by J T Sat Jan 31, 2015 1:53 am
A Wolf Among Us (01/03/15)
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ (All courses S ranked on 01/08/15)
Distance (beta 3315, 01/11/15)
Shantae: Risky's Revenge- Director's Cut (01/16/15)
Sega Bass Fishing (01/17/15)
Fairy Bloom Freesia (01/17/15)
BasketBelle (01/18/15)
Tiny & Big: in Grandpa's Leftovers (01/20/15)
Sideway: New York (01/22/15)
Doom 64 EX (01/23/15)
Shadow of the Ninja (NES, 01/29/15)
Shatterhand (NES, 01/30/15)
Shatterhand was fantastic! I love the graphics. I love the music. I especially love the play control. It all feels like it lands right in the pocket. I even like the unique alpha/beta power-up system for acquiring different types of robot buddies. It's such a joy to play, it's a wonder this game isn't better known.
I beat the game on an emulator, and as with Shadow of the Ninja, I had to rely on save states. I was beginning to think I might be able to beat this game legit, and then I reached the final level and remembered why I had never beaten this back when I first played it on original Nintendo hardware. The last level is a nightmare. It's one of those final levels where they make you fight all the final bosses again, only this game doesn't give you any health refills right before the boss, or right after, and the bosses are split up with more of the level to complete, and the level is HARD. The only health refills are in the middle of those levels, so it's really an endurance test to see if you can get through a portion of the level, beat a boss, get through another portion of the level, and find the next health bonus. If you die you go all the way back to the beginning. No checkpoints. Without save states, this would be grueling.
The bosses in this game are pretty tough too, since they are more agile than your character and have ranged attacks. Your character's only attack is close-range punching, unless you manage to build a robot buddy with firepower and keep it alive long enough for a boss battle. The most intense parts of the last level though are the portions in-between boss fights. You have to make deft jumps from chain-link fences that, if you don't clutch to correctly, will lead you to hitting your head on an awkwardly placed ceiling and falling into a pit of fire below. You're doing all of this while being shot at and other flying characters are slowly pursuing you and refuse to die until punched 8 times, forcing you to punch, retreat, punch, retreat, until you win. Suffice to say, this is damn hard. Nevertheless, the game is immensely satisfying and if you're fine using save states, you'll still have a good time as you push your way to the final finish line.