Retro Club - 8 & 16-bit puzzlers - The Bear and Badger

Moot_Geeza

Worst case someone ends up replaying something they spent some time on 20yrs ago - wouldn't be a disaster.

Hodgepodge

I'm easy for genre, I was a Sega boy growing up so there's a lot of SNES / NES shaped holes in my back catalogue....

Moot_Geeza

Full business - all previous games:

Week one (03/09): Ristar (Megadrive)
Week two (10/09): Sunset Riders (Arcade, SNES, Megadrive)
Week (fortnight) three (17/09): James pond 2: Robocod (various)
Week four (01/10): Castlevania: Bloodlines (Megadrive).
Week five (08/10): Duck Tales (NES)
Week six (15/10): Strider (Arcade, Megadrive)
Week seven (22/10): Plok (SNES)
Week eight (29/10): *Play Your Illusion* (take your pick from Sega's excellent Illusion series)
Week nine (05/11): Snake, Rattle 'N Roll (NES)
Week ten (12/11): Flashback (Amiga, Megadrive, SNES)
Week eleven (19/11): Gynoug (Megadrive)
Week twelve (26/11): Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose (SNES)
Week thirteen (03/12): Super Aleste (SNES)
Week fourteen (10/12): Back to the Future III (Megadrive)
Week fifteen (17/12): Sub-Terrania (Megadrive)
Week sixteen (24/12): Christmas break
Week seventeen (31/12): UN Squadron (SNES)
Week eighteen (14/01): Zero Tolerance (Megadrive)
Week nineteen (21/01): Out To Lunch (SNES, Amiga)
Week twenty (28/01): Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine, Virtual Console)
Week twenty one (04/02): Rocket Knight Adventures (Megadrive)
Week twenty two (11/02): Star Parodier (PC Engine/Virtual Console)
Week twenty three (18/02): Legendary Axe (PC Engine/Virtual Console)
Fortnight twenty four (04/03): Atari 2600 week
Fortnight twenty five (18/03): Cybernator (SNES)
Fortnight twenty six (01/04): Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3 LOCK-ON! (Megadrive)
Twenty seven (15/04): Yoshi's Island (SNES, GBA, Downloads)
Twenty eight (29/04, fortnight): Midnight Resistance (arcade, Megadrive, Amiga etc)
(13/05, fortnight): Super Metroid (SNES, VC, eshop)
(27/05, week): Rub Your Own Rhubarb: free choice Retro Batman week
(03/06, week): Battletoads (NES)
(10/06, week): Budget Master System Week - Action Fighter, Teddy Boy and The Ninja
(17/06, week): Toki (various)
(01/07, fortnight): Castlevania IV (SNES)
(15/07. fortnight): Free choice Parodius
(29/07, week): Scrolling Beat 'em up free choice
(05/08, fortnight): El Viento (Megadrive)
(19/08, fortnight): Yoshi's Story (N64)
(02/09, week): Rollergames (NES)
(09/09, fortnight): Actraiser (SNES, VC)
(23/09, fortnight): Grand Theft Auto (PS, PC)
(07/10, week): New Zealand story (various)
(14/10, week): Bitmap Bros free choice (21/10, week)
Vectorman (MD, compilations)
Fantasy Zone Free Choice - Various (03/03)
Super Punch-Out! - SNES (10/03)
Jurassic Park Free Choice - Various (24/03)
Atari 2600 High Score Week Returns (31/03)
The Firemen - SNES (07/04)
Powerdrive - Various (21/04)
Obscure NES Month, 5 games (05/05)
Wildcard Week (02/06)
Cool Spot - Various (09/06)

We've done bits and pieces since, including Dragon's/Mrs.Moot's Fury, but this was back when we were on a game every couple of weeks or so.

Eric

Yep, there is loads of Nintendo stuff I haven't played or didn't progress very far so I should be pretty easy. I'm also happy to persevere with genres that I wouldn't usually touch (RPG's I'm looking at you). Who knows it may open my eyes up!

I'll pull a list of 3 together Moot...

retroking1981

Bloody hell The Firemen was only 5 games ago? Didn't we play that in like... 2014?

davyK

Chances are if I'm appointed a Sega console game I won't have played it. Have a nice but humble MD collection.

davyK

Do we PM our selected games or post here?

