retroking1981 wrote:

Big sprites were a bit of a selling point back in the day, so I can kinda see why they did it. It just makes the playing area feel really cramped like a Master System game ported to the Game Gear.

I can remember Jeff Minter complaining about having to build his game with large sprites for Jaguar. He said it made Defender 2000 for Jaguar unplayable. I'm surprised he didn't squeeze a tiny ship mode into the game.

Thread title change/reminder to self.

Any ideas if the NES version is considered decent?

https://youtu.be/nHIcoBgbt6w

Rygar (NES)

So I played about 45mins of the NES game, and I'm sad to say it didn't click with me.

I actually feel kinda bad for not liking it, as everything about it is good. It also deserves quite a bit of credit for pushing things forward from the simple action and platform games of the time.

It implements a Metroidvania style of unlocking areas with weapons/items gained on your travels and is quite an open ended game for 1987.

Problem is its been superseded so much since, even by later NES games. Sure you could say the same of the NES Metroid and Zelda games, but at least they have the appeal of the IP to fall back on.

It deserves its place amongst its contemporaries in best of lists, but its not one for me unfortunately.

2/5

My Reviews

The NES port is a totally different game to be honest. It's admirable in that respect. It would have too easy to just do a straight port and churn out a left to right memory test which the original is. The arcade game is a minor classic in my view which is great for score chasing.

Played through the Master System version last night, which seems to be a straightforward port of the arcade game.  It's very 1986, which can make a modern first time play pretty hard to judge even, for the likes of us.  I can say with certainty that I would've enjoyed it to an extent, but I reckon I would have been disappointed if I'd (been) bought it in 1990 (when I got my MS).  It was only released in Japan, so that's a moot point anyway, but it's got Ghost House levels of 'borrow me' written all over it.  It's a platformer with a short range attack - the sort where you edge from left to right while dealing with enemies approaching from either side.  You can jump on baddies to kill them, which makes it a much better game but also feels like an afterthought in terms of design, almost as if the game was nearly finished before someone decided it needed an extra attack.  It's surprisingly handy once you get used to it though, and I expect some dedicated crazies have managed to speedrun this pretty efficiently.   There are plenty of worse games from the era, and tbf there probably aren't a vast number of better ones.  See?  It's hard to judge for some reason, as I'm not convinced it's fair to call it average.  Music is awful but the graphics aren't bad considering its age.  Reads like less than a [6], so we'll go with an at-the-time 74%.

Edit: Wiki etc says 1988 for the port, but I'm sure the title screen said 1986.

So just discovered the arcade version of this is available on Switch and PS4 under the Arcade Archives label.

The VC had a quite small but well chosen set of arcade ROMS.

I bought G&G, Star Force, Shinobi and 1942  on VC - and they are really nice presentations. No save states or anything like that - which was before console ports and minis did that sort of thing - but nice. I use my Tatsunoko stick with them and it all adds to the experience.

I say no save states but they all featured one on the VC. If you press the home button and leave the game it does save the state as is. But no multi-states are featured.

There's an absolute ton more arcade releases on Switch/PS4 compared to the Arcade VC on Wii though, there's a complete list on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_Archives?wprov=sfla1

The store fronts for both are quite poor when it comes to searching so Wikipedia is very useful for checking.

Sega Rally (Saturn)

Had an urge to play this for a few weeks now. Didn't take long for the muscle memory to kick in and blast through.

Hard to rate these days. As an early 32-Bit game its still one of the best imo. It controls so well and is just so satisfying and fun to play.

The lack of content is hard to ignore though. Even by the end of its generation it was unacceptable, and there are demos these days that have more playtime.

Gonna let nostalgia win out though. The fact I would pay for a Sega Ages remake/re-release should count for something.

4/5

That one's on Switch too

I'll be jabbed up from Saturday, fancy a return of the couch co-op next week @retroking1981?

13. Mega Man 2 (NES)

Only the fourth Mega Man game I've completed so far. This one tends to top a lot of best of lists, and I'm glad to say it lives up to the hype.

The graphics are pretty much as good as they get for the NES, and it has some of the best 8-Bit chip tunes. A lot of people say SMB3 and Kirbys Adventure are the best lookers on the system, but I always thought Capcom games looked the best. Thankfully the gameplay us just as good as it looks and sounds, very responsive and a joy to play.

It's definitely easier than the first game, which is agood thing, and the inclusion of a password system is very welcome. Thats not to say its easy though, far from it. Once you defeat the eight robot masters you have to complete Dr. Wily's fortress which consists of an additional six levels that have to be completed in one sitting, no passwords are given after that point.

I think this is a bit harsh as they're by far the hardest levels in the game. Ninja Garden on the NES is often criticised for doing this and it's the main criticism I have here. I used save states between each of the six and without them I think this would have easily taken a couple more hours.

Top 8-Bit gaming, onto Mega Man Legends.

5/5

My Reviews

The warp whistle locations do seem to be very contrived.  But it's a classic for sure. I keep flipping between it and SMW too.

"You guys play Great Basketball, I'm just gonna play Mario 3 for a bit"