Verecocha wrote:

22.Metal Gear Solid - Volume 1 - 8 Hours - Perfect/10 - Xbox Series X It’s like Die Hard, it’s just a snapshot of perfection at that time. Wouldn’t do a damn thing to change them as absofuckingloutely nothing could better them. That was just as good as the first time I played it. The story, gameplay, characters, soundtrack, absolutely everything was and is still quintessential as part of that moment. 13 year old me knew it, 38 year old me knows it, one of the real masterpieces in gaming. Perfect.

25. Road Rash II (Mega Drive) - 4hrs 

One of the most iconic Mega Drive titles for me, there was nothing quite like it on SNES. Very impressive looking title for its time.

Like most Road Rash games, the biggest negative is that it peaks early. In the first few levels the speed is at a level where you can react to anything upcoming, and you can enjoy a good fight against your rival bikers. It's a lot of fun.

Unfortunately by the time you reach level 4 the bike required to keep up with the pack is so fast the game becomes more about track memorisation than reaction, and you'll never be beside a rival long enough to dish out anything other than a single punch or kick.

Oh and the rubber banding in Mario Kart games has nothing on this. You can be out in front for miles and one crash will result in half the pack flying past whilst you frustratingly hobble back to your bike.

In many ways it's aged much better than I was expecting, but the difficulty in the latter levels takes the shine off an otherwise excellent racer.

7/10

My list

156. Super Mario Bros Wonder - Switch - 6-7hrs

By now it's pretty obvious that when Nintendo want to knock something miles out the park they do.  It's a shame that so many first party Switch releases are swinging for 'pretty good', but it's always a pleasure to play something that had the seal of quality stamped on it from the moment it hit the white board.  Nothing but the best would have been acceptable for this one, and it shows.  Part of me wondered whether Mario Maker 2 had hammered a nail or two into the coffin for 2D Mario - surely infinite monkeys will eventually created better experiences than even the best of Nintendo's in-house talent? - but I shouldn't have worried really.  This is bringing-the-A-game, 110% effort stuff, and ergo absolute S-tier platforming.  I don't think anyone could really point a finger at a mainline 2D Mario game and call it bad with a straight face - they've always been mechanically sublime - but it's fair to say that there have been highs and lows, and the all-time high is generally, I reckon, just about considered to be Super Mario World way back in 1990.  Of all the Mario side scrollers since, this is the best attempt at knocking it off its [fucking] perch.  

Which isn't what I expected based on the initial trailers.  It looked good, it just didn't look like a SMW challenger.  Taking an established formula and adding gimmicks sounds like a surefire way to diminish the returns, but the way this handles the wonder seed rug pulls & switcheroo moments is pretty inspired.  They're not even needed to finish any given level, yet the effects are invariably intuitive (from the moment you're handed control), fun and sparingly used.  Even without that particular hook this is still bigtime Mario as the levels are, for the most part, expertly designed.  There are a handful that feel a wee bit damp squibbish (in particular a couple of zone closers were slightly anticlimactic), but a handful isn't many when you consider the number of cracking levels elsewhere. Selectable badges are an inspired addition and the DIY approach to perks and abilities coupled with the fact that they enhance rather than break the experience is testament to the majesty of the design - the Mario basics have been established for a looong time, and yet this gifts you a dozen or so minor game changers that you can bring to the party as and when you choose.  The stage design is so unbreakably solid you can even switch up every time you die, and no cracks will appear in the experience. 