JonB

Hodgepodge wrote:

I'm easy for genre, I was a Sega boy growing up so there's a lot of SNES / NES shaped holes in my back catalogue....

Oh right, I'm glad I got you then.

Moot_Geeza

retroking1981 wrote:

Bloody hell The Firemen was only 5 games ago? Didn't we play that in like... 2014?

There were probably quite a few games after, but I started to get fed up trawling through the pages.

Moot_Geeza

So I've been thinking of a few, although without emulation the first choice could be tricky: Ninja Gaiden on Master System. Was Sega developed and smashes the competent Shinobi port to bits imo. I reckon this is the best NG title pre OG Xbox. I got this quite late and it held my attention alongside Megadrive games from '92/'93 (got the MD on Sonic 2sday, sold the MS for games money in early '93). The problem would be sourcing the cart, it ain't cheap.

The second choice is Medal of Honor: Infiltrator on the GBA. Tough as nails (you'd better play this on the Retron with save states tbh, otherwise two hours won't be enough to get far), but a shining example of 'overlooked gem'. I have the cart, could post it from work nae probs.

Failing that, Red Zone on Megadrive is also at hand in the moot house. I randomly effuse about the game from time to time, but it wasn't much of a hit with mates at a recent retro day. For me it's Desert Strike + Chaos Engine = a better game than both (called Red Zone, keep up).

Eric

They all look good to me Moot. Are they in that order? If so I'll try and emulate Ninja Gaiden on my laptop tonight and let you know how I get on (just looked at eBay prices!!)

Do you know any good ones to use Moot?

If not Medal of Honour looks good.

Moot_Geeza

I've not really got a preference on the top two, so the choice is yours. Will look into the emulation thing.

Eric

So my games for Moot to pick from:

Skool Daze C64

A massive favourite of mine and where I got my avatar pic from. I think it still stands up today and am amazed how they managed to programme a working school into a C64 tape. You should be able to complete it in two hours but you may need a guide as the instructions on the back of the tape were suitably vague! You will get annoyed about the noise you get for lines and when your class has too many pupils for seats and you keep getting pushed out of your chair. But writing stuff on the blackboard is still fun!

CT Special Forces 2 GBA

A beautiful looking game and the last game I bought on my GBA. I enjoyed the first one which was pretty much a Metal Slug clone (albeit much easier) with overhead helicopter sections and silent scope type sniper bits and this pretty much improves on it on every level adding side scrolling helicopter (choplifter style) and tank sections and a new roll feature which you can abuse (but maybe I should not have mentioned that!) There is a third one in the series that was released but not sure how it was received.

Haunting MEGADRIVE

Now this may have dated badly but as a 'youf' I loved this game. Made by EA back when they made interesting games you play Polterguy and have to scare an Italian family out of their house by possessing furniture,toy planes rugs etc. It had a a two player mode which only really culminated in a small portion of the game when you had to catch dripping slime in a dungeon, it then reverted to a turn based system which was a bit shit. Innovative at the time though, I would be interested to see how this has aged!

Hopefully you have not played all of them Moot, if you have I have back ups!

Moot_Geeza

School Daze I can emulate, plus I've never played it so I'll go with that. CT Special Forces looks more than decent and I'm a bit gutted I don't have it in my GBA collection. I know Haunting quite well, owned it briefly. The purgatory (?) sections to get back to the house are a bit shit, but the game was hugely original and very entertaining.

davyK wrote:

Do we PM our selected games or post here?

Missed this, sorry. Post here I think.

Eric

Excellent I'll have a dig around for an emulator at lunch.

davyK

Three for retroking then:

Hagane - SNES
This is Shinobi on steroids with bonkers JPN imagery (esp. in the intro) and lots of moves and enemies. Tough as old boots.

Super Dropzone - SNES
Update of the Archer Maclean reimagining of Defender. This is a wee forgotten gem. Very fast, very hard. Lots of weapons and nice line in bosses.

Sonic Spinball - MD
Took a lot of flak this one - I thought it deserved better marks from reviewers. Multi-screen pinball style affair. Sure it even got an Alton Towers ride named after it.

retroking1981

Superb, Hagane has been on my list of games to play for a while.

