Good stuff Dante. I've got a load of GBC stuff to catch up with now too - I've played a handful of Gameboy games but off the top of my head I don't recall ever playing a GBC.

Yeah, the remake felt a bit off to me.  Not a patch on the Lizardcube Dragon's Trap redo. 

retroking1981 wrote:

Your movement feels a tad too quick and slippery, with the hit detection also suffering. I really can't tell if it's genuinely bad or if I struggled because of my muscle memory. I forced myself through and actually got use to them, so I guess it is just different instead of bad, but it still feels like a massive shame.

It's not emulated or based on the OG code, they built the game as an approximation/best effort apparently, which is why even the 8-bit version selectable in DX feels a tad off. 

I had a mate with a NES and MS as a kid and spent weeks of after school visits doing my research.  I HAD TO HAVE Kung-Fu on NES, but I also ABSOLUTELY NEEDED Alex Kidd in Miracle World.  In the end I think the motorbike swayed it and I told papa moot to pull the trigger on an MS.  I tend to get the big calls right.

Last years record will be smash at this rate

The man's a literal mockery at this point

Particularly when you include googling the right animated gif

30. Pulstar - Neo Geo (70mins)

Interesting looking shump that plays quite well aside from the absolutely outrageous difficulty level.  Battering my way through this with save states was probably one of the toughest tests I've put myself through in recent years.  Each to their own with this sort of thing, but a game this intent on killing the player unless they've memorised every frame can't be anything other than rancid in my eyes, which is probably why I've only ever got on with the genre at arm's length.  I honestly think if you offered me £5k to try to beat this properly within a month I'd just decline on the spot.  Aside from the brutal nonsense of near enough every section past the first half level or so, the checkpoints are set to Ghouls 'n Ghosts levels of fuck you, meaning that one hit from one of the gazillion stray bullets will send you back to the middle of a stage.  It was tricky enough cheating like Billy-o (the 'bring back Billy-o' campaign starts here) and only going back 2-5 seconds to try again; I'd rather pay someone to stick pins in my thumbs than play it in its intended form.  I've literally never been good enough at games to consider something like this possible, rewarding or worthwhile.

I prefer standard pixel sprites but this is easily one of the better examples of the pre-rendered Donkey Kong Country thing that was all the rage for like 18mths, so the graphics get a really big thumbs up despite some of the numerous snazzy effects making it even more difficult to avoid things that kill you.  It sounds great too, and the controls are fine, but none of this matters to me because it's a belligerent cunt of a game and probably the least fun I've had playing anything for ages.  1 out of 6.  Torturous.

acemuzzy wrote:

The man's a literal mockery at this point

My thread mantra:

32. A Short Hike - Switch (80mins)

Mum's Night Out Out last night, so Tilly made a to-do list for our evening in that included playing Splatoon 3, drinking proper teapot tea with chocolate biscuits and going for a midnight walk. We went on the walk (albeit at 10pm), ate biscuits (albeit with teabag tea) and did play Splatoon, which is a great game, but some of the challenges are a bit intense for her so she got fed up after half an hour or so. We ended up having a chat about her favourite games ever, and while looking through the tiles on her Switch discovered that she's played A Short Hike for 20hrs. I played it on PC originally and watched her play through it at launch (probably the first game I'd say she completed solo), but she's put the time in solo since and, last night at any rate, awarded it Top Spot Of All Time. No mean feat, considering how much she loves Breath of the Wild, Just Shapes & Beats, Animal Crossing (KillMe.gif), Mario Odyssey, Grounded, Lil' Gator Game, Kirby & the Forgotten Land, Bowser's Fury, Heave-Ho, The Secret of Monkey Island, Return to Monkey Island, Jenny LeClue Detectivu, The Stretchers, Sackboy Adventures, Astro's Playroom, Florence, Olli Olli World, Alba, Toem, Nobody Saves the World, Tinykin, Chicory, It Takes Two and numerous other Tilly [10]'s...

Watching her gleefully explain absolutely everything to me and knowing the island inside out (including shortcuts to get the the summit with minimal feathers) was pretty wonderful tbh. We've not played as many games together recently for one reason or another, so I wondered if her interest was waning (she seems to be into slime at the moment, ffs), but this will go down as one of my favourite daddy daughter gaming sessions ever. It's a big [9] for me, even though I can see the logic behind a [10]; it's a beautiful game all round, never gets old and is as cheap as two portions of chips. Bigfeels gaming at its best.



