2. Sonic Advance 2 GBA
3. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Wii U
4. Advance Wars: Dark Conflict DS
5. Joy Mech Fight Famicom
6. Grandia PS1
7. Money Idol Exchanger Game Boy
8. The Battle of Olympus NES
9. Lost Kingdoms 2 GC
10. Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon DS
11. Code of Princess 3DS DL
12. Discworld Saturn
13. Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru [For the Frog the Bell Tolls] Game Boy
14. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 3DS DL
15. 3D Streets of Rage 3DS DL
16. Pokémon Shuffle 3DS DL
17. 3D Altered Beast 3DS DL
18. 3D Super Hang-On 3DS DL
19. 3D Space Harrier 3DS DL
20. 3D Galaxy Force II 3DS DL
21. 3D Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master 3DS DL
22. Sonic 3 & Knuckles Mega Drive
23. Bayonetta Wii U
24. Fighting Vipers Saturn
25. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan 3DS
26. Super Castlevania IV SNES *NEW*
27. Shovel Knight Wii U eShop *NEW*
28. Discworld II: Missing, Presumed...!? PC *NEW*
Super Castlevania IV
Castlevania is a series I only have a small amount of experience with, especially in it's classic form. I've beaten 4 Castlevanias to date before this one - in order, Order of Ecclesia, Dracula X Chronicles, Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood.
I've heard good things about this entry, although I wasn't sure I'd get to play it as prices have been high for this one on eBay whenever I've looked. I spotted it in a local store for what i thought was a great deal (turns out it was OK, but not amazing - lower than eBay at least) and picked it up, and gave it a crack (of the whip).
Super Castlevania IV is a fairly nice looking game. The environments look good, and I love the enemy design, although I was surprised that there's not much variety here - there are lots of bosses, but you'll be seeing those axe armours and bone towers a lot in this game. Bosses are very cool though. I liked the games slightly gimmicky use of mode 7 too - it gives it a very unique feel.
Difficulty wise, I felt it was pretty easy for the most part - definitely easier than Rondo, and I'd say easier than Order of Ecclesia too, despite it being a different type of game. There were a few spikes, especially stage 8 and the final level, but nothing on the level I was expecting from the series. I don't know if Castlevania IV is actually regarded as being easy or if it's just one of those games where the difficulty is overblown (like Super Ghouls n' Ghosts and Mega Man). It's helped a lot by the more welcoming controls which allow you to whip in multiple directions and also to adjust your jumps in midair.
The music is pretty great here, and most renditions of the classic tunes are pretty good. Some of the levels have more ambient tracks that don't feel quite right - I much prefer the adrenaline packed classics like Vampire Killer and Bloody Tears.
My only major issue was with the grappling points throughout the game, which I found a bit finnicky when I jumped off of them - a lot of deaths occured from these, especially early on. The checkpoints are weirdly spaced too - sometimes there would be 3 across a very easy section, and sometimes, like in stage 8, a massively long and tedious section full of literal death traps with not one to be seen.
Overall, I really enjoyed Castlevania 4. It was fun, and I'm glad I picked it up. Castlevania is a series that I've enjoyed whenever I've played it, and I'm sure I'll pick up more of them over time. Definitely worth a play.
I've heard good things about this entry, although I wasn't sure I'd get to play it as prices have been high for this one on eBay whenever I've looked. I spotted it in a local store for what i thought was a great deal (turns out it was OK, but not amazing - lower than eBay at least) and picked it up, and gave it a crack (of the whip).
Super Castlevania IV is a fairly nice looking game. The environments look good, and I love the enemy design, although I was surprised that there's not much variety here - there are lots of bosses, but you'll be seeing those axe armours and bone towers a lot in this game. Bosses are very cool though. I liked the games slightly gimmicky use of mode 7 too - it gives it a very unique feel.
Difficulty wise, I felt it was pretty easy for the most part - definitely easier than Rondo, and I'd say easier than Order of Ecclesia too, despite it being a different type of game. There were a few spikes, especially stage 8 and the final level, but nothing on the level I was expecting from the series. I don't know if Castlevania IV is actually regarded as being easy or if it's just one of those games where the difficulty is overblown (like Super Ghouls n' Ghosts and Mega Man). It's helped a lot by the more welcoming controls which allow you to whip in multiple directions and also to adjust your jumps in midair.
