Week nine: Snake, Rattle 'n' Roll (NES, Megadrive)

Isometric 3D search 'em up developed by Rare, released on the NES in 1990.  Take control of Rattle (and Roll in the simultaneous two player mode), and scour eleven levels - twelve in the MD version - for Nibbley Pibbley's.  Each Nibbley Pibbley increases the length of your snake, and if you find the required number before the timer hits zero you can exit the level after ringing the weigh-in bell.  Keep an ear out for classic 50's rock 'n roll chiptunes too. 


I hope this information is right - I've never played it, so I pinched all this from Wikipedia.  Mean Machines awarded it a tidy 94%. 

The Wiki page said there was a Gameboy sequel called Sneaky Snakes.

I had this on the Mega Drive and I could never get past the second level.

Castle of Illusion (MD)

Decent platformer with amazing graphics, some decent level design and bosses, let down by its length like most Disney games of the era. I think thats more acceptable for an 8Bit game than it is a 16Bit one and with a little retrospect the Mega Drive was capable of much more E.g. Sonic/Ristar/Dynamite Headdy/Earthworm Jim etc.

3/5



World of Illusion (MD)

As above really except the bosses in this game are pretty poor. The game is saved for me by the excellent co-op.
Both of these are a whisker away from a 4/5 but I just feel there were better alternatives out there, especially by 1992 when World of Illusion came out. Recommended but not essential Mega Drive classics.

3/5

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Harsh but probably fair.  Castle of Illusion on MS is a 5.

If I had some nostalgia for them they would definitely be a 4.

I’m gutted I didn't play the MS one tbh. From what you've said over the years it sounds every bit as good as the Capcom Disney games on the NES which I would probably all give a 4/5 to except possibly Chip N Dale... that might be a High 5!

The idea on the early levels is to eat the blobs that are spewed out of the machines (avoiding the bombs), which adds length to your character.  You open the exit, if you're heavy enough, by weighing yourself on the scales with the bell at the top.  Never played anything like it myself.

Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, I think they borrowed some ideas in Sonic 3D Blast (which is pretty much a cross between Flicky and SR'nR).

Week ten: Flashback (Amiga, Megadrive, SNES, various)

Delphine software's cinematic platform puzzler from 1992. Lauded for its realistic animation system - dubbed 'Rotoscoping' - and intricate sci fi plot, you control Conrad B Hart, who wakes in a jungle on Titan in the game's first level, completely unaware of who is or how he got there. Taking influence from, amongst other sources, Prince of Persia, Total Recall and Running Man, Conrad must unravel the mystery of his amnesia, and subsequently tackle an extra terrestrial threat to the human race in the form of a species called 'the Morphs'.

Play and discuss, or just simply reminisce.



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)

Yeah I gave up a few levels into snake rattle and roll. Too fiddly and aggravating. May have enjoyed it more back in the day but the precise 3d platforming mixed with the shit controls arent something that's held up well.

Onto Flashback.

I love Flashback. I will be playing next week, all being well. Better late than never, right.

How many hours to complete?

Week eleven: Gynoug (Megadrive)

A non-platformer at last.  A side scrolling shooter where you control an angel of sorts, attempting to destroy the demonic forces of Iccus.  Each of the six stages has a mid-level boss and an end of stage guardian.  Apologies for the brief write up, Wikipedia is a bit light on info.  The only other things I know about the game is that in 1992ish, my shoot 'em up loving mate said that this was a better game than Hellfire, and that it was known as Wings of Wor in the States.

 

Play and discuss, or just simply reminisce.

Flashback done. Did not enjoy as much as I thought I would. Some of its greatness was I think comparative to what else was around and that's been a little lost. 

The first level remains awesome. As moot said, the game probably peeks somewhere around the Death Tower bit. Not just because it stops making new ground after that but also because as the difficulty increases, some of its deficiencies become a bit more apparent. 

