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A fighting game notorious for featuring the dastardly P-Lump. .....that's his name, look it up. I played this solely to do a post on it. I spent quite a bit of time looking at every aspect of this, which is probably more than anyone else has ever devoted to it on the internet. It's an extremely generic fighting game, and one of the worst games on the Super NES (at least, of the 160ish that I've played). On the bright side, playing it will only steal about 20 minutes of your limited lifespan.
What's The Deal With P-Lump?: I think he was meant as a joke character to mock China. It took many decades, but Japan has finally gotten their revenge on The Chinese.
Post HERE.
#598 Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U) – Fall 2015
Now here's a game that makes me feel warm and, ironically, fuzzy. Outstanding platformer here that I'd say COULD be the best game of the entire Yoshi platformer series. I've played most of them (except for the N64 game Yoshi's Story, given the N64 is something I largely missed/skipped) and while Yoshi's Island on SNES is the nostalgic favorite, this one manages to finally top it. Just a gorgeous game with great level design and this "wool" aesthetic to everything that makes it stand out and look unique. Hopefully by now it isn't still trapped on the Wii U. I wish I had more to say about it, because I remember adoring this game, and I don't adore that many things. I only played it through once, and have left the memories alone ever since. There just wasn't much reason to revisit it. But yeah, keep an eye out for this if you missed it, it's a good one.
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#599 Mega Man 8 FC (PC) – Fall 2015
An unofficial fan-game that punched way above its own weight. I was concerned about Wily Fortress 1, since in the original PS1 version that ended up being the hardest level in the entire series, but it was no problem here. They definitely took it down a few notches and it made for a much smoother run through the game. It's well-balanced across the board, especially for a fan game, and I was able to get to the end. Hardest part was breaking into the eight levels by taking down a first robot master, and with no save states to fall back on, it really felt like an old-school challenge. Like I was back in 1995. Recommended, for sure.
First Boss Suggestion: Clown Man is the easiest of the eight with no special weapons, easily. Farm up an E-Tank beforehand and take a couple lives to practice the fight, then pop the tank on the last life, get serious, and get it done. Rest of the game is smooth sailing.
Post HERE.
#600 R-Type Delta (Playstation) – Fall 2015
The R-Type series' addition to the PS1 gen. I don't remember much about this one, except that I think it fell short of the competition (the excellent Gradius Gaiden). Unlike GG, this game went for a pseudo-3D look using polygonal 3D models instead of 2D sprite work, and I think that was a mistake; it didn't age as well. I believe there's an HD version now on modern systems, so that might be worth a look for folks.
#601 R-Type Final (Playstation 2) – Fall 2015
I remember this one being better, or at least more streamlined 3D. The funny thing is, they went on to make a Final 2 and there might even be a Final 3 out there somewhere. Talk about writing themselves into a corner. Due to difficulties with later-system emulation, I never covered these later R-Type/Gradius games on this site like I did with the early ones, unfortunately.
#602 Gradius IV (Playstation 2) – Fall 2015
Low-key maybe the best of the Gradius series, aside from possibly Gradius Gaiden. The latter is a hidden gem on the PS1 and a pretty damn good game, but it gets absurdly difficult. Gradius IV is a damn good one, and I remember it being the best of these four space shooters that I plowed through. None of the others made any major impression. Gradius IV is a lot like the rest of the series, same beats, nothing crazy, just solid and refined. There are some 3D effects but it's harder to tell, and it still has that 2D smoothness I prefer for this era of the genre.
#603 Gradius V (Playstation 2) – Fall 2015
I can't remember this one at all, just that Gradius IV was better. Despite that, this is definitely the prettiest this series ever gets, and the laser effects are particularly awesome.
#604 Dragon Quest Heroes (Playstation 4) – Fall 2015
A musuo-style beat 'em up that brings in characters from across the Dragon Quest series. Obviously I like this. Most of my memories of this sub-series revolve around DQH2, which made a lot more of an impression on me. This first one was just a fun, quick playthrough during a timeframe with a lot of fun, quick playthroughs. After this it was back to the Wii U to continue my sweep of that game's short list of hits.