The music is pretty great here, and most renditions of the classic tunes are pretty good. Some of the levels have more ambient tracks that don't feel quite right - I much prefer the adrenaline packed classics like Vampire Killer and Bloody Tears.
My only major issue was with the grappling points throughout the game, which I found a bit finnicky when I jumped off of them - a lot of deaths occured from these, especially early on. The checkpoints are weirdly spaced too - sometimes there would be 3 across a very easy section, and sometimes, like in stage 8, a massively long and tedious section full of literal death traps with not one to be seen.
Overall, I really enjoyed Castlevania 4. It was fun, and I'm glad I picked it up. Castlevania is a series that I've enjoyed whenever I've played it, and I'm sure I'll pick up more of them over time. Definitely worth a play.
Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight is a game I picked up a while ago, but only got around to playing recently. I've heard nothing but good things for the game, but the fact that it was made by a lot of WayForward ex-staff worried me - everything I've played by WayForward has been decent, but not remarkable. I wasn't blown away by Mighty Flip Champs, A Boy and His Blob or Shantae, and I was expecting the same to happen here.
I needn't have worried though, because Shovel Knight is pretty damn great. The levels are wonderfully designed, the controls are perfect, the gameplay is fast paced and fun and the game doesn't outstay it's welcome. It's the best modern 'retro' game since Mega Man 9 for sure.
Shovel Knight takes a lot of inspiration from Mega Man for sure - 8 bosses with themed stages, a choice of which to tackle in which order, a rival who is more than reminiscent of Proto-Man - it's a clear influence. However, you can definitely see other 8 bit influences in there, not least Duck Tales and it's pogo jump, and some level designs that feel right out of Castlevania.
Musically, when it hits a high note, it has some absolutely wonderful pieces. The first stage/black knight theme is awesome. However, equally, there were some bits of music that I felt sounded a bit hastily put together, and they just didn't have the catchy melody I'd hope for - espoecially true of some of the stage themes.
I wish the artifacts system had been used more in game - these can be found by going off the beaten path and finding secret chests in levels, but because of theiir optional nature, the opoortunities to use the artifacts felt lacking. In addition, it was easy to forget that some of them even existed - I totally forgot about the green orb thing, the gear and the alchemy coin until the final level.
Shovel Knight isn't perfect, and Mega Man 9 still holds it's place in my heart as the most complete, consistent and well-balanced retro styled game, but it is a ton of fun and an absolute blast to play through. Definitely play it!
I needn't have worried though, because Shovel Knight is pretty damn great. The levels are wonderfully designed, the controls are perfect, the gameplay is fast paced and fun and the game doesn't outstay it's welcome. It's the best modern 'retro' game since Mega Man 9 for sure.
Shovel Knight takes a lot of inspiration from Mega Man for sure - 8 bosses with themed stages, a choice of which to tackle in which order, a rival who is more than reminiscent of Proto-Man - it's a clear influence. However, you can definitely see other 8 bit influences in there, not least Duck Tales and it's pogo jump, and some level designs that feel right out of Castlevania.
Musically, when it hits a high note, it has some absolutely wonderful pieces. The first stage/black knight theme is awesome. However, equally, there were some bits of music that I felt sounded a bit hastily put together, and they just didn't have the catchy melody I'd hope for - espoecially true of some of the stage themes.
I wish the artifacts system had been used more in game - these can be found by going off the beaten path and finding secret chests in levels, but because of theiir optional nature, the opoortunities to use the artifacts felt lacking. In addition, it was easy to forget that some of them even existed - I totally forgot about the green orb thing, the gear and the alchemy coin until the final level.
Shovel Knight isn't perfect, and Mega Man 9 still holds it's place in my heart as the most complete, consistent and well-balanced retro styled game, but it is a ton of fun and an absolute blast to play through. Definitely play it!
Discworld II: Missing, Presumed...!?
Also known in the US as Discworld II: Mortality Bytes, Discworld II is the sequel to the stupendously hard point n' click Discworld, and is another adventure game romp through the world of Terry Pratchett's excellent book series. The plot of the game is that Death isn't showing up to take people's souls, so you have to make him come back. This will involve tracking him down, making Death a movie star, having a shot at doing the job yourself and a whole bunch more.
