarily intentional. It just shook out that I had 132 images total that were good enough to post, and I evenly divided them. An even crazier coincidence is that the exact midpoint is the Reverse Castle arrival. Weird. Very weird. Almost...spooky.

Monday, October 30, 2023

Screamers (1995)

 

One last Monster Madness episode, looking at something that needs to be looked at because so few people know about it.

SUPER underrated movie that combines elements from my two favorite sci-fi horror movies: Terminator and The Thing. It's one of those "they could be anyone" movies, combined with unstoppable machines and an apocalyptic future. This shouldn't have been that good, but it really is. It's also based on "Second Variety" by Phillip K. Dick, and as we should all know by now, any movies and shows based on Dick stories tend to be pretty damn interesting.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Tremors (1990)

 

More Monster Madness, as Kevin Bacon and friends battle giant sand slugs. This is basically the 1990 version of Them! and has as much in common with that movie as Aliens does. Though in a different way. Stop creating giant mutants with your nuke testing, guys.

Friday, October 27, 2023

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine, 1993)

 

The last 2D Castlevania game that I never had a chance to play until now. It was trapped on the island of PC Engine (Turbografx-16) for a long time. Now it has a PS4 version so I can give it a whirl, though I'm still counting it as a TG16 game. It got (sort of) ported to the SNES as Castlevania Dracula X which I did cover on here long ago. That port is known for being a somewhat different game, and fairly deficient compared to this original version. Now I get to finally see what the fuss is about.

It's also worth noting that this game is the immediate predecessor to Symphony of the Night. In a weird way, this is basically "Castlevania 5" in everything except name. I can understand dropping the number though, especially considering how the third and fourth games in the series were chronologically out of whack already (aka a prequel and a remake respectively).

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Them! (1954)

 

Time for some Monster Madness. Been wanting to cover this movie for like five Halloweens now and never get around to it. It's a legendary horror classic about rampaging giant ants. If you haven't seen it, you've probably heard of it.

Also, fun fact: This movie inspired Aliens quite a bit. That's right, it's Proto-Aliens. That alone makes this a bit of a historical artifact.

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Super NES, 1992)

 

On the sixth day of Halloween I'm looking at Goemon for the Super NES. A lot of people love Goemon. This is the first one I've gotten to check out. And all I can say is..... What horrifying box art. And is that Jack Black?

This game and I go back a long way because I was always intrigued by it, but never enough to get it or emulate it. Didn't see it for rent anywhere either, seemed kinda rare. 15 years or so ago I met this cool girl who had a small SNES collection we tooled around with, and this was the only game she had that I hadn't finished (or played). She wasn't a big gamer and only had a few things, all classics...and this. Ever since then I sorta made it this quest to eventually get to it. Turns out it's really short (I thought it was a beefy RPG) and can be finished in 2-3 hours. Will it be everything I hoped for?

Also, the box says ten levels, but Nintendo Power says nine levels. Someone is lying.

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Playstation 2, 2006)

 

This is the end of the PS2 trilogy and also the end of the original series. The next game is a what-if and the one after that reboots the continuity. That's right, this is the culmination of the original MK story and it's for all the marbles.

Not to be confused with that MK Annihilation movie, but I could see people mixing them up. In short: This game is good, that movie is a turd.

Monday, October 23, 2023

Mortal Kombat: Deception (Playstation 2, 2004)


This game has a cool logo. A good sign! This is one that I really didn't pay any attention to when I was younger. I may not have played MK4 and Deadly Alliance but at least I was aware of them and what they were about. For all I knew this one was some kind of spinoff. Well, nope, this is technically "MK6" by another name and it advances the PS2 trilogy. It's also a substantial improvement over the previous game (and MK7 would improve even further).

Sunday, October 22, 2023

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (Playstation 2, 2002)

It's day 3 of the Twelve Days of Halloween and it's time for more Kombat.

This one dropped five years after MK4. Which means that while took them a few years to count to 4, it took them even longer to count to 5. And make no mistake, this is "MK5" in everything but name. Notice how the background of the title is a somewhat camoflaged "V" symbol.

I probably would have paid a lot more attention to it in 2002 if it had been called that, but as it is, this is my first time playing it. This was the first MK to go straight to consoles instead of having an arcade version first, likely because arcades unfortunately declined in popularity after the 90's ended.

This one is the first to go full 3D, and begins a trilogy of sorts on the PS2 gen. This culminates with MK Armageddon (AKA MK7) which is basically the end of the series as we know it. But not to worry, it gets rebooted (...twice) after that.