#605 Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U) – Fall 2015
Man, I love me some Donkey Kong, though Diddy (and his 'tude) is the one to play as most of the time. Well, I sung all the praises of DKCR back on the Wii a few years earlier, because it was such an incredible, unexpected surprise blast of nostalgia. This one... well, this'll be a shock, but I didn't like Tropical Freeze very much. The controls felt heavier than DKCR and the levels were a lot harder, which all combined to make for a less-enjoyable game.
Also, the visuals. While DKCR had visuals that felt like an homage to the SNES trilogy's ACM graphics, DKCTF opted for more of a World of Warcraft look where everything was both cartoony and blocky. In the 2010's a lot of things felt the need to mimic WoW aesthetic and I'm glad that era is over.
All of that said, in recent years I replayed both games in their newest forms on the Switch, and I found a new appreciation for DKCTF. If I hadn't played either since launch, I'd give this game bad marks here. However, on the revisit, I found this game to be a really compelling challenge that I might even put in contention for best game in the series. It takes everything DKCR does and just makes it all a bit better. I still prefer the graphics in the first one, but that's about it.
One Thing I'd Change: The ice motif doesn't factor in until the final world. I wish more of the game were ice worlds, considering the overall theme of the game is the great freezening. Something like 80% of the levels are tropical, and it's a bit generic after a while the same way DKC3's levels got generic. Then you get the awesome ice levels for the last part, and it's a nice reward ala Dragon Quest 2. I wish the game had more ice levels just interspersed throughout the rest of the worlds.
#606 Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U) – Fall 2015
Not to be confused with the very similar Kirby - Canvas Curse for the DS, this is a similar game where you draw lines and use them as platforms. This game looks super-good and was a great way to make use of the Wii U system. The Gamepad is used to draw the lines. Did I mention how good this game looks? I mean, wow. This is a good thing to play with your kids. Yoshi's Wooly World is a better game in general, with a similarly creative aesthetic, but this one might just be the one your kids like more and want to go back to.
They finally got it right; this was a much better game than the first two of the GBA/DS hexology. Not real crazy about Soma or the 2030 A.D. setting, and wish they'd given us more Belmont games. Other than that, this is pretty much as good as it gets for Metroid-style Castlevanias, and isn't far behind Symphony of the Night in quality. The DS games would improve on it quite a bit visually though, and Portrait of Ruin in particular I found to be a more interesting playthrough.
Most of this post are things I played in November 2015; I went on a plowing spree of lots of short games that month to boost my numbers, since I wasn't busy at all that month. I intended to play these 'Vanias for Halloween that year, but I ended up completely absorbed by Dark Souls. So I played these well after Halloween, and didn't get around to covering them until many, many years later.
Post HERE.
#608 Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) – Winter 2015
Soma Continues. That's right, he gets two games in a row. This is another good one, with much-improved visuals over Aria. Chronologically, this is the final Castlevania game of all time, taking place in 2033 or so A.D. in Japan.
What Brought The Game Down: Having to draw those damn glyphs on the screen after boss fights, and them getting back like 30% HP every time you fail. This knocks a few points off of what could otherwise be the best of the six portable Metroidvania-Castlevanias, putting it behind Aria of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. It's a shame.
What Else Brought The Game Down: Changing to a generic anime artstyle that is incongruous with the traditional artstyle of the series up to now, including Aria of Sorrow (meaning the same characters look wildly different from one game to the next, never really optimal). They made their way back over to the traditional artstyle by Order of Ecclesia, but it deprived this game of a lot of the dark atmosphere it should have had. Nice haircut, Soma. What are you, a Beatle?
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Posts HERE. These last 3 'Vanias all got multiple posts.
