112. Golden Axe III - Mega Drive (1hr)

I waited ages for the MD Collection to hit better than half price on Switch, assuming I'd only dabble with one or two titles, but it's currently one of my top 5 most played games on the console.  It might be missing certain heavyweights but it's a nice package.  All that waiting and I only saved the price of a sandwich, smh.

This one comes with a heavyweight name, but it's generally considered to be a weak continuation (or even the death knell for the series).  So weak in fact that it only appeared outside of Japan on the Sega Channel in America, and even then it was two years late.  I was braced for bobbins, but it turns out there are dozens of worse examples of the genre on Sega hardware.  It's a bit budget for a first party game in a post-SOR2 world, dropping the iconic art style of the first two in favour of something that looks a bit like US Gold stole the license and outsourced their vision to Probe Software.  It does play reasonably well though.  The difficulty is toned down, partly thanks to the fact that enemies seem less eager to charge a distant player than before, but partly because there are a couple of extra moves that don't come with a health trade-off - a backward stab and a power attack.  There's also a block, performed in the same way as Knights of the Round (attack then quickly hold back), which is a weird coincidence as I've not seen anything quite like it in a belt scroller before.  Collision detection is a little off, but for the first half hour his was quietly shaping up into somehing better than okay.  It even has multiple routes to choose from (which lead to different endings, apparently).

It drags on a bit in sp though, and the flaws did start to draw attention to themselves eventually.  There's a birdman boss who's an absolute prick, and a late enemy type that seems to trump any attack with a spinning lariat whenever it fancies knocking you down.  Certain opponents block your attacks too, and unless I'm mistaken there doesn't seem to be a sure-fire way to break their guard with attacks, and grabbing them on a busy screen can prove tricky.  The magic system is back to the all or nothing approach too, which is a shame, and some of the dragon mounts are about as useful as an axe made of gold.  Gillius isn't playable either, so it automatically loses a point.  Music bobs along but I'm in no danger of humming any of it.  There aren't enough holes to chuck people down.  It's not a classic for sure, but I can't work out how everyone joined the dots all the way down to disaster.  

I expect this is well worth playing in co-op tbh (obvious caveat: for fans of the series/genre).  I know it's heralded as a stinker, but my mileage varied.  I reckon if I'd got hold of this in '93 I wouldn't have been entirely disappointed.  I definitely owned and enjoyed worse games. 79%



Okay that gif makes it look much worse than it is but it's the only one I could find....

Minnesänger wrote:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I definitely owned and enjoyed the worst games.

Nobody doubts this.

Fixed it

113. Golden Axe - Mega Drive (35mins)

I still love it.  Maybe it's because I played as Gillius today and Ax Battler when I played no.2 earlier in the week, but it feels much better than its supposedly superior sequel to me.  It's a nice length considering the limited moveset (adding an extra stage to the super short arcade game), it looks superb for 1989, the music is ace, controls are responsive, dragons are actually useful and there are plenty of holes to walk or lob fools into.  You can punt the thieving blue dwarves off edges on a couple of occasions too - win.  Plus the bald bigman hammer wielders are more GOLDEN AXE than the lizard things they were replaced with in no.II.

Great memories and something I always seem to enjoy when I revisit.  I might check the MS version out next, just to see the sort of thing I happily put up with as a kid, but it might be best not to.  86%

23.Kena- Bridge of Spirits - 11 Hours - 7/10 - PS5

This is one of those games I’ve very much wanted to play but been very unsure how much of ‘my kinda thing’ it would be. Was waiting for the right price but even better got a lend from Moot, but really, it would have been worth the £20/25 you can find it.

The best praise I can give it is it’s like an ‘N64 Zelda life’. Quick and simple puzzles, lots of bosses after every little bit of progression, a little adventuring but it does guide you down the path and there’s little off it. But the movement, the combat, the weapons, it’s all very N64 Zelda. Even the characters and the Rot would fit in perfectly. And that’s some praise in my book.

It’s short and sweet and pulls on the heartstrings a little and the best way to describe it is, it’s a nice little game that doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. Doesn’t bring anything new to the party but everything there is well done and very welcome. Nice little game.

7/10.

Good with me.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

12 mins

A new low

Course dude! PM me the details!

YES TILLY!

It is, and always was, a truly terrible game which would probably have been long forgotten by now were it not a pack-in on the original MD.

I always thought the same. The actual concept is quite cool though the stills did make it look quite good back in the day, but yeah, it played atrociously.

In a similar vein to Eternal Champions (ie not the greatest game ever but cool cocept/stylings) it could make for an interesting remake for someone like DotEmu to tackle. (If Arcsys could pick up Eternal Champions that would be great too)

28. Mighty Final Fight (NES) - 1hr 20mins

A delightful little 8-Bit spin-off/demake of Final Fight released in 1993, which was well into the 16-Bit era.

That's a shame as it means this games footprint was along the shore of an incoming tide, and almost certainly the reason its now one of those games that demands a small fortune in the second hand market.

The graphics have opted for a super deformed art style, which works well and is quite visually impressive for the ageing NES. Unfortunately its single player only, but it's one of the best examples of the genre in that mode for me. Only Batman Returns on SNES and possibly the first Double Dragon on NES spring to mind as being better.

