Games Beaten 2016

[MrPopo]

I think the part that resonated the most with me about Deathsmiles is it's a hori that lets you shoot in both directions and then designs the enemy patterns around it. I've found I tend to prefer verts, but Deathsmiles is an amazing hori because by utilizing the whole screen it makes things more interesting.

[Exhuminator]

It's safe to say Out of this World and Flashback ruined that genre for me.

I unfortunately agree. I have not played a cinematic platformer since that has topped either of those. I thought Blackthorne was OK, but it doesn't compare to Flashback IMO. There was another Genesis cinematic platformer I keep forgetting to try, don't know if it's any good or not:

There are two PC cinematic platformers I've meant to try for a long time, but never have yet. They are Bermuda Syndrome and onEscapee. All I can say are check out screenshots and see what you think:

https://www.mobygames.com/game/bermuda- ... creenshots

https://www.mobygames.com/game/onescapee/screenshots

[Xeogred]

I definitely like the look of those. Might be worth a look.

[Sarge]

I'm not sure why I liked Blackthorne as much as I did, but that's the way it goes. I also need to play through Prince of Persia one of these days.

I've actually got a copy of Generations Lost, but I haven't put much time into it. I found it complete in a local-ish retro store for $4, so I figured I'd buy it. I'd never heard of it, honestly.

Heart of Darkness is another rather excellent cinematic platformer. I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.

[Xeogred]

I recall Blackthorne being a lot more action oriented and simplistic, like just rinse and repeat levels with new traps and puzzles, enemies, etc. Whereas Out of this World and Flashback had tons of variety and some downtime in some levels. I'm guessing that's why I didn't stick with Blackthorne even though nothing was wrong with it.

That and the visual style reminded me of The Lost Vikings which I'm always up for replaying instead. lol

[noiseredux]

I think the part that resonated the most with me about Deathsmiles is it's a hori that lets you shoot in both directions and then designs the enemy patterns around it. I've found I tend to prefer verts, but Deathsmiles is an amazing hori because by utilizing the whole screen it makes things more interesting.

Yup!

[prfsnl_gmr]

I also need to play through Prince of Persia one of these days.

You and me both. I will probably put it on my summer games challenge list next year. (Once I beat that and Oddworld:Abe's Oddysee, I will probably be done with the genre. I just don't like it as much as the rest of you.)

[pierrot]

1: Rakugaki Ninja (Mac)
2: Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story) (Mac)
3: Dimahoo (ARC)
4: Rez (DC)
5: L.O.L.: Lack of Love (DC)
6: Rockman 7: Shukumei no Taiketsu! (SFC)
7: Ganbare! Daiku no Gen-san (SFC)
8: Super Metroid (SFC)
9: Dragon Force (Saturn)
10: Rocket Knight Adventures (GEN)
11: Quackshot: Starring Donald Duck (GEN)
12: Mario Story (Paper Mario) (N64)
13: Rockman & Forte (SFC)
14: Sparkster (GEN)
15: Lumino City (Steam)
16: Braid (Mac)
17: Kirby: Air Ride (GCN)
18: Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GCN)
19: Starfox Assault (GCN)
20: Terra Phantastica (Saturn)
21: Pikmin (GCN)
22: Doubutsu Banchou (Cubivore) (GCN)
23: Eternal Darkness: Manekareta 13-nin (GCN)
24: Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu (MD)
25: Densetsu no Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (Saturn)
26: Cibele (Mac)
27: Linda Cube - Kanzenban (Saturn)
28: Sonic the Hedgehog (MD-JP)
29: Pulseman (MD)
30: Surging Aura (MD)
31: Pu-Li-Ru-La (Saturn)
32: Purikula Daisakusen (Saturn)
33: Daytona USA (Saturn)
34: MegaMan ZX (DS)
35: Red Arimer II (Gargoyle's Quest II) (FC)
36: Valkyrie no Bouken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu (FC)
37: Hi no Tori - Hou-ou Hen: Gaou no Bouken (FC)


Valkyrie no Bouken, for my money, is not nearly as good as Valkyrie Densetsu, but it's still interesting. It seems a little bit like an overhead Dragon Buster, except that the map, and world are essentially continuous. No screen transitions, just constant scrolling from one edge of the world to the other (with one or two exceptions, technically). I went into the game completely blind--I don't have a manual, or any packaging for it. So, I'm not certain whether or not anything is actually explained in the manual, but there is no text to speak of in the game until the ending.

I was going at a pretty good clip through the first third to one-half of the game, but then things started to slow down, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, shit gets absurdly cryptic--like, once leveled up enough that the Valkyrie has above a certain value of stamina (around 120) mountains can be chopped down with the axe, but dropping below that critical value from combat, the weather effects in the desert, etc, disallows this ability.

At a certain point, I knew my goose had been cooked, and found out that part of it had to do with some decisions I made at the beginning of the game. When starting a game, it asks the player's sun sign and blood type, and gives a choice of color for the Valkyrie's armor. The color choice is purely cosmetic, but apparently my sun sign and blood type make for, possibly, the very worst character for this game. Essentially, the sun sign determines the Valkyries growth in terms of melee/health and magic/mp--fire signs are pretty much all in on melee, which is essentially what the game requires. Blood type affects the curve for the exp required to level. AB makes the jump random, which is probably the best option.

