Games Beaten 2017

[Xeogred]

"Legend of the Fire Emblem"? haha, what year were these? Guessing mid 90's at least and pretty late in the SNES life... so NOA just said nah'.

[Exhuminator]

Sonic Mania looks like a complete rehash of love letter to Genesis era Sonic, so I understand why it's so popular with nostalgic fans. Those Genesis games were Sonic's golden age, after all. I have the PC version of Sonic Mania, maybe I'll play it next year.

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Marvelous is pretty cool, I concur. AJ, if you're interested in my thoughts after beating it, I reviewed Marvelous back in 2014. I will never forget that special moment I shared with a particular simian.

[BoneSnapDeez]

"Legend of the Fire Emblem"? haha, what year were these? Guessing mid 90's at least and pretty late in the SNES life... so NOA just said nah'.

Pretty much yeah. The Marvelous issue is Feb. 1997. Mario Kart 64 on cover.

A few more things from that era.

[MrPopo]

Can we please not quote longass review posts and leave everything in? Trim it down to the game name or the first paragraph or something.

think about potentially backtracking to the first two in the future, though I'll wait and see how I feel after this two part juggernaut. I need to go back to when Popo played through them and read over his thoughts again.

So my advice here would be that you want to beat MM1 to import the party into MM2, as the start seems to be in a position of assuming you imported but technically being able to handle a new party. And MM1 definitely shows its age. It has a very difficult early game and exploration is much more involved due to the entire overworld being one giant dungeon with edge walls (as opposed to block walls that MM3 and later use). Once you start going you can follow quest clues and ultimately beat the game, though the very last dungeon is the height of tedium and I recommend you just cheat and use a map. You'll understand why when you get there. MM2 has a ton of improvements in terms of playability; the overworld is now tile based with skills to traverse blocking terrain like how MM3 and later use. If you can get through MM1 then MM2 will be a real treat.

[Xeogred]

Can we please not quote longass review posts and leave everything in? Trim it down to the game name or the first paragraph or something.

I do that for a reason, it's called courtesy. AJ's post was at the end of the last page so chances are people might miss it.

[Exhuminator]

Can we please not quote longass review posts and leave everything in? Trim it down

I agree with you MrPopo, it's annoying when people do that. No one is going to "miss" someone else's review on a prior page. There is a previous page arrow button after all.

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109. Skyblazer | SNES | 1994 | 8/10



Skyblazer is 1994 action platformer developed by Ukiyotei, and published by Sony in Japan, Europe, and USA. The story concerns a guy named Sky trying to rescue a sorceress from a big baddie. He does this by marauding through stages killing enemies and bosses. There is plenty of jumping over pitfalls as is expected of the genre. However Skyblazer's design is a bit more advanced than standard side scrolling games of its era. For example, Sky can cling to vertical walls, and he gains the ability to use all kinds of offensive magic. During some stages Sky can fly, both in shmup shooter style, and in bonus rounds a rear view Mode 7 style (think Pilotwings). Sky's main attacks are punches and kicks, as his magic uses a pool of limited quantity. Parts of Skyblazer can be tricky, and death is not a rare occurrence. However, extra lives are very easy to find and farm in this game, so it's no big deal. In addition, passwords are available to save the player's progress.



I'm kind of surprised I haven't heard more folks talk about Skyblazer on retro forums. Skyblazer has impressive graphics (loved the backgrounds) with absolutely killer special effects, an above average OST, and really strong stage layouts. I enjoyed the impressive variety of each stage's design, as every area is unique, with new concepts popping up all the way to the end. There's a lot of stages too, Skyblazer's breadth of content is larger than your average SNES platformer. The controls are tight and simple, and the special powers Sky gains are fun to use. There's a fair amount of enemy types to fight, and lots of vexing bosses. There's even a bit of non-linearity in the way Sky can approach stages, thanks to a nice overworld map. Honestly I think Skyblazer is a bit of a hidden gem. That's not to say Skyblazer is perfect, mind you. I didn't appreciate the loose hit detection, super short melee attack range, nor the way Sky automatically sticks to walls (I'd rather hold a button down to do that). But those are minor gripes in an otherwise surprisingly strong SNES game. If you enjoy Demon's Crest, ActRaiser, or Mega Man X, I would certainly recommend Skyblazer. It's not quite as good as those seminal classics, but Skyblazer's a lot closer than you may expect.

[Sarge]

Skyblazer is one of my favorite hidden gems. Is this your first time through?

[Exhuminator]

Is this your first time through?

Yes it was. Had no idea it was this solid.

[Segata]

That is a game I been wanting to play a long time. Just not gotten around to buying it yet. If I recall it's not cheap.

[alienjesus]

AJ's review posts are a treat.

Never knew of the existence of Marvelous: Another Treasure Island. I'm putting that on my WIP list of goals for games to check out in 2018.

It might even be the best Sonic game in general, time will tell.

I still can't believe I might be considering this too. Sonic Mania is cemented into my #3 spot for my favorite new releases this year.

Hey, thanks, it's nice to know someone is reading them! Might be some of the most discussion I've gotten for one of my review thread posts

Marvelous is fun, it just requires patience because it takes longer to do stuff than it really needs to. It sure has a lot of heart though.

I think Sonic 2 is probably still my favourite game in the series, but I do wonder if it's nostalgia preventing me from giving the award to Mania.

You have good taste in games.

What a compliment to recieve! Thank you good sir.

I hope people like Master System, because the next 4 games I'm going to post will be for that system.

Sonic Mania looks like a complete rehash of love letter to Genesis era Sonic, so I understand why it's so popular with nostalgic fans. Those Genesis games were Sonic's golden age, after all. I have the PC version of Sonic Mania, maybe I'll play it next year.

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Marvelous is pretty cool, I concur. AJ, if you're interested in my thoughts after beating it, I reviewed Marvelous back in 2014. I will never forget that special moment I shared with a particular simian.

Yeah, it does rehash a lot, but the games haven't existed quite like this since 1994, so it's about team to be honest. It does offer a lot new despite the rehashing of old stuff. It also remixes stuff together in a fun way. What's old is new again!

I enjoyed your review of Marvelous a lot, it explains the game better than mine (I had 27 games to write about, so I decided to keep it relatively brief!). I played a later version of the translation patch than you I think, which translated more graphics, but the ending was untranslated for some reason.

One thing I forgot to note, for anyone intending to play the game, is that I had a few issues with the patch on my Retron5. It generally ran OK, but sometimes the music would cut out sporadically - especially near the start of the game. Also, if I suspended play and came back I'd need to reset the game before reloading a save state because it would crash and glitch out if I tried to continue the same file. Be sure to make lots of save state backups as well as in-game saves, and don't just rely on suspending play on the Retron5!