In any case, this one has Shang Tsung and Quan-Chi teaming up to form the DEADLY ALLIANCE. Only question is, which one's the bitch and which one's the butch which one gets to be the final boss?

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Creed Champions (Playstation 4, 2021)

 

This might be interesting for people who like the Rocky series. That's right, it's a Rocky video game and it's actually pretty good. It takes place after Creed II and gives you some story from that timeframe. The main draw here, though, is that you can relive fights from the rest of the Rocky series via character flashbacks. They're technically "telling the story" which means they have some leeway here to go in unexpected directions with what-ifs.

Friday, October 20, 2023

Highlander 4x21 - Judgment Day

 

Kind of a dramatic name here. I kinda doubt this episode is gonna be worth such a hyperbolic title, but we'll see. This is the first half of the season finale on the DVD sets officially, while in the original broadcast airing it was the sole season finale and the second half was held over to S5 to leave us on a cliffhanger.

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Mortal Kombat IV (N64, 1998) + Mortal Kombat Gold (Dreamcast, 1999)

 

MK finally learns to count to four! This is the first one so far that I haven't previously beaten so I won't have any kind of nostalgia or bias.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero + MK Mythologies: Special Forces (N64 and PS1, 1997 and 2000)

 

They should have called both games MK ULTRA because they're torture. Not sure how far I'll be getting with either of these but I sure won't be finishing either.

That's right, it's the infamous side-games where you play as specific characters, fleshing out their story a bit. I think they were planning a whole series of these, but the idea bombed out quickly and only really got revisited with the Liu Kang / Kung Lao driven Shaolin Monks years and years later. That game is actually good, probably because Ed Boon took command on it unlike these two disasters.

In said disasters you're playing as Sub-Zero and Jax respectively. Special Forces was supposed to also center around Sonya, which would have added a lot to the game (and let them knock out another character from their no doubt long list of side games they'd have to do if this "do a game starring each character" madness continued). After some development hell, playable Sonya was left out of the game. Originally you chose one of the two characters at the outset and played as them throughout, with the second character appearing to offer assists or show up in cutscenes. Well, far as I can tell Sonya was totally removed.

I don't know how many characters they were planning to do games for, but it appears that it was at least the original cast. Mythologies: Sub-Zero has the titular character and Scorpion, while Special Forces was supposed to star Jax and Sonya going aganst Kano. That leaves Raiden and Liu Kang, who were...the next planned games. However they also had a Baraka game on the drawing board so they may have extended into MK2's roster. The Baraka and Liu Kang games were cancelled, while the concepts for the Raiden game were retooled into aforementioned "only good spinoff" Shaolin Monks with Liu Kang and Kung Lao. (Edit: I forgot Johnny Cage lol...but so did they)

Fun Fact: While both are prequels to the main series, Special Forces is canonically the first game in the entire MK-verse, taking place before any of the others.

Monday, October 2, 2023

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, Chapter 8 - The Legend of Welda

 

Next, our heroes climb to the top of the ice mountain to look for the Zenithian Sword. But what condition will it be in after all these years?

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, Chapter 7 - Spiegel Spike

Today on Dragon Quest VI: After a hiatus where I level-grinded in Spiegelspire during my spare time, we return to DQVI with a super powered-up party. Turns out it isn't hard at all to max out in a phone game that you can play whenever you want during random lulls in activity.

Also I just remembered that Dragon Quest VII has a Pirate class (tier 2) and it's very good. Well I'm definitely playing that now. Just need Sailor + Thief maxed to get it. Wait, the Alltrades Abbey in that game is like 30 hours in? FUUU-

Friday, September 29, 2023

Portable Mortal Kombats, Part Two

 
More forgotten ports: Mortal Kombat 3 for Game Boy (!), Mortal Kombat 4 for Game Boy Color (!!), Deadly Alliance + Tournament Edition for GBA, and the only game I remember EGM ever giving a zero to: Mortal Kombat Advance. Why am I doing this to myself?

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Portable Mortal Kombats, Part One

 

That's right, today I'm going to take a look at some of the lesser-known games in the franchise, specifically portable versions of Mortal Kombat 1+2. Are any of these actually gonna be good?

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Mortal Kombat Trilogy (N64/PS1, 1996)

For a long time I was under the impression that Mortal Kombat 4 was the first one where you could actually play as Goro. While that IS the one where Goro returns in story canon, there's another game before that where he's playable (this one). More importantly, this is 2D Goro, the one we know, and not a different 3D version like in MK4. MOST importantly, it also gives us playable Shao Kahn, Kintaro, and Motaro. How did I miss this game all this time?