Initially I thought the way characters passed through one another was a shame for MP, and whilst I would have preferred the standard NSMB approach it didn't take the shine off and Tilly & I had a blast gunning through the main stages.  I'd like to see the collision detection return in a future patch (it allows you to play with so many other factors with badges I seriously doubt it would bugger anything up with characters bouncing on one another and whatnot), but it's fine as is and a terrific time was had.   Even the end credits smacked of a developer unrepentant in their mission to produce a world beating package.  GotY for me, by some distance, and I've barely even started to mine its secrets. There's much more to say, but this isn't a game in need of championing - if you play it you'll enjoy it.  [9.5]  



157. Ranger-X - Mega Drive (55mins)

Stunning screen-push shmup* from 1993 that did all the right things in terms of rallying against the boundaries of the machine's specific technical limitations.  Much like Treasure's best work, visually this feels like proof certain things are indeed possible at times, and thankfully (much like Treasure's best work) the game backing up the puffed-chest graphics is no slouch either.  Sprite scaling and rotation were nice little buzzwords from the day, and both something MD owners were used to secretly seething about as, apparently, the SNES could push sprites in fancypants ways while standing on its head (although it turns out the SNES couldn't do it either, which I didn't know at the time, but it could skew background sprites).  So what happened was you started to get MD games that incorporated pseudo 3D effects or software based trickery that, to all intents and purposes, blew raspberries at the cocksure Nintullards.  Multi-jointed screen filling bosses that could transform into other bosses while you hurtled along in a minecart (Gunstar), Spinderella cranking the screen around while Headdy switched between foreground and background planes, faux sprite scaling in Panorama Cotton, snazzy spinning castletop battles in Castlevania: Bloodlines, rotating submarines deep within the map screen of Red Zone (wait, come back) and so on.  TLDR: certain developers could make the Mega Drive sing with more panache than it was ever intended to, and I don't think anything other than perhaps The Adventures of Batman & Robin looked quite as glorious as this, in terms of UNPOSSIBLE anyway (I'd also accept SOR2 or Story of Thor as the best looking MD games, amongst others).  The music is great too, which means that this looks and sounds like peak 16-bit Sega to me.  The stage where the lighting changes as you burst through the canopy of the trees is particularly kissable if you're a) a chef and b) loved it when the MD cooked the SNES.

Is the game any good though?  Yes.  It's not a full banger, and lower than Sub-Terrania on a list of my favourite Sega shmups of the era, but it plays pretty well once you get used to its various nuances.  Most stages see your mech - which is capable of 360 flight on a limited boost - accompanied by a companion contraption that can be climbed into and used to certain situations.  It's an intriguing design choice that works pretty well, particularly the bike which can be stood on or mighty morphed into for additional attack options.  Additional (missable) special weapons can be collected in various tucked away places throughout the levels, which can only be changed while connected to whatever mech buddy has tagged along for that particular stage.  It feels a touch cumbersome/slouchy in places admittedly, and your weapons do tend to suffer from the dreaded popgun feel throughout, but there's a good time here if you look for it.  As was the case with many Sega games of the era it's not a whopper, so for £45 a runtime of under an hour could be considered a bit of a swizz.  You'd need to get the hang of it to get through it properly though ofc - it's not an easy game on the default setting and continues are limited.  For a retro runthrough it's ideal though, and would make an inspired choice for the Tribute Games retraux resurrequel treatment. 90%.  

*I think this is what they're called?  I've seen it used once or twice anyway - not forced scrolling, the ones where the camera tracks the movement of your craft (think Bangai-O rather than Hellfire).

26. The House of the Dead: Remake (Switch) - 1hr 

Decent remake for me, sure the graphics are only PS2 ish standards, but they're nice enough to get the job done for something like this.

The gyro controls also work well, I was a bit worried going in, but I didn't feel they were any worse than Wiimotes or PSmoves.

Like all the games that came in that little light gun Wii renaissance about 15 years ago, it would be much better with a light gun and 1:1 aiming. Unfortunately as we all know current TV's can't handle a bit of Duck Hunt, but gyro controls are a decent enough alternative imo.

Good fun then, especially in co-op. Worth checking out if your itching for some light gun action.

7/10

My list

159. A.B Cops - Arcade (40mins)

Not sure if it's fair to call this a lesser-known arcade game simply because I hadn't heard of it, but even as a Segaboi this one passed me by.  It's a super scaler style, unabashed Chase HQ clone, albeit with a twist or two.  Here you here you have to take out a handful of fodder enemies before the rammable boss appears.  There's a boost button which can be hammered at much as you like for an extra burst of speed (in theory - enemies often refuse to get any closer even as you're boosting right up their arse). You also have a limited number of jumps, which are best used to launch yourself into the faces of the guardians for extra damage.  

