Games Beaten:
1. 3D Power Drift
3DS2. Maze Hunter 3-D
3DS3. Hyrule Warriors Legends
3DS4. Icarus Proudbottom's World of Typing Weekly
PC5. Paper Mario
N646. Catherine
PS37. Glover
N648. Blast Corps
N649. Snipperclips: Cut It Out, Together!
Switch eShop10. Pullblox
3DS eShop11. Pokémon Picross
3DS eShop12. Bare Knuckle III
Mega Drive13. The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
SNES14. Alisia Dragoon
Mega Drive15. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Mega Drive16. Dynamite Headdy
Mega Drive17. Runbow
Wii U eShop18. The Mystical Ninja starring Goemon
N6419. 3D Puyo Puyo 2
3DS20. Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa
3DS21. SteamWorld Dig
3DS eShop22. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Switch23. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
PS124. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
GC25. Pilotwings 64
N6426. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
GBA27. Puyo Puyo Tetris
Switch28. Life Force
NES29. Bionic Commando
NES30. Bonk's Revenge
TGCD31. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia 3DS *NEW*
32. Splatoon 2 Switch *NEW*
33. Shantae & The Pirates Curse 3DS eShop *NEW*
34. Devil May Cry PSN *NEW*
35. Team Kirby Clash Deluxe 3DS eShop *NEW*
36. Blaster Master Wii U VC *NEW*
37. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes GC *NEW* Replays!:
1. Bare Knuckle III
Mega Drive2. Die Hard Arcade
Saturn3. The World of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
Mega DriveHello, I have been very very lazy and have not been posting my thoughts on games I have beaten. Thus, prepare for a barrage of barely coherent mini-reviews of everything I've beaten for the last 2 months!
Here's part 1, which is game 1-7 of 14(!) I have to write up. If I can type it up fast enough, part 2 will arrive tomorrow.
Fire emblem Echoes: Shadows of ValentiaFire Emblem Echoes is the latest in the long-running strategy RPG series and is a 3DS remake of the second Famicom title Fire Emblem Gaiden.
Fire Emblem Gaiden is known for being a classic NES/Famicom ‘black sheep’ second entry thanks to its many experimental mechanics that didn’t return in the series for some time. Nowadays though, many of the things that made it unique (unbreakable weapons, grinding opportunities, multiple reclassing options for certain characters, multiple tiers of promotions) have been reused in later entries, and so it feels like less of a side step for the series, and more of an early innovator. There are still some unique mechanics to consider though, such as the fact that mages can now learn multiple spells from a list, unique to each character, and can choose which to cast at will. However, all spells cost HP , making the bigger spells a risky option due to the damage you will take when casting them.
Echoes dials back a lot of the more complicated elements of the newer fire emblem games, and even some of the long running staples – the weapon triangle is not present, support conversations are limited, there’s no child units. However, a big new mechanic it introduces instead are the explorable dungeons – mazes which can be explored in an action segment complete with enemy encounters which are small scale Fire Emblem battles. These encounters are very bite size and thus work well for a portable title such as this. Random encounters also appear on the world map and are also very brief.
The main chapters on the world map are split between 2 separate parties, and most of the time you can progress each party freely, until they achieve their objectives for the chapter. The interesting thing about this mechanic is that you end up using a much larger force of at least 20 good units – 10 per each team (the amount needed for dungeons). You also end up training the leftover units somewhat too, as all your troops are forced into overworld encounters, so it’s helpful for them to be able to defend themselves, especially as many enemy units can teleport.
Difficulty wise, Echoes starts more challenging than other Fire Emblem games, especially the recent ones, as your units all have low base stats to begin. However, by the end some of your units will steamroll the enemy, especially the overpowered bow knight class.
Fire Emblem Echoes isn’t perfect. The basic nature of encounters means theres not much innovation in the enmy encounters, so limited terrain, NPC concerns etc to consider compared to other games with more planned out chapters. The plot is basic (but serviceable) and some of the characters aren’t very likeable or memorable, but on the whole I found the game to be a refreshing change of pace from the more flexible but complex systems of the newer Fire Emblem games, and a bit more challenging to boot. It’s a good time, and I had a good time with it.
Splatoon 2This is just going to be a review of the single player campaign, as I have yet to put much time into the multiplayer.
Splatoon 2 is a third person shooter for Nintendo Switch, developed and published by Nintendo themselves. You play as a squid kid. One second you are a kid now, running around and shooting your ink blasting weaponry, and the next a squid now, able to swim quickly through the ink, even up vertical services. The multiplayer game uses these mechanics in a 4 vs 4 team battle with various rulesets, but the single player does something slightly different. Facing off against the evil octarian army, it’s your job to blast through levels shooting tentacled bozos and finding secrets in order to make your way to the zapfish at the end. Zapfish are basically this games equivalent of Mario Galaxy’s power stars, and the level design of the game also reminds me of Galaxy – lots of floating island sections with surreal hazards to navigate.