I've played Sonic Spinball, thought it seemed a bit unpolished tbh but the core idea was great.

Will give Super Dropzone a quick blast if I can but will definitely be playing Hagane.

Will sort yours out within the next 24hrs mate.

Moot_Geeza

Eric

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/y1nCCmR_VVEaKclW7zBrkg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9MTI4MDtoPTk2MA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2013-08-23/d580034f-4d23-440d-ace4-7d46741f8a53_ballmer-1.gif

JonB

3 choices for @Hodgepodge then. I'm keeping it fairly predictable since you said you hadn't played a lot of SNES stuff, and going for some well known classics. Try any that you fancy.

Super Probotector/Contra

Perfect example of Konami in their golden SNES years. One of the early SNES games that did amazing things with mode 7, and featured some bat shit mental level design (stages 3 and 4 are the best), and great music.

Mega Man X

Mega Man given a proper SNES treatment, with better levels and bosses. Each boss has a weakness to the weapon got by beating one of the other bosses, so it's a case of working out the order to do it in.

Cybernator

More Konami, but only published this time. Mech based scrolling shooter thing which is just really well made all round.

retroking1981

Here you go @davyK

1. Pin Bot (NES)
Pinball games are something I've never really gotten into in a deep way so its no surprise that the one that's stuck with me all these years is the one I played as a kid. Made by Rare in what I consider to be their true golden years, 8-Bit! It was actually based on a real pinball machine of the same name made by Williams and released in 1986. It would be interesting to see what you think as I know you enjoy pinball. The graphics might look a bit on the messy side these days but the music is excellent and I still find myself playing the tunes over in my mind all these years later.

2. Action Fighter (SMS)
Was a budget release for the Master System and moot tells me it wasn't received very well by the mags of the time, I really enjoyed it though. It was the first game I remember being jealous that it wasn't available on my console as a kid . Its essentially a Spy Hunter clone, but I loved the way you upgraded your vehicle.

3. Psycho Fox (SMS)
One of the more overlooked 8-Bit platformers. Most people might remember its spiritual successor Decap Attack on the Mega Drive more but this is the one I played back then.

Moot_Geeza

Luvvly games. Don't think I've played Pinbot (unless we did it on a NES day?), but Psycho Fox and Action Fighter should be quite high on any decent MS list. Pretty sure S mag reviewed the latter before they became Sega Power, but it always got a mind-bogglingly low 2/5 in the round up section at the back. Not sure what they wanted from a £12.99 title - it's a nifty Sky Hunter clone with added (and superbly done) vertical shmup sections. Psycho Fox was quite Nintendo-ish for a Sega game - MS platformers tended to be short, but this one had 7 large levels with multiple stages, changeable characters, pause menu items (might be a problem for certain emulators?) plus warp zones.

JonB

Action Fighter wasn't a budget title originally. It was £20 along with the majority of MS games.

It's also very repetitive and, well, just not particularly great. 2/5 is a little harsh though.

Moot_Geeza

I didn't know that (actually I did, but only because you told me a while ago, and I forgot). Non-budget range MS was before my time, I only moved on from LCD games in early 1990.

davyK

Pinbot was one of those games I always intended to try. I'm quite fond of that genre so will enjoy giving that a go. Never played many SMS games. I can remember a built-in Alex Kidd game that was quite good and I remember having laughs with mates playing a basic World Cup game on it. May give those a go too providing I can get the emulator working.

Hodgepodge

Ooh, when is the deadline for submissions? I have 1 game for certain, but I am carefully thinking of my other 2.....

Moot_Geeza

Saturday?

Hodgepodge

Perfect. I will have this decided by Sat!

Eric

So, I have downloaded Fusion, which is a SEGA emulator, set up my Xbox 360 Street Fighter IV fightpad with it, downloaded the SMS file of Ninja Gaiden from emuparadise and it seems as if I am off!

Download off dodgy site (coolroms don't use it guys, malware ahoy) aside it has been a doddle.

Moot_Geeza

Haven't played it probably yet (will d/l properly on C64 emu), but I've got a workable ZX Spectrum browser version of Skool Daze open at the moment. Didn't realise the character was called Eric. Haven't found the keys to move yet (or my usb pad), so I've got quite a few lines for sitting on the floor/being a kangaroo.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories