racketboy.com

1. Jazzpunk (PC)
2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)
3. Grandia (PS1)
4. Hotline Miami (PC)
5. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
6. Off-Peak (PC)
7. realMYST: Masterpiece Edition (PC)
8. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS)
9. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
10. Space Pirates (PC)
11. NiGHTS Into Dreams (PC)


NiGHTS Into Dreams - Let me first preface this by saying that I plan on playing and completing the sequel for the Wii and do a nice side-by-side comparison to talk about the positives and negatives of the two games. With NiGHTS (why is the i lower cased by the way?), you play as two kids who have anxiety in the real world and try to overcome it through their dreams, which are held hostage by some nefarious foe. To help you is NiGHTS who allows you to fly around and collect blue orbs, which are weapons to destroy these capsules. Each capsule exists along a particular track in a larger 3D world. As you fly around you can also earn points by doing tricks and flying through hoops which increase your spin meter, which makes you move faster.

As you complete each capsule, you move on to the next track and attempt to race the clock and score more and more points. The idea itself is very simplistic and the controls work almost effortlessly. There are hiccups here and there and there are numerous obstacles which can hamper your progress and take time off the clock. At the end of each level you fight off a boss character, each with their little gimmick and strategy. Most tend to be easy and require little effort to beat.

The game itself is quite short, with each character having only 4 levels a piece. What makes things a bit difficult is that you need to get at least a C ranking overall to attempt the final level.

What is great about this game is the fast pace nature of the game. I really feel like NiGHTS was an attempt at being the successor to Sonic, as Sonic was just impossible to translate into a 3D realm, especially during the Saturn era. The game is fast and frenetic and puts a lot of emphasis on perfection as you try to be as efficient as possible in collecting the orbs and gaining points.

As for the controls, the game was what introduced the Saturn's 3D GamePad and I really think that it was a great utilization of it. The controls themselves were very responsive, except for one particular instance. In some levels, NiGHTS will transform into things like a sled, or a dolphin and you move on rails to collect orbs. These moments are short, but one particular rollercoaster portion had me moving the thumbstick around to no effect as NiGHTS spun around like a crazy person. That was really the only part that I felt needed improvement.

I loved the game. I beat it numerous times as a kid on the Saturn, but wanted to see how the PC version stacked up. The PC version included a revamped version with crisper graphics and visuals and I thoroughly enjoyed what they had to offer. The game also includes a lot of the easter eggs and hidden gameplay elements like Christmas NiGHTS and the various unlockable costumes for the characters. Also, thanks to the achievements, you can also sit perplexed at some of the things they want you to achieve such as, "Make a Nightopian and Nightmare have a hybrid offspring," and, "Try to guide the lost car in the Mystic Forest to the garage." which literally have you scratching your head saying, "What?" I somehow had the nightopian mate with the nightmare...how I have no idea, but it happened. Achievement unlocked!

Now on to NiGHTS on the Wii.....fingers crossed.

1. Painkiller - PC
2. Front Mission 4 - PS2
3. Wasteland 2 - PC
4. Arcanum - PC
5. X-COM Terror from the Deep - PC
6. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16
7. Unreal - PC
8. Shadowrun - SNES
9. Warcraft III - PC
10. Dungeon Keeper - PC
11. Final Fantasy X-2 HD - PS3
12. Descent - PC
13. Quake Mission Pack 2 - Dissolution of Eternity - PC
14. Quake 2 Mission Pack 2 - Ground Zero - PC
15. Sokobond - PC
16. Hybrid Heaven - N64
17. Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis
18. Castlevania - NES
19. Super Castlevania IV - SNES
20. Castlevania III - NES
21. Castlevania II - NES

And that completes the NES trilogy of Castlevanias, ending with the easiest one by far. It's pretty sad just how easy this is compared to the other two. The difficulty in finishing the game comes down solely to how hard it is to navigate if you don't know where you're going. The actual enemies are pretty easy and there's not much variety in them. And as you level up your health skyrockets, removing most of the danger from enemies. Not to mention how easy all the bosses are.

The things that will kill you are as follows:

1. Invisible floors that drop you into a pit.
2. A couple of sections of incredibly precise platforming over a lake that requires you to be as far off the platforms as you can before jumping.
3. Being incredibly dumb and face tanking everything instead of whipping them.

And even then, dying doesn't set you back at all. A death respawns you pretty much where you died (you might be back a bit if it was a series of jumps over a lake), and even continuing is barely a slap on the wrist; all you do is lose all your experience and hearts, but not levels or items.

Glad to have this one behind me, as it's just mediocre. About the only good thing is that it gave Konami the idea of the free roaming Metroidvania style.

Playing games out of order...... You're killing me Popo.

Also dish talking about a JRPG isn't as weird as Luke's occasional FFX posts. Those make my head explode.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Playing games out of order...... You're killing me Popo.

Also dish talking about a JRPG isn't as weird as Luke's occasional FFX posts. Those make my head explode.

Well, I saved CV2 til the end because I'd heard terrible things about it. Then I watched a speedrun of it and saw that it's actually a really simple game and doesn't have the challenging things that CV1 and 3 have.

But I have no explanation for why I did CV4 before 3.

MrPopo wrote:Well, I saved CV2 til the end because I'd heard terrible things about it. Then I watched a speedrun of it and saw that it's actually a really simple game and doesn't have the challenging things that CV1 and 3 have.

Yeah once you try CV2 I'm relatively certain that you'll find it to be the easiest of the NES trilogy. Also those people saying terrible things about CV2 are intrinsically wrong and need to be re-indoctrinated so that they might see the errors in their thinking.

I mean CVII is the first Castlevania to officially take the form of a metroidvania. It's definitely quirky what with non-logical puzzles, horrible Engrish, and what basically amounts to "non-bosses", but even after all that, I think the quirks make it all the better (granted this is partly the effects of nostalgia goggles, but I really do think there's a lot to like about this game). I'll be curious to see what you think.

nullPointer wrote:I'll be curious to see what you think.

Scroll up

MrPopo wrote:

nullPointer wrote:I'll be curious to see what you think.

Scroll up

Well then ... that was incredibly dumb of me. I think I'm just going to take a time out ... and really think about what I've done here.

I still like Castlevania II, mainly because I like exploration action games like this. I think starting with Zelda II as my first NES game pretty much cemented this. Unlike a lot of other poorly-made games in the genre, CVII plays very well, even with its myriad flaws. I'll always have a soft spot for it, methinks.

Castlevania 2 is the best NES game in the series. It's better than 1 and it's better than 3. The original is fun but simple and short compared to 2, the third has drastically bad background graphics, wonky stair climbing physics, and is a bit too sadistic towards the player. No one will agree with me but I'm fine with that.

I agree with you guys. I love Zelda II and I love CV II. I mean, look at how directly CV II influenced the creation of Symphony of the Night and derivatives. Without CV II, I don't think any of those later games would have ever come into existence.