Moot_Geeza wrote:

Finished Felix the Cat. Based on quality this felt like it should be quite well known. It's a platformer with basic shooter stages thrown in, and a constant shmup style three tier power up/power down system from pick-ups. It looks/sounds good, and sprite flick is minimal. I particularly liked the paddleboat stages, as jumping into the water makes you submerge, and you can pop out at a higher velocity if you time the button push. The whole game felt suited to speed runs, but these sections especially. It seems on par with Chip n Dale and other well regarded platformers to me. Very good. Not too short either, but a bit on the easy side. 87%.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Shadow of the Ninja done.  I'm constantly impressed with the NES.  I never had one as a kid, as I was firmly on the Master System side of the fence, and I didn't realise until recently quite how many quality lesser-known games there were for it.  Perhaps this was wildly popular, and I just read the wrong sources online.  There aren't too many under the radar Master System gems, certainly not in comparison, and (mostly) everything about this game seems too good for it not to be in I Love The NES lists online. The thing that surprised me about it the most, other than how solid everything was, is the fact that it can be played by two players simultaneously.  Not to bang on about the Master System, but that very rarely happened on Sega's machine.  Even the Golden Axe port was a gimped single player effort (so was the Mega CD version actually, but that's just because someone at some point in the development process was a fucking idiot). Srsly, if this game had a wall jump and a few less annoying bits where it feels like you have to take a hit if you're carrying the wrong weapon, it would be God-tier ninja platformer.  Even the music is good. 89%

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I've probably had my fill of Maoi Kun for now, may return later in the year.  I'm not sure how long it is, but it seems like the sort of game that could go up to 99 stages.  It took me quite a while to work out how to do level 7, so it's not a game that eases you in as gently as a modern puzzle platformer would.  I spent quite a lot of time on it, despite only playing to level 22, because there's a huge emphasis on trial and error/pre-planning.  As far as I can tell it doesn't feel the need to throw new mechanics at the player every ten levels or so - you can attack, push, jump and use bombs if you collect them and that's about it (although springs were introduced just as I gave up, for a higher jump).  Everything else is just level design based around these principles, and it was all very enjoyable.  It's the sort of game that would have given me a profound sense of satisfaction if I'd completed it as a kid, I assume it gets diabolically fiendish towards the end. 85% I've jabbed, hooked and clumped my way through five levels of Shatterhand so far.  It may be the pick of the bunch for me.  Will finish this week.  The boss at 3mins50secs in the following vid was nail bitingly tense, even after I worked that pattern out, because he took a surprising amount of hits. Edit: heh, I'm obviously doing something wrong because the main character is a robot in that clip, and I haven't progressed past a red gillet yet.