Power Drive is definitely the game you're thinking of:



skip to 1m16s

retroking1981 wrote:

Power Drive is definitely the game you're thinking of:

skip to 1m16s

Cheers.  Haven't found that bit yet, but perhaps I just ploughed ahead with a straight championship.  It's an odd game.  I quite like it, but I'm finding the car very twitchy in the way it realigns itself.  The turning animation only has a few cycles as far as I can see, and it feels like the car pulls in an unusual way.  This could be the dpad I'm using, will try the PSP tomorrow.  At my current level I'd fail the Gamesmaster challenge miserably.  I'm qualifying without much fuss, but the opponents are leaving me for dust.

Played as much as I'm going to play of Powerdrive.  It's decent, but I found it quite unforgiving and although I can't pinpoint what's wrong with the handling, it never felt as good as Super Skidmarks - perhaps the action is a tad too close up for the reasonable sensation of speed, making it tougher than was necessary?  The cone challenges and whatnot were a bit of a letdown, because I couldn't even work out what I was supposed to be doing with regards to the cones/chasing yellow icons that seemingly appeared at random.  I didn't even get to test my parking skills.  Both SNES and MD versions look nice, but everything's been scaled back a touch for the Sega version - it's definitely more impressive on the SNES, although it's a fine looking game on both.  One you learn the tracks it's a fun game though, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more in 1994. 

79%

Will add blurb tomorrow.

I raced ahead and played that one a couple of months ago. It genuinely is 300% awesome.

You should paste that somewhere else, it's too good to fester with the tumbleweeds.

Will get on this at some point this month, probably a lazy Sunday. Definitely want to play Isolated Warrior.

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%

Maoi Kun next for me, but I will give that one a proper go.

I like Maoi Kun from gameplay and implementation points of view. It feels very solid.

I don't think I've ever been a full on robot. I remember the power up system being a three digit binary system. Don't know if there was any more levels to each power up or what.

Iirc you punch the power up to flick it from A to B. You need 3 before you can cash in.

AAA
AAB
ABB
BBB
BBA
BAA
BAB
ABA

These are your options. Like an octave on a trumpet.

It might be 3 symbols and 2 slots or something completely different. It's been a year since I played. I'm pretty sure that's the principle though.

Fifty one : Cool Spot (Various)

Dave Perry's third original 16-bit console title.  Originally the 7-Up mascot in The States, just surfed on green bottles in the UK (because of Fido Dido, probably).  Notable for its music, and as ever with Dave Perry/Virgin/Shiny games, its animation. 

Wipeout!



 
How well has it aged?  Was it ever particularly good?  You decide. 

Play and discuss, or simply reminisce.

Schedule:

Wildcard Week (16/06)
C64 Week - (23/06)
Blackthorne - Various (30/06)
Solstice - SNES (14/07)
Derivative Platformer Fortnight - Various (28/07)
R-Type III - SNES (11/08)
Kirby Fortnight - Various (18/08)
Wonderboy Fortnight - Various (01/09)
Chakan The Forever Man - Megadrive (15/09)
Wildcard Week (29/09)
Pilotwings Fortnight - Various (13/10)
Prince of Persia - Various (27/10)
Pinball Week - Various (10/11)
Wildcard Week - Master System (17/11)
Obscure NES Month Returns, 5 Games - (24/11)

Played two levels of this, before changing from train to bus and realising that the fast restore on PSP wipes your save states. I'm not looking forward to playing the levels again, but the game is slightly better than I remembered. I think as a kid I approached it as a platformer, and came away disappointed, but it's a platform shooter at heart, probably weighted towards shooting, as you need to constantly fire in all directions/off-screen. There's enjoyment to be had if you take a softly softly approach to progession, but I prefer shooters like Contra where you can tear through - run and gun, basically, whereas this is just plod and fizz. It has eight-way fire though, which I forgot about.

Animation is good, but spot takes too long to kick into a suitable walking gear as he idles though the pretty frames - I found this with Flink, which I played for the first time recently, although the Psynosis game had enough charm to keep me hooked (even though the acceleration period was even longer).

Enemies don't seem to be placed by design, they're just...there. And they're everywhere. To make matters worse they take too much energy off for the randomness/annoyances of their placement, especially the flying ones.

davyK wrote:

I think the length of the levels and the collecting aspect of the game put me off.

It's a collect-a-thon alright, with the correct amount of red dots required to open up the exit. It feels like a poor man's Mickey Mania (in turn a poor man's Vectorman), or a similarly financially comfortable man's Plok, with the same 'IDGI' reaction from me (the fuss, I mean, about Plok - you bunch of odd-bods).

I'll go back to it in a few days, but I won't be finishing this one.