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

Eric

nick_md wrote:

Got halfway through lvl2 on Hard Corps, need a break now though. Took my ages to hook up my 360, reset my pw, reset my store data, download the game etc. But, Moot called me out and I'm not going to back down from that. Will aim to have arcade mode finished by end of next week.

Ha ha, look forward to hearing your progress. It's brutal.

Moot, cheers for the link, I'll try a play through following that next week.

Moot_Geeza

Massively looking forward to Nick hitting a particular boss so I can post the reverse McMahon gif.

nick_md

Cunts, I'm booting it up again rn.

hunk

Heheh

Moot_Geeza

How was level three?

nick_md

Sit down, I haven't gone back yet. Will dip in again tomorrow.

Moot_Geeza

Tiny Toons NES done. Easily one of the best non Mario 8-bit platformers. It didn't even feel like that much of a rip off tbh, great stuff.

retroking1981

Indeed, great game.

retroking1981

Rushing Beat Ran (SNES)

Another run-of-the-mill scrolling beat 'em up.

Marginally better than the first, but still ultimately lacking compared to its peers.

2/5

Rushing Beat Syura (SNES)

More of the same, but has a bat shit story involving aliens. Obviously being a Japanese game I had no idea what was going on, but all I did know was I'd rather be beating up street punks than generic aliens.

Probably the pick of the trilogy, but the alien aspect made me wish I was playing Rushing Beat Ran.

2/5

retroking1981

Contra Hard Corps (MD)

Top notch Contra game.

Outside of some fiddly controls this is nigh on perfect. I really don't like toggling between locking your character in position to running and gunning, its another example of the lack of buttons on the MD pad making a great game feel that bit more archaic than it otherwise would.

At first it seems really tough compared to other Contra games, but this is only due to this games reliance on the slide manoeuvre. You really need to make it second nature to get anywhere in this.

That's pretty much where the negatives end though. There's four characters to choose from, all of which have their own unique weapons to collect. Speaking of which you're no longer limited to two, you can collect all the weapons and choose between any on the fly, only losing the currently selected one when you die.

The game also has a few branching paths, which add to the replayability.

The ending I got seemed a bit anticlimactic, so I did a bit of research and discovered the game has four different endings along with one bad one, and one secret one, making six endings in total.

Like Castlevania Bloodlines the graphics and sound are both outstanding, but what else could you expect from Konami back then, they really were a top developer.

I've yet to play a bad 2D Contra, and this has not let the series down one bit.

5/5

My Reviews

Moot_Geeza

Tiny Toons - NES (1hr)

Excellent 8-bit platformer from 1991 that serves as a reminder of the quality to be found in the vast NES library. I knew this existed, sure, but there are so many similar titles on the platform it never registered with me as a podium contender. Outside of the two GOAT Mario games the scuffle for third place has games like Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Asterix, Duck Tales, Kid Icarus and Castle of Illusion rolling around kicking up a pile of dust, and that's without mentioning the genre outliers like Megaman, Batman, Castlevania, Shatterhand and Wonderboy in Monsterland (platformers, but platform shooters/hack 'n slash platformers). For straight ahead jumpmans this is well in the mix and has a chance of being crowned champion of the underdogs when the dust settles.

Playable, varied and a good overall length with well pitched difficulty. As straightforward 8-bit platformers go there really isn't that much to fault. Buster controls superbly and it's not half bad in the looks department - it definitely stays in its lane and avoids slowdown/flicker, which is a massive bonus imo. The main theme starts to grate a little after a while but that's a minor gripe. 92%

retroking1981

Nice, always liked the NES version. Enjoyed being able to play as other characters with different abilities.

Haven't played it in a good 25+ years, might have to go back to it myself.

Moot_Geeza

There's a lot of chat about 2017 being the best gaming year ever (I think?), but the issue of Mean Machines Sega I just found in the loft reviews Protobector, Red Zone, Dynamite Headdy, Sonic & Knuckles and Micro Machines 2 (plus Sparkster and Urban Strike). In one month!

Join the scores to the games: 95, 94, 92, 93, 85, 89, 91.

retroking1981

Protobector - 92
Red Zone - 91
Dynamite Headdy - 93
Sonic & Knuckles - 94
Micro Machines 2 - 95
Sparkster - 89
Urban Strike - 85

Moot_Geeza

Two correct.

Spoiler:

monkey

Wonder how the Strike games have held up.

Moot_Geeza

I thought Nuclear Strike was very good, the 32-bit entries are somewhat forgotten.

monkey

Forgotten? I didn’t even know they existed.

Moot_Geeza

Soviet and Nuclear, both solid Strikes really, better than Urban Strike imo.

Moot_Geeza

Konami packs are £3.99 each on the ESHOP again. Nabbed. Bloodlines next then.

davyK

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Soviet and Nuclear, both solid Strikes really, better than Urban Strike imo.

I played a bit of he Saturn version of Soviet Strike. Wasn't bad at all if I remember right.

Moot_Geeza

Was criticised for the scrolling being less smooth than the PS version but was one of those ports with plus and minus points iirc.

Moot_Geeza

Bloodlines is pure quality and I'm enjoying it, but the character with the lance isn't quite as fun to control as the whip guy (presumably a Belmont) I used last time I played.

davyK

Have given Bloodlines a very brief tire kick. Very nice indeed. I can see its influence on Rebirth - certainly with respect to the soundtrack. Need to get stuck into it. I'm emulating but I presume MD emulation is pretty much spot on nowadays. I saw this cartridge, boxed, at a car boot some years ago and have no idea why I didn't pick it up. Kicking myself.

retroking1981

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Bloodlines is pure quality and I'm enjoying it, but the character with the lance isn't quite as fun to control as the whip guy (presumably a Belmont) I used last time I played.

He's John Morris. The game is set in the early 20th Century, think it was the first not to have a Belmont as the protagonist.

Moot_Geeza

Looking forward to his theme tune.

davyK

Bloodlines is very good. Just played through the 1st stage there and on the 2nd one now. There's a race to the top of the screen against some rising water at the bit I am that. So it's interesting they have added mechanics like this into the series. C-IV was very meat and potatoes re gimmicks like this. I'm only going to use save states to prevent me writing down passwords so it should last me a while.

Moot_Geeza

I'm up to the third set of stages, not as disciplined as Davy as I'm saving at the start of each area.

I've noticed plenty of slowdown on the Switch version. It's an M2 port, so I assume this is faithful to the original cart, but I don't remember it from last time I emulated this. It's particularly noticeable when an early boss breaks windows but has cropped up in busy areas elsewhere too.

davyK

There's slowdown on emulation too. The game is quite pretty with plenty of animation.

retroking1981

M2 are the masters, if there's slowdown you can bet it was in the OG.

It's more likely your either:
a) remembering wrong
b) the emulator/rom you last used fixed it

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