Pokemon LeafGreen, Part 4 - Goro Wins

Some random guy questions LEAF's riding skills, as Pokemon LeafGreen winds towards a close.

Pokemon LeafGreen, Part 3 - Magikarp's Murder Spree

 

LEAF tries going on Tinder to meet girls, but all she's getting is couples trying to double team her. In other news, MYA, if that is her real name, has got it going on. Why are Pokemon women so hot?

Pokemon LeafGreen, Part 2 - Lemmiwinks' Lament

 

At this point I realize that I totally whiffed on getting the Town Map way back at the beginning, and need to make a trek back there through the treacherous Diglett's Cave.

Pokemon LeafGreen (Game Boy Advance, 2004)

 

So Gen 1 first dropped in 1998, years after the Game Boy had stopped being relevant, and single-handedly revived the system. To put that in perspective, it's like if we got a new PS Vita or 3DS game in the last couple years. It shouldn't have worked, but it did, and not only did it work, it started one of the biggest powerhouse franchises in gaming. A mere six years later we got a full-fledged remake of Gen 1, and it pretty much perfects everything that was rough around the edges in 1998.

I was a little apprehensive about covering the Pokemon remakes, as opposed to just the best versions of each original gen, which I did up to Gen 3. However, this game is technically part of Gen 3, so in a way I'm just picking up where I left off. Someday I'd like to do the rest, but who knows.

The remakes are their own beasts, with some new content and new spins on everything. Regardless, the Pokemon posts on this site are their own rare breed, and a bit more adult-oriented than the usual. Nothing is sacred here. Rated M for mature. You've been warned. Enter at your own peril!

Onimusha Tactics, Finale: The True Genma King.

There are a lot of other things I could be doing right now, like watching a Super Eyepatch Wolf video called "How Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Destroys Me" or something like that. But instead here I am finishing Onimusha Tactics. I always finish what I start, unless it's Dragon Quest VI.

Onimusha Tactics, Part 7: Hideyoshi's Last Stand.

 

Episode 43? My goodness. How many damn episodes does this game have?

Onimusha Tactics, Part 6: The Unpatriotic Mitsuhide.

 

Today on Onimusha Tactics: Nobunaga's second-in-command must face the wrath of our heroes!

Onimusha Tactics, Part 5: Let's Fighting Love.

 

Our heroes take on Hideyoshi's giant laser-cannon and and his legion of robo-demons, as we continue the game that Ubisoft calls "a stunningly accurate re-creation of Japanese history"

Onimusha Tactics, Part 4: Onimaru is 100% Pure Rudo.

 

However, Nobunaga Oda is the very definition of efficient.

Onimusha Tactics, Part 3: I Have Vowed To Kill 1000 Monsters.

 

Trying to stop Nobunaga and Hideyoshi? Humiliation.

Much like in 2003, this game is a nice respite from all the struggles and bullshit going on in the real world.

Onimusha Tactics, Part 2: Himeji Striptease.

 

Time for the Game Boy Advance to get Rated M for Mature.

Onimusha Tactics (Game Boy Advance, 2003)

 

This is a tactics game from Capcom that uses characters from the Nobunaga era. A concept that's pretty much impossible to go wrong with, and they didn't. This is one of the more underrated games of the GBA era. Never heard much of anything about it, but it exists and it was pretty cool.

Funny thing is, I played it in 2003-2004 instead of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance because I wanted to save FFTA for later/better times, and this was kinda just its stand-in as "something to do". Then it proceeded to exceed expectations. Meanwhile, when I eventually got to FFTA in 2009 or so, it was a letdown that I never want to play again, and I have way fonder memories of this one in comparison.

Regardless, since I played this in 2003-2004, it's time to take us back. Back...20 years! To a time when I was even less mature! Doodoodoo! Doodoodoo!

Journey to Silius (NES, 1990)

 

Whoa, it's good to play a game that doesn't make me feel like drinking. So this legendarily started out as a Terminator game. Sunsoft lost the license midway through development and quickly converted it into...well, a non-Terminator game. They changed a bunch of sprites to avoid a lawsuit, but you can clearly see the Terminator influence regardless. You can also pretty much see the moment where it steers away from a Terminator game in the development process.

This game can be found easily enough on Switch Online, and made it onto IGN's "top 100 games of all time" list. So I've got some hope for this one.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Super NES, 1993)

 

It's August 29th, you know what that means.

AVGN said that "any sane human being would shut this game off after the first stage"

Welp.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (NES, 1992)

 

LJN debuts with a bang. This was featured in one of the first Nintendo Powers I ever looked at, so to this day I still have this perception of the game as being really cool. Time to completely ruin this memory.

The Terminator (Super NES, 1993)

 

What's really weird...is that this game came out AFTER T2 for the Super NES. Yeah, they went back and did the first. They had to cover all their bases and really milk Arnold. This is actually a fairly playable game mechanically. The problem is that the design can't get out of its own way, which ruins it regardless of how mechanically playable it is.

The Terminator (NES, 1992)

 

Time for me to play a loathsome, shitty game! One that I no doubt would have tried to get if I'd ever had an NES in this era, as I was pretty obsessed with Terminator movies circa 1991-1993. T2 might have been the first movie I ever saw in a theater, not sure. That was a tough act to follow.

In any case, there's a reason why in all these years I never bothered to play any of the basic NES/SNES Terminator games. At this point I've played everything else based on those two movies (Game Boy, Genesis, Robocop Vs Terminator...) so I might as well give these others a spin and see just how terrible they are. I could be playing something good, like Castlevania or Dragon Quest. Instead I'm playing this. Official Nintendo Seal of Quality my ass!

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Game Boy Advance, 2003)

 

This is a big step up from Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance. Out of the big six Metroidvanias on GBA and DS that are Symphony-inspired, this is the one that I've always considered the best and the closest to topping Symphony.

The next one, Dawn of Sorrow, is probably also on the same level, I just dock it some points for stylus usage. I could see someone putting that one as the pinnacle of this group as well. And personally I liked Portrait of Ruin the most back when I first played all six (though I do think the Soma games have better world design). There's a lot of good stuff in these six once you get past the iffy first two games. After the next Soma game, there are two more in this Symphony-followup-hexology, and both of them have hot playable leads.

Kid Dracula (Game Boy, 1993)

 

I've got five more 'Vanias I want to cover, so here's the next one. A sort of hybrid sequel/remake of the Famicom original, except this one actually made it to the US. It's the one I've been wanting to play for a long time, since well before I knew the Famicom one even existed. Now I finally get to it. Is it everything I hoped for? Well, uh...it's certainly a game.

Castlevania Adventure: Rebirth (Wiiware, 2009)

 

This is a hidden gem in every sense of the phrase. And I mean completely hidden, because you can't even play it anymore on the actual hardware unless you already got it back in the day. It's a download-only Wii game on a service that you can't access now. Which is nuts, because it's a great game that deserves to be reborn (incidentally) in a modern compilation or something.

This is supposed to be a remake of Castlevania Adventure on the Game Boy, but it really isn't. I mean it handles the same and has the same three tiers of whip strength, but other than that it's notably different. Probably the most different-from-original remake I've ever played that still called itself a remake. At least FFVII Remake followed the same story beats. This one has six stages instead of four and most of the bosses are changed. Well, considering Castlevania Adventure is probably the worst game in the series, it really needed a Rebirth, so let's do this.