New to this game is the ability to wield multiple weapon types throughout the main story, as opposed to the original games splattershot (read: machine gun) only. Being able to wield other weapons such as the dual pistol Splat Dualies, sniper rifle Splat Charger and melee focused Splat Roller completely changes how you tackle a level. Some missions also force you into using one weapon or another the first time you play them, which lets them be tailored nicely to teaching you new weapon mechanics – something put to the best use with the new Splat Brella weapon – a weird umbrella gun which can shield, fly forward as a defensive and offensive weapon, and shoot short range blasts of ink.
Splatoon 2’s single player, like the first, is fun, but short and clearly not the main focus of the game. It also felt more underwhelming than the first game, which had a great final encounter to finish the campaign. In comparison, the final boss of Splatoon 2 was a bit of a limp fish (heh).
Someone play some online with me at some point soon and I’ll add an addendum to this review saying my thoughts on that too. I’m sure it’s great though.
Shantae and the Pirates CurseShantae and the Pirate’s Curse is the third game in the Shantae series. I played it on 3DS, but it’s available on just about every modern console too.
The big gimmick of this game is that Shantae has lost her genie powers so cannot transform into animals this time. Thus, in order to stop the big bad, she teams up with Risky Boots and can find pirate equipment which gives her new abilities instead. What this ACTUALLY does is improve the game substantially – it feels more like Metroid where new abilities get added to your own moveset and makes the game move much faster and more fluidly than the old system of transforming into animals. Which is a shame really, considering that is Shantae’s main gimmick.
I wasn’t a fan of the original Shantae when I played it a few years back. I found it a bit rough around the edges, and with far too much random enemies spawning on top of you and the likes. This game though, was fantastic. The music is awesome, the visuals are gorgeous, and the game moves along at a fast and brisk pace. Some of the level design is a bit too basic for my liking, and the writing is a bit too ‘Indie’ for me at times (ie. Too many in-jokes, 4th wall breaks and fanservice) but overall I had a good time with this one. I haven’t played the 2nd game or 4th game in the series though, so I guess I’ll get to those sometime and see if they’re more like this or the first game in the series.
Devil May CryDevil May Cry is an action game for PS2, but I played the HD Remastered version on PS3 via the Playstation Network (thanks, Humble Bundle!). It was also the 7th game I beat as part of the Summer Games Challenge.
Devil May Cry is game mostly about running and hitting things. You have 2 types of melee weapon to do this with, both of which can be upgraded with a variety of new skills. In addition, you also have a variety of guns which can be used alongside them, including dual pistols, a powerful shotgun and a long range grenade launcher. Combat flows in a way where attacks can be chained together, and it’s possible to juggle enemies with your guns as well as your attacks.
Devil May Cry is a game with a reputation for difficulty, but on the Normal difficulty it really wasn’t so bad overall. It was however a bit uneven – the early sections were some of the hardest due to your smaller health bar, meaning enemies could kill you in about 3 hits, and also just some pretty mean boss fights (that lava scorpion first boss is one of the hardest encounters in the game. These issues are compounded early on by the odd lack of linearity. Whereas later levels are very obvious in where to go to progress, the first few give you a very open area to explore with no hint on which way to go really, leading to some confusion for new players. This is compounded by the game not making it obvious which background elements are interactive and which are just background, meaning it’s easy to miss essential areas. All of these are probably remnants of it’s origins as a Resident Evil game, but they do detract from the game, as do the static camera angles that cause you to run the wrong way as the camera transitions and get smacked about by enemies just off screen.
The other thing that holds Devil May Cry back is the fact that it’s just been bettered since. I played Bayonetta a few years ago, and it does everything DMC does but better. It even does the OTT protagonist better, and the soundtrack too. Forget about the story, DMC barely has one.
DMC is OK, but I feel as a ‘classic’ it was only really one in it’s day. It’s genuinely a generally underwhelming experience these days, and I wouldn’t say it’s a necessary game to revisit.
Team Kirby Clash DeluxeTeam Kirby Clash Deluxe is a free-to-play eShop title for Nintendo 3DS. The original concept appeared as a mini-game within Kirby: Planet Robobot named Team Kirby Clash, and features a team of 4 Kirbys fighting a series of boss fights with RPG elements thrown in. Each Kirby can switch between 4 job classes before battling, which are all modified versions of powers from Planet Robobot.
The classes include the Sword Knight - a fast attacker who now creates a large shield to protect the whole team when blocking, the Hammer Lord – a slow but very powerful hammer wielder who can deal heavy damage with his charged attack, but is not very mobile, the Beam Mage – a modified version of the beam power which can stop time for opponents if it hits them enough with it’s charge shot, and finally Doctor Healmore, who wields the new ‘Doctor’ power from Robobot, and has a variety of projectiles as well as a chargeable healing skill.#
In addition to character classes, other RPG elements come into play, with a levelling system, experience points, equippable weapons and armour and statistics to raise including attack, defence, vitality, team attack power and charge speed. Upon level up you can also sometimes raise Kirby’s kindness and rosiness statistics, but these literally do nothing in game, it’s just a silly joke.