It's pretty good really, as forgotten coin-ops go.  Admittedly I thought it was absolutely terrible for 20 minutes or so, but it turns out that's because the emulator I was using mapped the jump to the boost button, which meant my jumps were constantly depleted en route to the boss.  After switching to Final Burn instead of MAME an extra button was available, which pushed the whole thing into the pretty good zone.  Fine margins with this sort of thing in 2023, I was readying a brutal review but it pulled it back.  Half decent mindless fun. [3 out of 6]

P.S. The 'A.B' stands for air bike.



160. Altered Beast - Arcade (30mins)

I've actually forgotten whether I played this version in one of these threads. I know I played through the MD port at some point, which I've always disliked, but I don't think I've played the arcade game all the way through.  If I'm repeating myself, apologies - I wasn't too keen on the original incarnation either.  It's got some nice touches (backgrounds fading to b&w for bosses, the way you wreck screens in full beast mode) and some iconic speech snippets ofc...overall it's just not very good though.  I vaguely remember a ripple of agreement for this particular lukewarm take last time.  

I don't doubt that this had the wow factor in 1988 (big sprites and general bombast went a long way at a certain point in my childhood - I even had a WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM doormat printed for the christening of my games room in 2008ish, which makes me a nerdier version of a 15yr old in a Ramones T Shirt despite not liking the band), it just doesn't play particularly well so I've never been overly fussed with it in any form.  Give me Golden Axe every day of the week, I can't imagine anyone defending this with much gusto these days.  [2 out of 6]



161. Bay Route - Arcade (25 mins)

Hugely basic run and gun contra clone that did more or less exactly what I wanted it to.  Obviously the title is superb, and sometimes more often than not all I want from old arcade games is bog standard carnage.  There are numerous stretches in this where blootering through without paying any heed to enemy patterns or placement is absolutely the best course of action for survival, so I wouldn't say that it's a particularly well design game, but simplicity is one of its major charms nigh-on 35 years after release.  

There are four weapon types, each of which has its uses, and each can be powered up once.  You lose all powered up weapons regardless of which you have selected when you die though, so there's not much room for tactical play (especially as scrolling through the weapons on the fly is tricky enough in itself, which resulted in me sticking to the default rifle for most of the game).  

If you don't mind something like this where most enemies only ever fire at head height and wouldn't dream of ducking to match a player's crouch, you could do a hell of a lot worse than this for a credit spammed straight-ahead one & done run & gun. [3.5 out of 6]



162. Biomechanical Toy - Arcade (35mins)

Wow.  This is an absolute nonsense of a game.  At times it feels like a pastiche of an Amiga game designed by an AI approximation of Clockwork Tortoise, with seemingly random enemy placement and batshit bonkers character design.  Slowly but surely I found my feet though, and I must admit I started to quite enjoy it once I settled into the fixed-shot six way fire run & gun groove.  It's definitely not a good game, nor is it a bad one (despite first impressions).  There's some distinct slowdown in stage one, which didn't bode well, but either I got used to the treacle or it cleared up because I don't recall sulking about it much after that.  I'm not convinced a gif will do the craziness justice here, so I'll drop a long play in instead (which definitely isn't a decision based on the fact that I couldn't find any gifs, honest).  I've played some weird belt scrollers this year but I think this might be the oddest ROM I've stumbled across so far full stop.  Amusingly I Googled it while ROM surfing and thought the sampled guitariffic music sounded interesting, but in actual fact the tune I heard a snippet from (stage 2, if anyone fancies the vid below) is one of the most repetitive I've heard in a long time.  

Not quite worth playing - don't let that stop you checking it out though.  [2.5 out of 6] 

Edit: [3 out of 6] (added half a point after getting sucked into watching the video again.  It's actually alright, and this guy plays it better than I did).

