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

davyK

Eric wrote:

Are they my games davy? In that case Ill take on Super Pang in line with what Mk 64 has just said!

OK. It isn't an easy game but it is very well done. It is a bit on the simplistic side so you might want to have another game to try.

mk64

yes it gets repetitive very quickly

JonB

@Moot_Geeza I forget, have you got access to PC Engine emulation, and did we play any of its games before in this thread?

davyK

@Eric - if you want a PS1 game to top up Super Pang then:

Power Diggerz Silly arcade action but excellent control scheme using all PS1 controller buttons while still managing to feel natural.

Viewpoint very early port of the NeoGeo classic.

Moot_Geeza

I don't I'm afraid, when I've played games in here before I've bought them on the Wii VC. I could play on a PC emulator I suppose, if someone could suggest a good one/decent place to find the ROM. I've got a USB SNES pad atm.

hunk

http://www.emuparadise.mobi/PC_Engine_CD_-_Turbo_Duo_-_TurboGrafx_CD_Emulators/Windows/18

Ootake was the pc emu I ran a few years back. Ran everything you threw at it including cd stuff. Amazing emulator.

Moot_Geeza

Nice one. Shinobi on the train, possible PC Engine game at home.

Dark Soldier

If anyone wants any ROMs or ISOs and can't get hold of them lemme know via PM, happy to help on that front.

JonB

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Nice one. Shinobi on the train, possible PC Engine game at home.

If it's a hassle then I won't bother. Just thought I'd ask because you've probably played just about everything else. I can still suggest a few SNES/MD games though.

I'll do 2 lists and you can choose.

Moot_Geeza

It's more faff than hassle. I rarely sit upstairs on the PC is all.

Eric

Davys games:

Asterix SEGA MS
One of my most vivid childhood memories was playing this 2 player coop with my neighbour. Beautiful game with simple platforming mechanics. Each level is played out slightly differently depending on your choice of Asterix or Obelix. Its a doddle and should be an easy completion but it's a charming little game.

Daraku Tenshi: The Fallen Angels Mame:
Probably still one of the most beautiful looking beat em ups ever made, really special and a great fightman to boot. I have been playing this lots recently and wonder if any one on here has played it. If you dont decide to play this one, check out the YouTube.

https://youtu.be/peIvYnUb0tA

International Track and Field DC
I suggested this as Moots but he didn't take me up on it. This was a university favourite, some really good events, Ill post you the game if you dont have it along with the memory card to see if you can beat some records!

Eric

Moot there are a load of PC engine games on happy chick, download it to your Jxd and off you go:
Link: http://www.happychick.hk/en.html

regmcfly

Asterix! We had that when I was like four years old!

Moot_Geeza

Cheers Eric. Asterix is top three MS for me, good choice.

Jon, will post some suggestions tomorrow.

JonB

Here's some for you:

PC Engine

Bloody Wolf: Mercs-style military shooter. Looks a bit ropey at first, but there's a bit more to it than first appears and a good amount of variety in the levels.

Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu: Platform kick 'em up. Go right, jump about and kick things with a big headed Jackie Chan sprite. There's a also a NES version, but this one looks much better,

Legendary Axe: Rastan-style axe 'em up. Go right, jump about and hit things with an axe. A Legendary axe. Nice graphics and level design.

Not PC Engine

Mr. Nutz (SNES/MD): Didn't sell this to you last time, so thought I'd have one more go. Cartoon platformer which compensates for lack of originality with nice visuals, tight level design and tons of secrets.

Soulblazer (SNES): If you've got a bit more time (10-12 hours). The first of Enix's action RPG things on SNES (followed by Illusion of Time and Terranigma). It's good simple fun as you venture into dungeons and kill monsters to rescue various characters. Also one of my favourite SNES soundtracks.

Kung Fu Kid (MS): Go right, jump about and kick things. Simple stuff, with nice clean graphics and some decent bosses.

Moot_Geeza

If I can get Bloody Wolf running on my JXD I'll play that I reckon. Played the first couple of level's at RetroK's a few weeks ago and it was a popular one.

Kung Fu Kid is decent, preferred it to My Hero (I owned the latter). Jackie Chan looks good too.

Moot_Geeza

Got a bit of a GBA thing going on at the mo:

Ninja Cop/Ninja Five-O - GBA

Always in lists of underrated GBA games, so much so that it's quite well known I'd imagine. I'd always liked it, but it wasn't until a few months ago that it really clicked with me and I realised that it's one hell of a ninja 'em up. As you'd expect, this is tough.

The Adventures of Batman & Robin - Megadrive

In all honesty, this is an atrocious game without modern tools. When the magazines were desperately trying to give it scores in the high 80s because it looked superb, and used lines such as 'for those not up to the task, it's the perfect reason to buy a Game Genie', even as a 13yr old you knew something was up. It's horribly unfair and as a result, not much fun, despite the Treasure level visuals. YOU WILL NEED SAVE STATES. However, when the death penalty is removed, and you spam your way through it, it's a joy. Not sure I've sold this one very well, but I had an absolute blast with it on my old Caanoo handheld. When not being able to dodge all the bullets isn't a real issue it plays well too. Plus it sounds incredible. /waffle.