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#609 Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) – Winter 2016
My personal favorite of the 'Vania Hexology (that should be the official name of the six, and not just what I call it...the "hex" pun would be perfect, and it was a missed opportunity to put out all six games together and call the collection this) and the one I enjoyed the most. Rather than being entirely in a castle and surrounding area, this game takes you through a bunch of distinct sub-worlds. The castle format is classic and done to death for a reason, but it needed a break.
Posts HERE.
#610 Killzone 3 (Playstation 3) – Winter 2016
Finally doing another Killzone game. Originally I was trying to do this series before the PS4 launch so I could play launch game Killzone: Shadow Fall (4) next, but I only got the first two done and then other things were going on. Well, here I am swinging back around to do the back half of this series. Killzone 3 was fine, really solid game, probably the best of the series. Though I'll always like the chain gun in the first game, the unfortunately most-dated game had the best weapon.
#611 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Sega Genesis) – Winter 2016
My favorite of the 3 main Sonic games. I was never a Sonic guy, they didn't click for me, and I just frankly didn't "get" them. Not because I was a huge Nintendo fanboy (which I was) and not because I didn't have a Sega anyway. I tried these games at friends' houses and I just didn't get them. I'd generally want to switch systems and play Mario instead. Once Donkey Kong Country arrived, forget about it. One letter to EGM made fun of DKC for being "slow-mo monkeys" compared to Sonic. Well, they may be slow-mo, but at least they have tight controls and thoughtful gameplay. Sonic is just "book it all over the place fast, but also not TOO fast because you'll crash into obstacles, and your rings are constantly being lost, and you can't just STAND STILL and do a light thoughful jump, no.
.....anyway, I wasn't into Sonic 1 and found it to be a basic platformer with subpar controls. I was a little bit into Sonic 2 and found it to be more what I expected, but still not particularly great. Then I got to this one, and finally kinda got it, because Sonic 3 is a lot of fun. Great soundtrack and the level design makes more sense. I'd still prefer a normal steady thoughtful platformer over this "GO GO GO WAIT STOP" gameplay.
Post HERE.
#612 Sonic and Knuckles (Sega Genesis) – Winter 2016
The other half of what was intended to be one big super-game. More great music and some very memorable levels here (that felt more like video game levels and less like jumbled pinball boards). If this and Sonic 3 actually had been combined into one single game somehow, it would have been huge, and remembered with the same level of reverence as something like Super Mario Bros 3 just based on that expansiveness.
Favorite Theme: Lava Reef Zone, Act 1
And also Lava Reef Zone, Act 2
Post HERE.
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#613 Magic Sword (Super NES) – Winter 2016
Just working on more stuff for posts. This was a game from my youth; played it in an arcade a couple times and really liked it. It's got the same D&D style aesthetic with different character classes as King of the Dragons, another similar Capcom beat 'em up... that's way, way better than Magic Sword here. This game has a cool and unique theme with the very-memorable Tower of Babel, at least. Each of the 50 levels is a floor as you make your way up. Unlike the arcade back in the day, I made it to the top.
Post HERE.
#614 Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Playstation 2) – Winter 2016
At this point I took some time to swing around and take out some of the Street Fighter series, since I'd only played a couple of the games to this point. Eventually I would get, basically, the whole series, more or less. I thought this one was just "Street Fighter III" and had it listed as such, only to later find out that there were a bunch of different IIIs. Why am I not surprised. Well, this was the last version.
Toughest Part: The final battle with Gill. One of the cheapest final bosses I've ever fought in a fighting game. What an asshole! Like a centrist, he is both American political party colors, showing that people of different religions can get along!
I forgot the first game in the Alpha series. Not sure how it got missed but it was probably an availability issue. I'll swing around and get it on the way back! Here was me playing another Street Fighter game that I missed. I liked this one a lot because it takes place before the main series and has some cool new characters.