Some of Conrad's moves are very slick. You can drop down from a ledge, press the button to draw your gun in the air and time it so you get a 3 or 4 shots off before an enemy's had time to do anything. But I can't help but think its a flaw that, with a gun drawn you can only inch forward very slowly, or roll forward 5 paces. It makes the combat quite limited and, although you can plan a little bit, some screens just put you in the midst of 3 or 4 cops or shape shifters, and if they split up and come at you from different angles, you're basically fucked because your movement is so limited. Unless you try scrambling around from ledge to ledge, and drawing and re-holstering your gun all the time.  The melee doesn't work at all well in these situations either so you haven't even got much of a last resort.

Even when you get something that could be a brilliant tactical tool for outflanking multiple enemies like the transporter, you're still basically stymied by Conrad's move set, and the level design. They could have made a lot more of that angle in the later parts to keep the variety up. 

Still very good though. And in some ways, I'm holding it up to what I expect from a modern game, rather than forgiving many things I wouldn't now accept, as I tend to with retro stuff. I think that's a decent indicator of what I think of its quality. 

Four exploding mice out of five.

I think I'm near the end of Gynoug now, I've just started a horribly garish pink stomach level of sorts.  I'm terrible at scrolling shooters, it baffles me how this is doable without save states (and I'm aware this game isn't even considered that hard).  I don't quite understand the weapon system either.....if you change special weapon you don't seem to be able to cycle back, you just lose what you were previously weilding. 

It's very good though, even if I am rubbish at it (and cheating as I go).  I always think the fact that I'm awful at scrolling shooters - and block puzzle games, it has to be said - puts a massive dent in my gaming skills credentials.  1CC Youtube videos of bullet hell titles leave me slack jawed and confused.

Gynoug is a crazy old game. I'm inside some organic thing, looks like a giant blood vessel (level 5?). Should finish it (or get as far as I can with it) tonight. 

The music is brilliant, very catchy. The first level particularly. The designs on the bosses are ridiculously captivating. 

Everything else is all over the place. The first probably 3 levels or so are unbelievably easy in between the boss fights. There's plenty of stuff to shoot but you're not really asked to move much. That does change later on but it wasn't a very balanced first half. Then the bosses come along, and they are much better with a decent difficulty curve as you progress. It may be the ROM or the screen settings but there's a lot of barely visible enemies. The third level boss fired off these little mushroom things that kept killing me because I couldn't see them. I ended up having to turn the gamma setting up to eye-searing levels to get through that one. 


And after that point, it becomes a proper, very good side-scrolling shooter game. The collisions on your flying angel man are a bit off sometimes. Some things seem to pass right through your head on some occasions but will kill you on others. This might be the projectiles themselves that are a bit variable maybe. Gripes though. Very challenging in all the right ways. Well-balanced between giving you pretty awesome firepower but still giving you a lot to do to stay alive. 

I did own this game at one point. I can't remember much of these later levels though so I don't think I got here too regularly. I definitely haven't finished it, so I'll try and set that right (even if it requires a game breaking use of save states). Might give Hellfire a go as well as Jon B mentioned it above, jogged my memory that that was another I had and thought was terrific. 

Although UN Squadron is the one to beat in the 16-bit side-scrolling shooter category imo.

Hodge360 wrote:

Would Zero Tolerance be worth a play through?

Don't see why not.  Old FPS titles don't tend to age well, but it'll certainly be different.  I'll add it. 

I've just finished Gynoug.  I agree with most of what Monkey says, especially the annoyingly hard to spot projecticles on the third boss.  The difficulty really ramped up towards the end, especially the final boss rush, but I managed to disptach the final boss without taking a hit, which was surprising. It's not my genre to be honest, due to my previously mentioned ineptitude, but this was good, solid fun.  Some lovely parallax scrolling on the final level too.  Not a stunning game to look at, but plenty of decent effects and some nice artwork.    

82%.

UN Squadron added too.

Hello! I am in on this owning a perfect boxed copy an having played through it multiple times. Gorgeous game