Pinball of the Dead - GBA

Closest thing I can think of to Dragon's Fury. Put the time in and I think you'd enjoy this one.

Three more coming, don't choose yet...

Moot_Geeza

The Legendary Starfy - DS

I didn't get on with the DS, to the point where I regretted buying it as it had no irrefutable 'must have' games, for me, at the time, imho etc. I bought and enjoyed this one though (American release iirc). A quirky and quite easy platformer with plenty of character. I'm a Segaboy, but this makes better use of its slightly shit star character than Ristar.

Ecco II: The Tides of Time

Massive Ecco fan over here, I even adored the Dreamcast version. This is probably the series highlight, as it's more or less all the good bits from the first game - most of the fiddly/crap/overly difficult bits + the tricky sky sections from the vid below. I've been itching to play this again properly for a while. The tides of time have been unkind to the pseudo 3D sections, but most of the rest of it is still very good.

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night - GBA

By this point I'd assumed the series had become a bit of a turd, so probably scoffed at the box for this when I had my OG GBA. Perhaps that was true of the PS1/PS2 games, but this was fantastic when I picked it up a few years ago. I went through a hugely rewarding GBA collecting phase in 2010ish, and discovered this after deep mining random forums in search of underrated gems. Think Metroid Super-lite with a nice combat/combo system. It's also short enough for this thread. Don't let the video quality in the following trailer fool you, it's quite a looker too.

JonB

Right. I'll look into GBA emulation (any recommendations?) and try and give Ninja Cop a go.

I've heard mention of it before, and even remember seeing it in the shops here in Cyprus years ago, but never got round to buying it.

Moot_Geeza

GG Shinobi completed. Took a lot longer than expected (dat final stage). I've played it briefly a couple of times, probably got through all of the selectable levels at one point or another, but this was the first time I've seen the final level in all its frustrating glory. I wonder how many kids fought with the bastardness of the level and dying batteries simultaneously. I like the fact that 1-ups can be recollected, making an insanely tough level simply very tough for non SSS (save state spammers, lel). I should probably hang my head a bit given that I was, exclusively, a Sega gamer up to 1997 or so (at least in my own house), yet I've never properly played this one. In my defence the GBA was my first handheld. I wasn't even aware of the differing ninja abilities, which works perfectly - they've even got their own set of magic attacks, some of which are needed to finish the game. Thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish, great tunes, tidy visuals and a well paced difficulty curve. A well earned 90% from me, and it's left me wanting a Castlevania Rebirth style downloadable Shinobi update more than ever.

I enjoyed the Master System version of Shinobi as a kid, but some of the levels are a bit horrible these days - the medusa boss and some of the later stages where spinning ninjas bounce diagonally around the screen spring to mind. It had to be finished on one life iirc, otherwise you'd lose the gun/chain/health boosts. Then I got Revenge of Shinobi for my bday in 1992 (from a new classmate! Getting moved from a rough school to a posh school was great!). Revenge is the series highlight for me, but there's a case for III being a better game, and this one makes such a fantastic stab at doing something different I could see why someone might consider it the best in the series. Anyone played the sequel?

Moot_Geeza

The Saturn game intrigues me too. I can't stand the graphics these days (hate the pre-rendered/digitised sprites style), but I wonder if it's a good example of a decent game being unfairly reviewed during the ZOMG POLYGONZ era due to being 2D.

hunk

Haha, as a kid I finished gg shinobi countless a time. I knew the levels like the back of my hand.
Batteries on the gg wee horrible, you really needed the ac adapter to get the most out of it.

I revisited gg shinobi a while back on emulator and hardly got past the bosses. Freakishly hard by todays standard. The ninja power rangers setup was a novel way to expand your ninja movelist. I also loved the ninjitsu animation every time you used ninja magic. Levels weren't that big but they were quite hard. You had to memorise everything since there was no save feature back in the days.

Greay handheld game and an 8bit classic in it's own right. Need to revisit the sequel someday.

hunk

Never played the 16 bit shinobi games so can't comment on those.

JonB

GBA emulation is go.

Downloaded Ninja Cop and finished the first mission. Good stuff so far - very much like an expansion on the original Shinobi style.

Eric

Sorry for the lateness of my reviews but intense week of work and other shenanigans so:

Moot's Cross Format Retro Week 7: Aladdin

Aladdin: Megadrive
Now I played this extensively at my friends house growing up as it was a pack in with his MD2 so I was fairly familiar with it, however having never sat down through to completion I was eager to beat this one especially as I heard it was short...

Firstly this is a gorgeous game and a really tight one too with nice sword mechanics, apple tossing, nice weighty platforming and superb music from the film. Most of the levels are left to right platforming with the exception of the magic carpet ride which is left to right flying with some minor bosses and a bonus level at the end of each level if you manage to collect a monkey emblem. Now once you get into your flow this game is a sinch, the bosses are a doddle, there are extra lives all over the show and its really really short. It's only the last boss (Jafar) that poses any real problem and once you actually work out his pattern (which admittedly took me a few lives) is easily defeated.