33. Onion Assault - Switch (80mins)

Western Mario Bros 2 inspired left-to-right platformer from the guy behind the Gunman Clive games (fun!), Mechstermination Force (almost really good!) and Super Punch Patrol (which annoyed me in sp, but proved popular with a couple of mates during a scrolling beat 'em up evening last year). Controls are a little imprecise, and - as seem to be a developer hallmark of sorts - none of it threatens to knock on the door marked 'top tier indies only', but it's still likeable goodtimes gaming, if slightly throwaway compared to the big hitters.

It's a loose platformer with a run button and the ability to pick up and throw enemies/items (usually onions, unsurprisingly). Level design is decent, difficulty is a little all over the place but again, it's forgivable for one reason or another. The throw trajectory felt spot on anyway. I think it helps if you like this guy's games, and at this stage he's pretty much nailed churning out enjoyable, reasonably priced retro leaning curios that confidently tread water in the not-particularly-deep [7] zone (or thereabouts), so if I see his name attached to anything on the EShop I'll check it out. Bosses are laughably easy for the most part and the game won't last long if you play it cautiously (there doesn't seem to be any reason to tear through stages as there's no reward for speed, no leaderboards or even a points system that I could see), but I wasnt annoyed by the resistance the main stages put up either way tbh. There's a three coin hunt per stage, which is always a welcome addition. I don't think I'll bother though, which isn't necessarily a fault of the game, just my standard approach to post-credits gaming. It's fluff, but it's my kind of fluff, and haters will only hate it if they've got nothing better to do. [7]. I would've liked a separate button for run and throw, not that it mattered much in the end. It's also too easy to immediately throw heavy items after hammering the button to pick them up. Would still be a 7 with these kinks ironed out though.

This one's as cheap as two bags of chips and a pickled onion (-10% for the next week or so).

I had similar thoughts about Minish Cap, both when I ignored it at launch and when I finally played it three or four years ago. It's not tiptop tier Zelda but it's better than most of the best non-Zelda top down action RPG's (as they used to be known) of yesteryear.

I think Tilly and I have just about matching tastes for whimsy little games. Top girl!

I let Sega Power guide me with that one as a kid, it used to get 2/5 in The Hard Line (my only real source for opinions on older MS games) so I dodged it at the time.  It's definitely one that people seem to remember fondly.  I used to borrow Aztec Adventure, which was a bit ehh.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Yes, I have seven versions of Newzealand Story on there now and only one of them works, but this kind of untidiness doesn't kill me like it would @retroking1981.

That's almost alphabetical but not quite and it's absolutely killing me.

36. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs - Arcade (45mins)

This was longer than I remembered, and also a bit better.  I played through it with a mate in my local a few years ago, in the golden era of the dodgy arcade cabinet + celebrity status for Bramble.  In terms of moves it's basically Final Fight with a double tap run and firearms to pick up (and up to three player co-op).  Obviously FF is the more noteworthy of the two but side by side this is the better game imo.  To be expected perhaps, as it appeared four years later - plenty of imitators fell short though.  It's not really a coin gobbler - even the bosses felt fair and the crowds can usually be controlled.  You know how enemies tend to fall over when your character dies and drops back onto the screen in these games?  In this they fall over because your character fires rockets at them, and if you use a continue you return with rockets AND a four shot bazooka.  The carnage is definitely cranked up here compared to most of its peers.  There are dinosaurs in it from time to time, and an enjoyable cadlillac stage where you tear through a level running people over.  I believe it's based on a comic but it's easily bonkers enough to fit in with other bizarre curios of the genre (of which there are many).  The four characters are different enough to warrant their inclusion, and all pretty useful, so I hopped between them whenever I used another credit.  One of them looks like Cody.  One of them looks like Haggar (and even says, I think, 'Deeead Ringer!' when he performs his spinning lariat special).  Interestingly, one of the enemy types is clearly a Blanka, or whatever species Blanka belongs to in the Streetfighter lore, albeit with a long tail (it's quite possible Blanka has a tail and I'm misremembering).

This won't win anyone over who isn't keen on the genre, but for those with an affinity for belt scrollers it's a belter with a strong shout for squeezing onto a top 10 list.  Very good, most boxes ticked, a near masterpiece of the art.  5 out of 6.  



This is what happens when you hit continue, btw:



Chef's kiss on the kisser.