#616 Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Playstation) – Winter 2016
Going from SNES to PS1 was a substantial jump, as you can see in these two screenshots. Not sure how the SNES even managed Alpha 2, but I see why they only did one of them on there. I think the Alpha series was intended to replace Street Fighter 1 outright by having a "prequel gen" to go with the multiple games in the second and third gens. Also considering SF1 is a nearly-unplayable relic. The Alpha series was never marketed as being a replacement for that first-gen-that-wasn't but it's what I consider it to be, more or less.
#617 Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (Playstation) – Winter 2016
Street Fighter EX was the weird one where they tried to move the Street Fighter series into a pseudo-3D. Well, there's a reason they didn't continue that series for too long and you don't have compilations of it today. At least, that I know of. This is the follow-up to SFEX shortly after that improved on it a bit. It didn't make any big impression on me and I mainly only checked it out to hear the soundtrack.
Best Part: The soundtrack is really good, with some banger tracks.
Favorite Tune: God Hand, probably the best tune in the entire Street Fighter series. Yeah, I know it has steep competition. But also, this tune pretty much single-handedly inspired most of Devil May Cry's battle themes a few years later.
#618 Killzone: Shadow Fall (Playstation 4) – Winter 2016
One of the PS4's launch games, and something I really should have just played back then when it had the cutting-edge graphics going for it. Instead I waited until after I finished the rest of the series, and it just took a while to get to Killzone 3. By the time I played Shadow Fall it was old news, and the PS4 launch graphics were about two years old. Aside from visuals, this game didn't really float my boat the way the first three did. It looked prettier, but it wasn't wall to wall action like the others; instead it contained a lot of roaming around. Welp, at least my long Killzone journey concluded.
What Brought The Game Down: Getting lost constantly. For some reason this game was a lot worse at guiding you on where to go, compared to the earlier games in the series. So I constantly ended up running around in circles, and it took a lot out of the game.
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#619 Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) – Winter 2016
The final game of the hexology. Having just replayed this recently, it's very fresh in my mind. While it has an incredibly gorgeous protagonist with Shanoa, this game is probably in the bottom half of the six with the first two. There's a big gulf between them and the Sorrow duo + Portrait, and this game just felt like a big step down after the previous game. About 70% of this game takes place in hallway-like levels, harkening back to the pre-Igavania era of the series where levels were more linear.
You get an actual castle for the last 30% or so and things get a bit more interesting then, but it's a much smaller castle than the previous games. So it does a similar level structure to Portrait of Ruin and it doesn't work as well due to A) The linear straight lines and B) The environments not being as wild and distinct, since they're all in the same land mass rather than being bizarre sub-worlds.
Best Part: The animation is really good.
Posts HERE.
#620 Telltale’s Walking Dead: Season 2 (Playstation 4) – Winter 2016
The first one was a really hard-hitting game. Playing as Lee, protecting young Clementine, and eventually meeting a grim fate, all makes a pretty heavy impression on you. This sequel follows an older Clementine trying to get by on her own. It is what it is, a short, dark game. Both of these were pretty depressing, and Season 1 would have been enough for me. This was it for me with the Telltale games, I think. They were an interesting experiment for a while.
Pretty much more of the same of the first two games. While those were fresh and new, this definitely felt like "been there done that". It had two screens to make use of and higher resolution, so side-by-side you can see the difference, but it's close. Luckily I did this an entire decade later, so it felt fresh again. Far as I'm concerned, the first Advance Wars was a great game with big ideas that ended up pretty rough around the edges, then Advance Wars 2 polished the concept into a truly great game, and they probably could have stopped there. Everything was bigger and better in the second game versus the first, while the third was more of a lateral movement. Unfortunately, the fourth game would tumble quite a bit and end up being the death knell of the series, but that's a story for later. It's unfortunate that I didn't do posts for this series, because they're interesting, and I'll likely never play any of them again.
Next up, whenever that is: The last thing I have genuine full-on nostalgia for, the Two Game Power Trip that is Demon Souls and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions.
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