Needless to say, I started over with the help of the info on some Japanese websites. Even knowing exactly what to do, it was not an easy game. The last continent felt like continually trying to run from swarms of angry bees, and storming the castle at the end of the game required extremely precise management of the limited inventory.

It's sort of an odd duck. It plays fairly well, but can be frustrating due to the deadly accuracy with which enemies throw projectiles, or the way in which some of them bum rush you. I kind of enjoyed it, though. It just would have been nice if there were an NPC or two along the way, to help me out, but I guess that's just not how Namco rolls.

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Hi no Tori is a game I often see chatter about in the Japanese web-o-sphere. It's a Konami platformer, from 1987, that has some interesting mechanics. Graphically, it kind of reminds me a little of Madoula no Tsubasa, but it's a bit more detailed than that game. The stages are grouped into three time periods, but initially the player is liable to loop through the first seven stages of the Yamato period. At the end of each stage, the player collects a tile with a phoenix feather on it, which, on the next screen, reveals itself to be a piece of a tapestry. I was bemused, after the seventh stage, to find myself in a stage that looked conspicuously like the one at the beginning of the game. It didn't take long before I realized that the stages were looping, but once I was back in stage seven, I just happened to find a door that lead to a prehistoric stage, and as I was looping those, I found a door to the future stages. Progress in the game is rather apparent by noticing how many empty spots are left in the tapestry, at the end of each stage. I found myself in a bit of a predicament, though, when (knowing that there were 16 pieces to the tapestry, in all) I had cleared seven stages in the Yamato period, three stages in the prehistoric period, five stages in the future, and had looped all three periods. I had come across some other spots that seemed to be hiding more doorways, but couldn't figure out how to fully reveal them, in order to pass through.

So, here's the skinny on Hi no Tori: Gaou, the player character, is two blocks tall, shoots something with the B button (knives, I guess--) and can create blocks by holding down on the D-pad while pressing B. The blocks are technically a limited resource, but I never ran out of them. Any time an enemy is killed with Gaou's main weapon, it turns into a block that will slide along the ground until it hits a wall, solidifying, or is picked up and added to the inventory. Hitting one of these sliding blocks with the main weapon will immediately give it an opposite, x-coordinate, velocity. As I mentioned, Gaou is two blocks tall, and while he is able to crouch, he is unable to fire his weapon while doing so (it just creates blocks). There are frequently breakable tiles of walls and platforms, and items and hidden doors tend to lurk behind them. It bears mentioning Gaou can't fire down while jumping, either, but what that input does, is actually creates a block right underneath Gaou's feet. This is an incredibly useful trick, and makes some of the, otherwise, tricky bosses as easy as all of the others.

Even though I was fairly proud of finding Konami-man, twice, and how much I had gleaned about the game in such a short time, knowing my limits, I decided to seek help on how to get to the final stage. I'm kind of glad I did that, because I read that there were multiple instances of kids who committed murders after being unable to cope with the stress of trying to find the last stage. (I'm not too sure this is actually true, but I guess it's a fairly infamous game, regardless.) Turns out, Gaou can destroy breakable blocks underneath him by--get this--keeping him in the crouch position, and jumping three times. Maybe that's in the manual, but I have a feeling that it isn't. I had to scour a couple different websites to find that out.

So that's the game. It's pretty fun, but I'm sure that people's mileage would vary quite a bit with it. Going in, I knew, vaguely, that it was based on a feature length anime. I actually ended up watching it, and it was pretty good, in its own right. The two don't share very much in common. Mostly just the tapestry of Hou-ou, Gaou's nose, and the ending theme song. What I didn't realize, though, was that Hi no Tori is actually one of Tedzuka Osamu's most famous series, and something that could potentially be called his life's work. It seems to be pretty deeply rooted in Buddhism, at least that's the sense I got from the feature film. I think I tend to prefer Matsumoto Reiji, and Ishinomori Shotaro's styles (kind of weird that they were born on the same day) but I'm kind of interested in reading Hi no Tori, now.

That's probably enough of my rambling for one day.

[Exhuminator]

I've actually got a copy of Generations Lost, but I haven't put much time into it.

In that case you own quite a rare Genesis game there! I've never seen it in the wild.

I recall Blackthorne being a lot more action oriented and simplistic, like just rinse and repeat levels with new traps and puzzles, enemies, etc. I'm guessing that's why I didn't stick with Blackthorne even though nothing was wrong with it.

That's exactly how I felt about it too. After beating a few levels it got to be incredibly repetitive. I don't think I ever finished it either, though I got fairly far. Hard to remember now, it was a game I rented back in the 90s. SNES version.

I also need to play through Prince of Persia one of these days.

You and me both.

I totally loved the original Prince of Persia, and I suppose it was the progenitor of the cinematic platformer genre. I've beaten the MS-DOS version and the SNES version. I strongly recommend the SNES version. Arsys redid the graphics very nicely, created many new (and quality) levels, wrote a fantastic musical score, it's just an amazing remake. We're talking 9/10 material easily.

[Ack]

I've gotten a few levels into Prince of Persia on the SNES, and yeah, it's gorgeous to look at and controls about as well as one would expect. I'm just not a big fan of cinematic platformers, so I haven't gone back, though I've got a password written down somewhere for it. I figure I'll get back to it again someday.