Aladdin: SNES
So the MD version of Aladdin was produced by Virgin, the SNES version by Capcom. I had not played the SNES version before and was surprised by the differences. The Aladdin sprite himself is much smaller, less defined and slightly blurry on the SNES version, however the animation is slightly better (if choppier) and the game seems to suffer slow down. Musically there are less songs from the film and there seems to be some weird circus theme tune running throughout! The games mechanics are similar except Aladdin no longer has a sword and jumps on peoples heads whilst using apples to daze them. This version seems to follow the plot of the film a lot better (the MD version jumps around a bit and fails to tell the story) has the better Magic Carpet section (the MD version has Genie direct you up or down which is too easy), is tougher (still easy) and has the better final boss battle however something is missing...

It just isn't as fun to play, its lacking a bit of the character and variety in the levels that the MD version has in spades.
Overall SNES: 68%

Spoiler:

Moot_Geeza

regmcfly

SNES one has whole new world level though

Moot_Geeza

A hot off the press simpleton's take.

Aside from the glaringly obvious (preferring the SNES game!), you can tell he's not the full ticket as he compares the MD version to Prince of Persia and describes the rug ride as 'nearly as frustrating and life-sapping as the infamous Battletoads in Battlemaniacs' bike level'. I'm calling numpty; the rug ride only takes two or three goes to get down. Maybe the question mark repeatedly confused him? Perhaps he was trying to jump on the heads of the boulders?

Eric

Yep thats utter shit. If you can put up with the fact that these two are both obviously twats, they make a balanced assessment:

retroking1981

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

A hot off the press simpleton's take. Aside from the glaringly obvious (preferring the SNES game!), you can tell he's not the full ticket as he compares the MD version to Prince of Persia and describes the rug ride as 'nearly as frustrating and life-sapping as the infamous Battletoads in Battlemaniacs' bike level'. I'm calling numpty; the rug ride only takes two or three goes to get down. Maybe the question mark repeatedly confused him? Perhaps he was trying to jump on the heads of the boulders?

Oh how I've been waiting patiently for this moment...

I always preferred the opinion of one @Moot_Geeza on this subject. He apparently grew up a Sega fanboy but discovered the error of his ways when disposable income came his way and played the likes of Final Fantasy VII and Zelda Ocarina of Time. After these eye opening games he realised the grass was greener on the other side and over the years he discovered past gems such as Yoshi's Island on the GBA and realised that other 16Bit console he pretended didn't exist might have been worth playing all along.

I found this to be most telling in his retro reviews of one of the most compared games of that era, the 16Bit Aladdins. Here are @Moot_Geeza's reviews of said games from his Retro Game Thread on the excellent thebearandthebadger.co.uk forum taken from May 2013 pages 30 and 31 respectively.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

That's Aladdin on the Megadrive completed then. Didn't start it until 9.50ish either, and save states were redundant as I racked up so many lives. An incredible game in many ways - perhaps the most polished videogame I've ever played - but 35 minutes of gameplay is a fucking pisstake. I remember getting this for £44.99 when it came out, and voluntarily pressing reset whilst fighting Jafar as I didn't want to complete it on my first go. So I finished it on my second go. I love it, it has so many nice touches (from the mouse ear extra life to to the way knives split your apples) and while it lasts I can't fault it, but it's painfully easy up until the final level and pretty short. Those graphics and tunes though, wow. 85%

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Just finished the SNES Aladdin, which I've never played before. I thought this comparison would be a breeze, because the Megadrive version, although short, is a pretty magnificent game in many ways, I loved it as a kid, and I always thought the SNES version looked merely 'decent' (in a snooty, mine's better kind of way). Now that I've played them both, there's really no contest when it comes to deciding the superior game, chiefly because the SNES version is three times longer. The graphics (especially the unparalleled animation), sound effects, cut scenes and renditions of the classic tunes are all superior on the Megadrive, but the SNES version is no slouch in these departments either - it's an attractive game. The gameplay (although markedly different) is equally good in both, but by the time you've reached Jafar's palace on the Sega version you're barely out of Agrabah in Capcom's effort, which just isn't on when you consider 16-bit games at this stage were well over £40. One is a simple hack 'n slash platformer, the other is a head bopper. Both share the apple throwing mechanic, although the fruit in question is pretty scarce (non-existent?) in the latter half of the SNES game. The magic carpet escape section is great in both games, so I can't call that, but the SNES version edges it in terms of actual platforming (specifically swinging, which is well done). Both games are too easy, but only one can be finished in 30 minutes. Basically, the Nintendo game is better, because it represents far, far better value for money. One is like Nouvelle Cuisine in a Michelin starred restaurant, the other is a hearty three course meal in an excellent country bistro pub. This doesn't decide the console war or anything - I could always review Robocop Vs Terminator next. 87%

Thank you Moot, best birthday present ever.

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