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

Moot_Geeza

It's just been added to the MD selection with the Switch online plus pass apparently.

Moot_Geeza

It's on the Mega Drive Classics Collection too.

Moot_Geeza

I don't want to be too harsh after only 10 minutes but this is fucking shit.

retroking1981

LOL - that's exactly how felt when I last tried it.

Moot_Geeza

I'm up to stage 13 now (on the so-called 'super easy mode', with rewinds), and it's not shit shit. Being Treasure there are some nifty mechanics in play (strong emphasis on the dash, a block move that turns projectiles into health/force), but it's just so cumbersome. The fish boss I just fought was the worst so far. It also feels hamstrung by the three button set up - changing weapons is a joke.

Moot_Geeza

Up to stage 18. I can see the appeal as there are some good patterns here - and it's pretty much all pattern learning - but the character is way too big and doesn't walk or jump nimbly enough to elevate it anywhere near the majority of Treasure's output over the years.

Moot_Geeza

This game's approximation of Seven Force is an affront to its legacy. They even pinched the music, should've been played on a recorder instead.

Moot_Geeza

The meteorite level. My eyes! There are a few dozen on screen at once, of varying sizes, and only some of them cause (considerable) damage, but they're all the same colour.

Moot_Geeza

Done. Bloody hell.

Plenty to like but almost as much to hate. Worth playing just so I can finally have an opinion on it, but I'm not sure exactly what that is right now.

hunk

Alien soldier is a great game but you really do need a decent controller to play it.
A mushy 360 pad just isn't going to cut it. It also takes time to learn the controls; the 3 button setup is complicated but you get used to it after a while. There's almost a sf2 learning curve to mastering the moveset. Still, an extra 6 button setup would have aleviated a lot of the pain and could've made the game a lot more accessible.

Imo a fantastic run and gun; the gameplay loop goes a lot deeper than most of its contemporaries. If you're willing to put in the time and effort that is.

hunk

Also, that dash. Clearly an early example of what would become the infamous Souls 'roll'.

Escape

Moot_Geeza

hunk wrote:

Also, that dash. Clearly an early example of what would become the infamous Souls 'roll'.

The dash is strong. Admittedly I didn't learn enough about it while playing with save states. I never worked out how to recharge the weapons for a start, and just assumed they gradually top up when you're using something else. There's a fire dash too that obviously doesn't trigger randomly, but felt like it did. I can't stick the boot in and claim it's as bad as I thought it was, as it gradually became apparent that it's actually quite good, but boy is it irritating in places, and I'm not convinced a better pad would do the trick for all but the most patient and uber leet. I don't even want to know what the default difficulty plays like.

hunk

Save states sadly don't do the game justice as like you said, the game is all about learning patterns. Fallen enemies drop orbs that replenish shield and ammo. Once the shield overcharges, you get an offensive superdash that can do mega damage.

Learning to pick up orbs while dashing becomes essential, if you don't you'll just run out of ammo and shields eventually. There are also power ups hidden around the levels to top up your life/shield bars.

Moot_Geeza

Alien Soldier

I honestly thought this was abysmal based on the first stage (which I must have played a dozen times over the years). It gets better as you go along - fish boss and floating stages notwithstanding - thanks to the controls gradually making sense. It throws you in at a deeper end than any other run & gun I can think of (even Cuphead gives you a gimme or two to warm up). I can't give it my personal seal of approval, because I'd be lying if I let Hunk reshape my thoughts, but it's obvious that there is a great game in here for those a) able to and b) willing to put the yards in.

I will say it's infinitely better than I initially gave it credit for. Thanks to the size of the character and bosses there's an almost Punch-Out level of pattern recognition to the proceedings, and having watched a couple of Youtube runs this morning I'll admit it's got chops, even if I haven't. I struggled to get to grips with it and despised certain sections, but I've warmed to it for sure, especially after sleeping on it. It looks wonderful in places of course, with plenty of technical jiggery pokery going on, especially in the final third. The music was a bit limp to my ears though.