Note to self: Remember to check out Johnny Bazookatone at some point.

163. Revenge of Shinobi - Mega Drive (45mins)

Or The Super Shinobi to be more precise, as this was the first time I've played through the Japanese version (look, it's Godzilla!).  I was given the PAL version of Revenge by a classmate for my 10th (11th?) birthday, which blew my mind.  I was still sulking about being moved to a different school at the time, but an actual videogame as a pressie from one of my new pals?  I had to admit the new school had a plus side.  In an unrelated twist my daughter attended the same school and my dad went there too.  I doubt either of them got bday gifts as banging as RoS.

/Waffle.  Still a magnificent game and undeniably a monstrous achievement considering the flimsy nature of most early MD arcade ports (coupled with the fact that this was a ground-up home exclusive).  Possibly the best faux arcade game ever, it also provided us with an iconic soundtrack for the ages.  There's not much to say that hasn't been said, so I'll leave it there.  94%

164. Road Avenger - Mega CD (35mins)

Remember playing with tiny metal cars, making them do mad skids while making madder skid noises?  I do, vaguely; it was pretty much the last time I was even remotely interested in the whole automobile thing.  I'd rather eat a tub of Swarfega than watch Top Gear, but I do remember doing wall rides, superflips and epic head-on collisions with my collection of pocket motors (one of which was also a padlock, one of which was a Micro Machines Burton Batmobile, one of which changed colour if you ran it under a hot tap), probably while singing the Pole Position theme tune.  Cars have never been quite so cool since, OutRun 2 notwithstanding, but this barely interactive Wolfteam effort that's halfway between a Saturday morning cartoon and a heavily borrowed Manga VHS pushes it pretty close.  If it didn't have its own theme tune - which thankfully it does - those iconic UGH, UGH UGGHH! sounds wouldn't be out of place over the intro.

Look, it's not a great game on paper.  Or even while you're playing it, really.  At a rough guess I'd say you have to press the four different inputs 200 times in an unwavering order to win.  It's basically a rubber-burning Dragon's Lair, only instead of zany Bluthian damsel rescuing you're avenging the death of the woman you'd only just married.  Imagine Ken's ending from SFII mixed with the bit where he's in the car with Eliza at the start of the anime movie, then imagine a motley crew of Mad Maxalikes ramming the car off the road until it explodes and Eliza dies.  That's the set-up for the game - the rest of it sees you chasing down motorbaddies until their cars/bikes blow up at the end of each stage.  

I remember thinking the whole FMV thing was a big deal at the time but I didn't get a Mega CD until a couple of decades later, and of course by that point the entire genre was about as appealing as sucking diarrhoea through a paper straw.  One of my mates did get one, albeit far too late to be considered cutting edge (the Playstation was out by this point).  He had this and The Amazing Spider-Man Vs The Kingpin, and this was the one he always played when he got stoned - lost in the avengement zone trying to memorise button prompts.  I can't remember if he ever finished it as you can't make many mistakes before the Game Over screen appears.  I'll ask him at some point, if I remember.  Of course playing it with save states is a different kettle of fish and my only real worry was not accidentally overwriting a manual save as I was careering into a wall.  

I couldn't look anyone in the eye and say this is a good game but I had a wonderful time crashing through it yesterday.  It shouldn't work but it does.  81%



Check out the remastered intro:

You can mostly play normal mode with reactions rather than memorisation, but there aren't enough continues to get far that way (ymmv). With a save state at the start of each stage it's doable in an hour I reckon (half that if you cheat constantly, like I did).

39: International Cricket Captain 2006 (PC) 6/10

I like this as a good clicker when when you're half watching youtube or sports, and have been playing it all year. I can play games on autopilot and barely remember what happened unless someone on my team makes a lot of runs or takes a lot of wickets. I always come back to it though. It's comfort gaming.

