More updates for all to enjoy!
1. Ys Book II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter
PSN Vita2. 3D Streets of Rage 2
3DS eShop3. 3D Gunstar Heroes
3DS eShop4. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2
3DS eShop5. 3D OutRun
3DS eShop6. Mugen Senshi Valis II: The Fantasm Soldier
PCE CD7. Mugen Senshi Valis III: The Fantasm Soldier
PCE CD8. Bomberman
PCE CD9. Rocket Knight Adventures
Mega Drive10. Trax
Game Boy11. Panic Bomber
Virtual Boy12. Arcana Heart 3: Love MAX!!!!!
Vita13. Super Monkey Ball
Gamecube14. Lost Kingdoms
Gamecube15. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
Gamecube16. 1080° Avalanche
Gamecube17. Bubble Ghost
Game Boy18. Catrap
Game Boy19. 3D Thunder Blade
3DS eShop20. 3D AfterBurner II
3DS eShop21. 3D Fantasy Zone II W: The Tears of Opa-Opa
3DS eShop22. Ikaruga
Gamecube23. Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal
Vita24. New Adventure Island
PCE *NEW*
25. WarioWare Twisted!
GBA *NEW*
New Adventure IslandNew Adventure Island is a not-so-new anymore entry into the extensively confusing Adventure Island/Wonder Boy lineage(s) of games. Now, if you know the full history of the series, you should know that although they started in the same place, both series went in quite different directions. Whereas I typically prefer the Wonder Boy series over all, I certainly can't fault this game on how it plays - It's excellent.
I struggled to find a good screenshot to represent New Adventure Island - they all look bland and empty. That's not the case in gameplay - it all feels fast and frantic. New Adventure Island is a fast game - not in terms of actual technical speed perhaps, but in how it's played. You run through levels, grabbing fruit to stop your constantly decreasing health meter, and avoiding enemies which are basically all one hit kills. At it's best, it plays like the most fluid and best designed levels from any Mario game. Maybe even better - there's a real sense of speed and fluidity here that I love.
'New' Adventure Island actually is quite an old school entry in the series. It does away with the dinosaurs and the likes that apeared in Adventure Island 2 and 3 on the NES. It keeps it simple - you either run, or you ride a skateboard, which hurtles you forward and can allow you to take a hit, but you also risk flying off a cliff instead.
Where it does mix things up from the basic formula is in the weapon selection - The basic axes are back, which arc a little and are weak. Arrows fly forward much further before dropping making them a useful ranged weapon but harder to hit lower enemies. Boomerangs fly forwards a little way and come back allowing for extra control. They also break rocks and hit harder than the other 2 weapons. I found Arrows handier overall though. Finally, fireballs can be found in hidden eggs sometimes, which fall at an angle but instantly destroy all enemies. They're fun when you can get them.
New Adventure Island features 33 stages, including 7 boss stages. The bosses play out like the original adventure island bosses - shoot them in the head whilst they throw stuff at you, but with a little more attack variety. Still very simple though.
I liked New Adventure Island a lot. The game will kill you, over and over and over, but it doesnt really matter because it has infinite continues and you start from the stage you died at. Nothing in there reaches the insane difficulty of the end stages of the original game either. It's fast and fun and has a real sense of momentum that I just can't get enough of in platformers. A must-have for PC Engine or Turbografx in my eyes!
WarioWare Twisted!WarioWare is a series where you play a stream of 5 second long mini games that get progressively faster and more difficult to achieve high scores. They're frequently really weird. As a series, it often tries to make use of the latest technology gimmicks of the platform it's on to define it's minigames. This was true of WarioWare Touched! for DS which made extensive use of the touch screen and microphone. It was also the case with WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Wii, which used the motion controller in various ways. Even WarioWare DIY on DS used the DS screen for something different to Touched!.
Twisted was the first WarioWare game to make use of a tech gimmick for it's gameplay, and is also arugably the best at doing so - it's probably the best game in the series. Interestingly, it's also the only game that doesn't make use of the hardware of the console it's on for it's tech - it's all built right into the cartridge - the bulky cart features a very responsive and precise tilt sensor, as well as a small rumble motor to boot.
Minigames in Twisted involved physically rotating your GBA to interact with the game. It's very intuitive and super accurate- I rarely had any issues doing what it asked me to do. The only issue I can see is that it can be hard to see the screen sometimes on games that require much more vigorous movements, but they're short enough that it's not an issue and you can always tell when the game is finished.
Like all WarioWare games, the presentation is very bizarre. A mix of hyperrealistic graphics and super crude doodles, clashing art styles, bizarre sounding music and lots of recurring things like noses. It's an odd experience that I kinda feel I'm just used to at this point
The song for the final boss mini-game in this one is a classic though, have a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmtez97NtGQ (WA-RI-O DE MAMBO!)
Anyway, if you like WarioWare, this is the best one, so go buy it I guess!