79%

Maybe I should revisit Comix Zone, another perennial 'level one, nope' game.

davyK

retroking1981 wrote:

Windjammers (Neo Geo) Hard one to rate this. One the surface its just Pong on steroids. Simple to pick up and I imagine has enough about it to be a nigh on perfect game in multiplayer for people of equal ability. I can only judge it on what I played though, and that was an entertaining but ultimately forgettable playthrough of the single player campaign. I know deep down it's undoubtedly a great game but outside of a slim possibility of playing it with moot I doubt I'll ever find out.

Windjammers is all about the 2P versus.

Moot_Geeza

davyK wrote:

Cameltry and its SNES port On The Ball in PAL. 2D gravity marble in maze game with weird soundtrack and odd backgrounds. You rotate the maze and let gravity do its work to move a marble to a goal against a timer. The SNES port is a bit of a marvel as it is damn close to the arcade game. It's a perfect match with the console's Mode 7. Played with a spinner control in the arcade but a dpad is just fine as a stand in. The SNES port works with the mouse which I haven't actually tried yet. Arcade version is on PAL Taito Legends 2 and I still have the SNES cart. Even the arcade game isn't that hard until you get to the final sections which is where the arcade game would have eaten coins aplenty. It gets really frustrating because by then there are conveyor belt sections that are a nightmare to control. Still a fun game I'd like to see updated. The Taito Legends version saves best times for each level which always floats my boat. The SNES version has a pile more levels for home play.

Forgot about this one, will give it a bash this week.

davyK

Keen to hear your thoughts....it's a real sleeper game. I always felt it deserved more attention, especially the home SNES port as there is more content than in the arcade game. Pity it has no cart backup for best times as it would really add to the replay but of course the Taito Legends has that.

retroking1981

Will get on this.

retroking1981

Done the first 20 or so levels of this, good stuff.

hylian_elf

Came in here just to say that one day, I will play Lunar the Silver Star. Used to ogle at pictures of it back in the 90s in American game mags. EGM? Or some other mag.

Moot_Geeza

Magic Knight Rayearth was the one I used to ogle for days in the American mags. It got plenty of coverage in Diehard Gamefan despite not getting translated for the yanks for yonks. A year or two later I was in a froth over Grandia instead. I'll never play either as the genre bores me to tears these days but I was desperate to play them at the time.

hylian_elf

Diehard Gamefan! That’s the one! Also had tonnes on Secret of Mana that I used to just read over and over and dream about playing.

Moot_Geeza

Still got them in the loft. They were ridiculously enthusiastic about almost everything, loved it. The multiple scores format for reviews was fun. 100% popped up for Landstalker and Yoshi's Island iirc, well played. Gamer's Republic was short-lived but decent too.

davyK

hylian_elf wrote:

Diehard Gamefan! That’s the one! Also had tonnes on Secret of Mana that I used to just read over and over and dream about playing.

Secret of Mana is one of the few trade-in regrets. Picked it up pre-owned but in sparkling condition with all the bits. Played for an hour or so and got annoyed with it. Hated the combat. Traded it in. It was never a game I was going to play but dear me I could have got a pretty penny for it now.

Moot_Geeza

Played the training stages of this, it's really good. If only Sonic had been given an extra fortnight of development time, maybe Yuji Naka could've fixed the terrible bonus stages.

davyK

I picked On The Ball up cheap brand new way back in the day. It was the only copy in the shop. It had got a brief , dismissive review in Super Play but I liked the sound of it.

When I played it I loved it.

It's slightly confusing the way the passwords work - they unlock new "planes" which are a whole new batch of 3 or 4 courses. I think there are 3 (or maybe 4?) planes. There's about 100 levels all in....I never beat the final level due to the lives system the cart has.

I really liked the odd backgrounds and soundtrack.

The password system can also unlock different balls but I think it's only a sprite swap - you can use Bub or Bob as a ball!

Technically the game is a perfect match for SNES with its mode 7 capability. In the day it would probably have been considered a bit light on content but it's highly replayable in my opinion (if only they had the balls to release it with battery backup). Called Cameltry in the arcade and NTSC-SNES for some odd reason.

Moot_Geeza

I don't think I'd heard of it until you mentioned it.

davyK

There's a jump/jerk move. And if you hold the button down you go faster. The jump comes in handy later on. I think it's a cracker of a game.

retroking1981

Yeah, I'm halfway through the second plane.

The way the levels are presented is confusing.

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