Discworld II definitely addresses issues from the first game, in a way that is verysatisfying to see. It's easier to see which objects are interactive, there's much better hinting of what to do, more logical puzzles and less pointless red herrings designed to frustrate, it gets rid of some of the most annoying recurring jokes from the first game, and overall it's just better in every way.
This includes visually too - it's actually quite a pretty game for it's day. It has a visual style reminiscent of Curse of Monkey island with big cartoony characters, but admittedly a little more low budget. It opens with an animated song and dance number, and it deifnitely likes to show of it's new animation when it can.
The game loves to break the 4th wall, especially around references to the difficulty to the first game (even the box blurb mentions how hard the first game is), the fact that Eric Idle of Monty Python voices the main character Rincewind and the fact that you're playing a video game and people keep sending you quests. They also blatantly tell you something is a hint sometimes too. It's actually very funny, but it does serve to detract you from the game world quite a bit. It feels more like you're playing a game with some discworld characters in then exploring the actual discworld...er...world.
The characters are much more fitting this time though - lots of characters appear and most of them are fairly accurate to the books, if not perfect. A few persist on being just utterly wrong though, in a way that suggests they were put together by people not familiar enough with the books - Ponder Stibbons is a big offender, as is the brief appearance of Vetinari. Rincewind himself, the main character of the game, is perhaps one of the biggest offenders, as he just isn't cowardly enough - he just goes along with everything far too much here.
The environments and characters draw from a much bigger set of books this time, with Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Pyramids and Lords and Ladies being some of the more prominent references. They're very well done, and it's nice to be able to get out of Ankh Morpork in a bigger way than the previous games, although I think we spend far too much time in Djelibeybi this time around. Whilst being able to explore the world a bit more is nice, I feel the first game did a better job at creating a believable Discworld for you to explore.
That is the only thing the first game did better though, and this is just a more enjoyable, better made and higher quality game in every way. It works with SCUMMVM, although you'll have to do some file manipulation for it to make the second disc work.For fans of the books, it's a definite blast, but it could probably be pretty enjoyable to people who aren't familiar with them too. This is much, much better than I expected.
Discworld II definitely addresses issues from the first game, in a way that is verysatisfying to see. It's easier to see which objects are interactive, there's much better hinting of what to do, more logical puzzles and less pointless red herrings designed to frustrate, it gets rid of some of the most annoying recurring jokes from the first game, and overall it's just better in every way.
This includes visually too - it's actually quite a pretty game for it's day. It has a visual style reminiscent of Curse of Monkey island with big cartoony characters, but admittedly a little more low budget. It opens with an animated song and dance number, and it deifnitely likes to show of it's new animation when it can.
The game loves to break the 4th wall, especially around references to the difficulty to the first game (even the box blurb mentions how hard the first game is), the fact that Eric Idle of Monty Python voices the main character Rincewind and the fact that you're playing a video game and people keep sending you quests. They also blatantly tell you something is a hint sometimes too. It's actually very funny, but it does serve to detract you from the game world quite a bit. It feels more like you're playing a game with some discworld characters in then exploring the actual discworld...er...world.
The characters are much more fitting this time though - lots of characters appear and most of them are fairly accurate to the books, if not perfect. A few persist on being just utterly wrong though, in a way that suggests they were put together by people not familiar enough with the books - Ponder Stibbons is a big offender, as is the brief appearance of Vetinari. Rincewind himself, the main character of the game, is perhaps one of the biggest offenders, as he just isn't cowardly enough - he just goes along with everything far too much here.
The environments and characters draw from a much bigger set of books this time, with Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Pyramids and Lords and Ladies being some of the more prominent references. They're very well done, and it's nice to be able to get out of Ankh Morpork in a bigger way than the previous games, although I think we spend far too much time in Djelibeybi this time around. Whilst being able to explore the world a bit more is nice, I feel the first game did a better job at creating a believable Discworld for you to explore.
That is the only thing the first game did better though, and this is just a more enjoyable, better made and higher quality game in every way. It works with SCUMMVM, although you'll have to do some file manipulation for it to make the second disc work.For fans of the books, it's a definite blast, but it could probably be pretty enjoyable to people who aren't familiar with them too. This is much, much better than I expected.
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