MKT here had the potential to be the pinnacle of the 2D chapter of the series. At least, I'm sure it was intended to be. It's got pretty much everything from the first 3 (areas, characters, etc). Problem is, the PS1 version has terrible loading times that really slow down the experience, while the N64 version is missing a bunch of key characters, so you're boned by some preventable issue either way. It may be the most "definitive" early MK on paper, but it's hard to give it too many props with the issues it has.

All of that said, I'm mostly just playing this to finally play as the bosses, something Street Fighter II Turbo did ages ago. Unfortunately the bosses are kind of half-assed. They aren't balanced, their specials don't work a lot of the time, and they don't have any fatalities. So yeah. Anyway enough essay, let's get going.

Sunday, September 24, 2023

Mortal Kombat III + Ultimate Mortal Kombat III (Super NES, 1995/1996)

Was never a fan of this logo. It's a step down from MK2 much like the game itself is. The dragon symbol is fine but it looks like the 3 is pregnant with it.

In any case, MK3 is where I start to think this series might be kind of overrated. Ultimate MK3 is a superior version and kinda what MK3 should have been from the get-go...well, in some ways. So I'mma combine the two here.

Monday, September 18, 2023

Mortal Kombat II (Super NES, 1994)

The biggest sequel since Terminator 2. And this time the Nintendo version has blood and guts. YOU HAPPY NOW, KIDS??

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Mortal Kombat (Arcade/SNES/Genesis, 1993)


It's MORTAL MONDAY, and you know what that means.

It's been 30 years since Mortal Kombat landed on home consoles in the memorable day known as Mortal Monday. When I was a kid, this was a huge day, and all anyone could talk about for the entire school week was MORTAL KOMBAT. We'd go out on the playground at recess and act out MK fights, yelling "Get over here!" while pantomiming spears and freezes.

This really was a moment in time, and if you weren't there...well, I'll tell you all about it. While further posts will focus on whatever version of the game I played, this one's gonna run down all the home releases of Mortal Monday and hopefully give a sense of the lightning in a bottle that this game captured in 1993.

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Dragon Ball Z Kakarot Part 16 - The 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament (B-Side)

 

It seems like a lot of DBZ games count these last few episodes of DB (with older Gokou) as part of DBZ. The Super Famicom fighting games generally start with this fight, for example. I'd say this DLC is actually a really good place to start Kakarot, rather than the beginning of the main story, so it's kinda like the game got a new and much more exciting intro chapter.

In any case, here we go, last Kakarot episode...until they put out the final DLC.

Saturday, September 9, 2023

Dragon Ball Z Kakarot Part 15 - The 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament

I'm still doing these? I'm still doing these. The latest (and 2nd to last) DLC for The Best DBZ Game is the only one to actually go outside the realm of DBZ. The first couple DLCs were based on movies that could be "Dragonball Super movies" or "Dragonball Z movies" depending on how you want to measure them. This, though, is a retelling of the last few episodes of the original Dragonball series. Since Gokou is older in those episodes and there was a time jump, lumping them in with DBZ works for me.

Sunday, September 3, 2023

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, Chapter 6 - Spike Gets Fired

 

Man, this game is GORGEOUS when it wants to be. The original Super Famicom version is too, as it came along in that late-era, Chrono Trigger timeframe.

Friday, September 1, 2023

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, Chapter 5 - Alltrades Abbey Class Rundown

 

The game gives you basically no clue where to go next, and some players would be forgiven for thinking the game was over at that point with us on the victory lap. However, warp to the Dream World at this point and it drops you in front of Alltrades Abbey, which is NOT destroyed there like it is in the Real World.

This was originally the second half of the previous post. I wrote the whole thing on an airplane with no connection, so I couldn't open a second post and had to keep writing in the first, then kept it like that. It was way too long, though, so I'm splitting this off like it was supposed to be.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, Chapter 4 - Brawl Out

 

Huge episode of Dragon Quest VI today as we slay Maou Mudo (again) and unlock class changes. Lots of class-change discussion here and in the next episode. I think I might just stick with the remake and see it through from here on out, then go back to the SFC version and sweep that up.

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, Chapter 3 - All In

 
This is hands-down the best hero design in this entire series, IMO. It's kinda too bad that such an awesome design was spent on one of the more middling games. Regardless, time to get in-depth and try to make some sense out of this game's convoluted plot.