There's five stages to get through with 3 continues, although you can earn more in the games two bonus stages. What sets this apart is the inclusion of a levelling up system, that increases your lifebar, strength and provides additional moves as you progress.

The moveset is quite impressive, and even puts a fair few 16-Bit beat 'em ups I've played recently to shame. All three characters are also present, and they play more uniquely here than in the arcade original.

It's well worth booting up via emulation if your a fan of the series or genre, just don't go remortgaging your house for a physical copy.

7/10

My list

Adventures of Lolo (NES) - 4hrs 

Overhead single-screen puzzle game by HAL Laboratory from 1989.

Unsurprisingly you assume the role of Lolo out to rescue Princess Lala, who has been kidnapped by the evil King Egger, it’s the usual damsel in distress story, not that it needs one but it gives the proceedings a bit if meaning I guess. King Egger has taken the Princess to his Castle which contains 50 rooms made up of 10 floors of 5 each.

In each room you must collect all the hearts which then opens a treasure chest to collect a gem that opens the exit to the next room/floor. Each room contains several types of obstacles and enemy types. You can move blocks to trap enemies and shield yourself from their attacks, or you can even turn certain enemies into an eggs by shooting them making them movable objects. Examples of this are using the egg to shield yourself or to use it as a makeshift raft of water. There are other abilities to gain, such as the ability to smash rocks or build a bridge.

You really need to think strategically, especially after the game eases you in over the first few levels. The aim is mainly to avoid the enemies, they are a part of the puzzle as much as the obstacles rather that to fight.

The levels become very difficult and it can take quite a bit of time to figure out exactly what you're meant to do, and then the right order to execute it. Everything is by the number e.g. if your need to shoot 2 enemies in the level your are given 2 shots. It’s very specific but extremely satisfying once you figure out what to do.

It’s a one hit death game, after which you restart the level. Sounds harsh but the game has infinite continues and a 4 digit password so even back in the day this wouldn’t have been a huge issue. If you mess up a level or want to restart you can do so by pushing the select button at the cost of a life, yes thats right, a suicide button.

I do love these types of puzzle games, Wrecking Crew, Solomon’s Key and much later The Lost Vikings spring to mind. Problem is I'm not very good a them, but I managed to see this one through. Maybe its because of the single screen nature and slow pace to the game, you can really take your time to figure out how to tackle each level.

This is by far the best game of it’s type on the NES, another great game I wish I played as a kid instead of some of the games I was unfortunate enough to fall for on the store shelves.

8/10

My list

34: Forza Horizon 5 - Hotwheels Expansion (PC) 5/10

From memory I didn't really care that much about FH5 on launch - but I've had a good time mopping up the various races and activities over the last year or so.  I don't think I could ever do everything and unlock all the cars or anything like that, but it's fun to muck around with.  Going offroad, trying out a new car.  The driving's always great and it's very easy on the eye.  Great podcast gaming.

TBH I really don't care about Hot Wheels.  I didn't hardly play it in FH3, and while the recent arcade Hot Wheels racer was pretty decent, it pretty much satiated any apatite I had.  Wasn't a part of my childhood so there's no nostalgia for me.  

IMO in Forza the Hot Wheels tracks just take away too much from what I like about Forza.  IE you can't go off road much.  It all ends up looking the same to me.  Orange plastic roads.  I hardly fast travelled in the base game, I did it a heap in this since driving to a race feels like filler to me.  Loop the loops don't really do anything for me from a chase-cam view.  They're more exciting in like Sonic 2.  

Other problem I had though was, it's not enough to just give you a bunch of new tracks, you have to unlock them not only by finishing top 3 but also doing challenges like 'do 3 loop the loops in 2 minutes.  It feels like busywork, padding things out.  Wish they'd give you a heap of new races and new cars, do the speed traps and drifts if you want, but who cares if you don't.

I got pretty sick of it pretty quickly and didn't finish it.  Might do later.  Hope the next expansion is more to my tastes.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

monkey wrote:

Rive (Switch) Excellent twin-stick shooter crossed with platformer crossed with a few other things. Rock-solid mechanically. Nice, frenzied gameplay. Tough but with very forgiving checkpoints that are more akin to the save-state spamming I use on retro titles. A love letter to old games. Your little spider-mech spaceship thing can jump, fly, swim, leading to all sorts of tributes to Asteroids, scrolling shooters, there’s one part where you climb out of a pit by avoiding and jumping on falling Tetris blocks with a bastardised version of the music playing. A squid robot enemy turns up and your pilot guy says he hasn’t seen one of those since Parodius. You get the idea. It’s not wearing its influences lightly.  Very very good anyway. I liked all of it. Quibbles are that the special weapons are a bit meh, so the main chunk of the game is just blasting away with the same old cannon that you start with. No real upgrades to it or chain effects or anything. Also I DESPISE having jump on shoulder buttons. But with both thumbs taken up because of the twin-stickiness, there’s no obvious solution. At least let me reassign it to the digital shoulder button instead of the long-depress hell of the ZL button. But you can’t change the button layout at all. Criminal. There’s only a couple of times where it gets into ultra-tight split second platforming stuff where it's an issue. But it really is an issue at that point. Anyway, I loved it. [9]

The games a 9, but the review is mostly whinging about one small aspect of the controls. I stand by it. That shoulder button thing really did piss me off.

Also Tinykin (due this month) is by the Splasher team, demo was quite good.