Beaten:
1. Ys III - Wanderers from Ys (SNES)
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Hyperstone Heist (Genesis via EDMD)
NEWRe-beaten:
1. Super Mario All-Stars + World (SNES via PowerPak)
NEW2. Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis)
NEWTMNT Hyperstone Heist: I finally got myself a Genesis flash cart, I've been wanting one for years now. I've been itching to play Hyperstone Heist for an even longer period of time.
It's impossible not to compare this game to Turtles in Time. I liked Hyperstone Heist just fine, but I was a little disappointed in a few areas. Mostly the length of the game. Hyperstone Heist has just 5 levels, and although they're all a decent length, Turtles in Time has 10 levels (and consequently more bosses as well).
I knew going in that you can't throw enemies at the screen, but that you still could grab foot soldiers by the arm and slam them back and forth. However, that move is hard to pull off. In Turtles in Time, you can just about do it whenever you feel like it (it's a great move to clear out enemies if your becoming surrounded). In Hyperstone Heist, it just seems to happen sometimes if you're close to an enemy and mash the A button.
Speaking about throwing enemies at the screen, Hyperstone Heist had a lack of special effects compared to Turtles in Time. Overall, the game appears to be rather bland by comparison. Also, Turtles in Time had some extra game modes. A time trial and a versus mode. Not that I ever play them, but Hyperstone Heist just has a lack of content compared to Turtles in Time.
Taking a step back though, Hyperstone Heist is a solid beat em up. It's been a while since I've played TMNT 2 or 3 on the NES, but Hyperston Heist feels like a solid 16-bit improvement on those titles. Definitely a lot of fun. And I'd love to play through the game with a second player next time I get the chance.
Super Mario All Stars + World: I've owned Super Mario All Stars (without World) since back when, and it has always been one of my most cherished SNES carts. But for some damn reason, it drops my saves every once in a while for no apparent reason. I always wanted to 100% all four save slots for each game. But since I lose the saves from time to time, I gave up on that. But now that I have a flash cart, where the saves are stored on a memory card and less likely to be lost, I decided to put All Stars + World on it.
I'm not sure how many people know this: In SMW, if you only have one controller plugged into the SNES and select a two player game, you can control both characters. The game will alternate between Mario and Luigi like it normally does, but you can control them both with just one controller. For years now, whenever I replay SMW, I select two player. I have them take different paths.
What I never knew until a few years ago is that Nintendo made some changes to the SMW that's included in All Stars + World. They made a proper Luigi sprite (originally he was identical to the Mario sprite only with Luigi colors). They made Luigi actually look like Luigi, and all of his animations are different too. Playing through SMW more times than I could possible know, it was really fresh playing through the game with the new Luigi. For some reason it made the game really enjoyable for me.
So I beat SMW, and mjmjr25 was having his Super Mario Weekend, so I figured I'd go ahead and beat the other games included with All Stars. It's been a while since I played any of them. I used the shortest routes (warp zones) to play through SMB1 and 2, I skipped The Lost Levels, and I played through every level in SMB3.
If I was only able to have one SNES cart, it would have to be All Stars + World.
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