In this one I saved/reloaded until I was given a stupidly talented rookie to recruit, changed his name to mine and played until he retired. He ended up being England's greatest bowler. There were a lot of highs as he helped England become the greatest cricket playing nation in the world for over a decade. By the end the drudgery of life does kick in. As his career petered out and England slowly got worse there was a real 'is this it?' or 'why am I still playing' feeling to it. It was a relief when the game completely bugged out. By 2026 the county season just didn't load for some reason. It had been slowly going wrong when spin bowlers and wicket keepers stopped existing for the last few years. I'll probably play it again next year but for now it's a bit of a downer.

40: Super Stardust Delta (Vita) 8/10

An excellent shooter that I think as a launch Vita title, which for some reason I'd never actually beaten. It holds up real will with some very satisfying shooting and excellent graphics that still scrub up real nice on the Vita screen. The only downside is the Vita's dinky little analogue sticks - they might have been state of the art for a handheld back in the day but after being spoilt with the Switch's Hori split pad they are a little bit fiddly. Good lord how is Vita 12 years old though?

166. Afterburner II - Arcade (30mins)

It's a bit cheeky that this is billed as a sequel to Afterburner, given that it's essentially the same game with a handful of extra stages and throttle controls. Imagine the backlash these days. Still, there's no denying that this was Big Willy arcade gaming, even if the hydraulic cabinet skewed perception a little. The game underneath the bells and whistles (which originally included stereo speakers positioned next to the player's head) is just about good enough to give this a pass with a retrospective eye. If it's good enough for John Connor in 1991 it's good enough for me, but with the rest of the package stripped away it feels basic. Rails shooters often are, and this is hugely dependent on the exhilaration factor. Still, even 35 years on the Super Scaler whizzbangs look neat, and of course the tunes are absolutely banging. Two in particular stand out as all-timers.

If you consider this, Space Harrier and OutRun as the trifecta of 80s Sega arcade whoppers it's coming bottom of that particular tier list for me, but there's enough swagger baked in to forgive its simplicity. Plus think about it - in original form you actually sat in a cockpit that jolted around as you Top Gunned through 23 danger zones at mach speed. This had clout for a reason. [4 out of 6]

Need to play that one at some point. Wouldn't mind giving ReBirth a go either but that might prove trickier to emulate.

Glad to see Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment is still with us.

24.Spiderman 2 - 18 Hours - 6/10 - PS5

Hard mini review to write this as I did enjoy the majority of the game but Christ did they try to ruin it with bosses. The majority of the game is fun, swinging around doing Spidey stuff in a stunning world with great sound and though it gets oh so samey samey, it’s still Spidey so it’s cool.

Switching between 2 characters is good fun and allows for billions of collectibles and side missions and keeps the story going with different bits and pieces going on in each. If’s a bit exhausting and over bearing with something garish and shiny on nearly every roof vying for your attention, but it’s all going reasonably well, though not spectacular as it’s absolutely no different to the first two as it’s a difficult thing to change up really, but then you start to get boss after boss who are all pretty much the same and all have a number of stages to them until it just saps all the fun out until you just wish it was over.

The final few missions are so unbelievably boring as it’s just the same boss in different areas doing pretty much the exact same things, ‘oh now he has wings that look super shit’, better do the same stuff again till he’s on the ground and it’s the same again…again.

It’d be even less than a 7 if it wasn’t Spidey. Disappointing that, glad it’s over. In fact that’s no excuse, it’s a 6.

7/10

Wow, a 6?  I'm loving every minute of it so far and I'm 20 hours in.

It’s tough as it’s a good game, and I loved portions of it, but the bosses were so, so poor especially towards the end and that feeling of just wanting it to be over immediately docks another point for me. That’s another thing I didn’t touch on Moot, Pete in particular is made out to be relatively useless at times, I know they want to phase him out but bloody hell, may as well have just made him a eunuch.

Yeah, I've already had the feeling he is useless.  A bit shit.

I'll temper my expectations for the latter third of the game / final bits.