Kirby's Dream Course, Kirby's Avalanche, Kirby's Star Stacker (Super NES, 1994/1995/1997)

 

That's right, today we get a 3-fer with some more Kirby spinoff puzzle/sports type games that I checked out over the weekend. Not going to actually finish any of these, but I'll get a gander at them. Never played this trio before this, so they're all new to me. First up is the fairly popular Kirby's Dream Course from 1994.

Kirby's Pinball Land (Game Boy, 1993)

 

This game is awesome, so I'm going to get it out there real quick before WW3 starts. Somehow I never covered this before, which is weird, could have sworn I did. It's so much funnukah! But also kinda tough.

Kirby's Dream Land DX (Game Boy Color Hack)

   

It's the 30 year anniversary (Jesus) of me getting this, my first game. School had just let out and it was time to finally get a game system. To commemorate this, I'm running several Kirby games this week. Starting with the color remake of Kirby's Dream Land, made by intrepid fans. I haven't played this since the first time I covered it, almost a decade ago, so we'll see how it triggers my memory.

Judgement Silversword (Wonderswan Color, 2001)

 

Wonderswan Color gets on the board with this shockingly good space shooter. Shockingly good for a portable system from the Game Boy Color era, that is. I don't know how they were able to get this game to play as well as it does with zero slowdown considering the massive number of moving objects onscreen at any given time. It's safe to say the Wonderswan Color was a really impressive portable and it's too bad we never got it in the states. In any case, this game will float you a few hundred dollars on eBay, or you could just download the ROM and actually have a shot at beating the game due to save states. Because this game is ludicrously hard. There's also a Steam version for like $20, but no states so good luck. It sure does play well, despite its near-impossibility.

Top 20 Title Screen Themes In Gaming

 

Been a while since I did a top list. The usual top list disclaimer applies: This is my personal take and it's off the top of my head. Plenty of great things are going to be missing, either because I never played them or just straight-up didn't think of them. Your mileage may vary. There's a special hell reserved for the people who post "No [X Y or Z]??" comments on every top list. However, if you have any suggestions, totally drop them in the comments. I'm grading off of a few criteria here: How good the track is, how well it fits / sets the tone for the game, and how memorable/iconic it is overall.

Hentai Vs. Evil (Playstation 5, 2021)

 

This game was $3 on PSN so I checked it out to see how bad it was. It's bad. It's real bad. So instead of doing something good like Highlander or, I don't know, Dragon Quest VI, today I'm serving up this helping of gruel. By God though, it... kind of works.

Highlander 4x18 - Through A Glass, Darkly

 

One of the not so good episodes in my view, which is really unfortunate because it's about the pivotal battle of Culloden (Scotland vs England) that shaped Duncan's persona from here on out. Culloden determined who controlled Britain, and the answer? 

Well, spoiler alert, the Scottish Jacobites were soundly defeated by the English, and so was Duncan's zest for fighting. After this he basically traveled the world for a while and saw war as a pointless waste. So there's a lot to mine out of this chapter.

Dungeons and Dragons - Art & Arcana

 

Every once in a while I like to take a quick look at some sort of artbook. This time, I got ahold of this particularly nice visual history of D&D. It's a bit of a trip down memory lane.

Final Fight 3 (Super NES, 1995)

 

This is usually agreed upon as the best game in the series. After replaying it I'll go ahead and agree with that. It's also the last one, with the best visuals and best music. Join me as I beat up Andore the Giant for the last time.

Final Fight 2 (Super NES, 1993)

Going to the SNES version for this one. This is a game I rented a TON as a kid, more than the first one. I considered this by far the superior one. Though at this point in time I definitely like the first more and am not sure what I saw in the second. Let's do it.

Mighty Final Fight (NES, 1993)

 This great little game is a spinoff of the Final Fight series, made exclusively for the NES well past the system's prime. It features chibi versions of the characters, a relatively lighthearted plot, and easier gameplay. I expected it to be a bit of a joke game and it ended up being a fun time. Only from Capcom!

Repost to join the others.

Final Fight (Arcade, 1989)

This has to be the best-looking game from the 1980's that I've played.

Stranger of Paradise, DLC 3 - Different Future

 

The third and final DLC takes us to the northeast corner of the map, to Lufenia. It...doesn't look like it did in the original Final Fantasy. I guess that was Lufenia after JACK GARLAND was done with it.

Stranger of Paradise, DLC 2 - Wanderer of the Rift

 

The Lufenians (or really just the one) are starting to realize the threat posed to their world-dominance by Garland, so they're using their powers to summon a fearsome combatant from the Rift to deal with him. The fearsome guy in question? Gilgamesh. That's right, it's time to KILL GILGAMESH.

Stranger of Paradise, DLC 1 - Trials of the Dragon King

 

The FF1 Remake But Not? resumes with some DLC. Yeah, the main game ends on a bit of a cliffhanger with the Light Warriors showing up to battle Garland (now taking his place in the Chaos Shrine). So it was pretty cool to find out there are DLCs for it now. Unfortunately, none of the 3 (yes, three) DLCs are as good as the main game, and they can be tedious. Let's get going.

Dragonball Super Movie 1: Broly (2019)

It's Sunday at 6 AM, you know what that means.

I covered all 15 DBZ movies, why not also the Super movies that follow them? Here's the first one, which could also kinda be called DBZ Movie 16 if you really wanted to. Like the previous two movies it totally blows away the first thirteen movies. And this one...is the best out of the entire lot. Hands down. Easily the best Dragonball series movie by a mile.

Interestingly enough, the last two DBZ movies (14 and 15) were basically Super movies as well, but still used the Z moniker at the time. This one, obviously, has the return of Broly. Except it isn't a return, because it completely ignores the other Broly movies and tells the story from scratch. Only this time it's canon, unlike the odd "parallel universe" first 13 DBZ movies. A lot of people probably thought this was a sequel, but nope, it's a replacement entirely. It's most similar to DBZ Movie 8, but it takes place during the time of Dragonball Super (aka much later than the original Broly story).

Quick story time: The first DBZ episode I ever watched was the one where Piccolo is killed by Nappa, then Gokou arrives and saves everyone. I had no idea what was going on but it was really the perfect first episode for summing up how most of the show is. It was interesting and I wanted to see more. I missed the episode after that (it was on at 6 AM on Sundays so that didn't help), then tuned in again for the episode where Gokou and Vegeta had their massive beam tug-of-war. That was one of the best episodes of that entire saga and was all it took for me to officially be hooked on the show. Made sure to miss as few episodes as possible after that, 6 AM be darned.

Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout (Playstation, 1997)

 

As a kid I was super into this game. It was the first DBZ related game we got in the US that I know of, and it was pretty awesome just to be able to finally play as some of these characters in a game. Does it hold up after all these years?

.....no. But it was something. Also gonna have a lot of notes about what I thought of this back in 1998 or so when I played it, with limited DBZ exposure at the time. Suffice to say a lot of it was interesting!

Highlander 4x17 - The Immortal Cimoli

 

Hold on, two Highlander posts in a row? What is this sorcery? In any case, it's another Amanda episode, as we learn about her history as a circus clown. I mean trapeze artist. If she were a clown, we'd already be dead.

Highlander 4x16 - Methuselah's Gift

Man, worst thumbnail ever. I better cover the next episode soon just to get this one off of the "featured post"

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 14 - Bardock: Alone Against Fate Pt 2

 

Today, I wrap up DLC #4 with a Freeza Space Battle~! which I'm pretty sure isn't canon...