Kirby Clash Deluxe is a lot of fun, but there’s an elephant in the room, and it’s called ‘free-to-play’. New weapons, new bosses and many other things in TKCD require ‘jewel apples’ to unlock or purchase, and these are available at a rate of 5 every 12 hours real time, or by purchasing them with real money. Buying more jewel apples increases the rate at which new free jewel apples grow also. You can obtain jewel apples from completing special challenges too (beat a boss as all sword knights for example, or beat a boss in under 40 seconds) but these are finite and often difficult. I’ll come right out and say it – beating this game is a long and drawn out process without buying jewel apples. I spent about £5 on some myself, and that gave me enough to beat most of the game over the course of a few weeks, but I’m a long way from completing everything. Frankly, I’d rather this had just been a standard eShop release, where it would’ve been priced at the price of about £13 or something and been a brisk and fun experience.
As it is now, TKCD is very hard to recommend because of the layer of tedium strapped between the fun you’ll be having every so often when you finally accrue enough apples. It’s a shame, because the core game is a fun blast otherwise. Don’t commit yourself to this unless you’re willing to spend at least a bit to give yourself a decent start in the game.
Blaster MasterBlaster Master is a metroid-style platformer for NES which also features some overhead run and gun sections, and it was the 8th game I beat for my Summer Games Challenge.
Blaster Master is a game I’ve tried to beat before and failed, and that’s because it is quite hard and quite long, and it has limited continues. Dying 3 hours into a run without any remaining continues is heart wrenching, that’s for sure. This time through I made sure to scout out grinding spots to help me progress. The reason for this is that the hardest parts of Blaster Master are undoubtedly the boss fights, and they’re made substantially easier with the benefit of a fully powered weapon.
The weapon system might be one of Blaster Master’s biggest flaws in all honesty. The gun is all but useless unless almost completely powered up, but it powers down every time you get hit. Dying resets it to the minimum power level, to the effect thatg a single death on a boss can cost you a whole continue as you no longer stand a chance against him. This is compounded by the games frankly atrocious hit detection, especially on the best gun, with me hitting bosses some times for THIRTY SECONDS or more without actually damaging them.
It’s not all bad though, in fact it’s quite good. The overworld sections are fun, if a bit too labyrinthine, and completing each boss gives you a new power up for your tank, creating a fun sense of progression. It’s confusing getting the wall climbing power up near the end though as you can no longer drive off a ledge due to sticking to it, and it almost cost me my successful run through the game. For the record, I made 3 other runs, 2 of which ended on the world 6 boss, and 1 of which ended on the world 7 boss. Both of those bosses would be easy if my fucking hits registered once in a while…
Blaster Master is a sold and fun game for NES overall, but I hesitate to call it a classic. It’s too flawed in design, too cheap in enemy placement and too janky in collision detection to be worthy of such a title. It is a decent game though, with a great soundtrack and it’s at least worthy of your time. I don’t think it’s a ‘must beat’ though, considering the difficulty involved in doing so.
P.S. I used online maps. I couldn’t be arsed drawing my own, and it gets very confusing to do so anyway.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin SnakesMetal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is a Gamecube remake of the classic Playstation action/stealth title Metal Gear Solid. It was also the 9th game I beat for my Summer Game Challenge.
A few years back for the Summer Challenge, I played through Metal Gear Solid for the first time. It wasn’t a title I thought I’d enjoy, but I ended up really liking it, and have made a tradition of beating an entry in the series each year for the challenge. After clearing MGS2 and MGS3 over the last few years, this year I decided to try my hand at the 6th gen remake of the original, which from my understanding is slightly controversial with fans.
This is for 2 reasons – the first is that it introduces mechanics from MGS2 to the original game, which makes it easier in many ways – you can jump over railings to hang from underneath, stuff dead or sleeping enemies into lockers to hide their bodies from other guards, and importantly, aim in first person mode to dispatch enemies easier. If you use this successfully, you can destroy sections of the original game that were quite hard in the PS1 original. You can also use the newly introduced tranquiliser guns to do so without killing anyone too.
The other reason it’s controversial is the cutscenes. MGS as a series has always been over the top and silly, but Twin Snakes takes it to another level. It’s actually kind funny – Snake matrix jumps through bullets (complete with the classic matrix air ripple trail), surfs on missiles, kicks grenades and at one point does a cartwheel over a door frame to the other side to get a better view or something, even though that makes no sense and looks totally stupid. I agree with the fans on this one, the original version was better. However, I still enjoyed this version because it was so stupid it was funny.
Other than these changes, the game is pretty faithful to the original. Very little has changed besides a few conveniences saving you time which is appreciated. I’m sad to say that despite having played 6 MGS games prior to this, including the original, I died a whole bunch of times in the opening heliport and tank hangar sections of this game just like when I first played MGS for PS1 3 or 4 years ago. I guess I didn’t improve much XD
Twin Snakes is a fun way to play the game, but the PS1 game is cheaper and probably better. Play that one if you’re deciding which to buy, but if you can get both, it’s worth it.