Re: Games Beaten 2019
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:25 pm
1. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary (NDS)
2. Reigns (iOS)
3. Castlevania: The Adventure (GB)
4. Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (GB)
5. Castlevania Legends (GB)
6. Yankai’s Triangle (iOS)
7. Mega Man III (GB)
8. Mega Man IV (GB)
9. Mega Man V (GB)
10. Sin & Punishment (N64)
11. Love You to Bits (iOS)
12. Mega Man Powered Up - Old Style (PSP)
13. Mega Man Powered Up - New Style (PSP)
14. Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA)
15. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (NDS)
16. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (NDS)
17. Detective Pikachu (3DS)
18. Super Fantasy Zone (GEN)
19. Fantasy Zone Gear (GG)
20. Fantasy Zone - The Maze (SMS)
Fantasy Zone - The Maze is a single-screen “maze” game, similar to Pac-Man. In it, you pilot Opa Opa around 51 mazes collecting coins and avoiding enemies. It is actually a pretty fun game, and it lets you play the first 26 mazes in almost any order. Moreover, it brings some pretty great ideas to the single screen maze genre. First, it allows two-player cooperative play. Second, you can use the coins you pick up to buy temporary upgrades, such as weapons, speed boosts, bombs, etc. that make clearing the mazes much easier. Finally, it has a mostly great system for generating enemies. Specifically, there is one space in the maze that acts as an enemy generator. It will generate three standard enemies that move around the maze like the ghosts in Pac-Man. After that, it will slowly fill up and begin flashing red. When it does this, all of the standard enemies freeze, and if left unchecked, the enemy generator will make each of the standard enemies generate a fast, deadly enemy that will hunt you down through the maze. Thankfully, you can reset the enemy generator by passing over it, which prevents the standard enemies from generating the “too fast to outrun, will likely kill you in seconds” enemies. This adds some interesting strategy to the game since it forces you not to stray too far from the enemy generator, which is typically in a pretty dangerous section of the maze. Also, the fact the enemy generator freezes the standard enemies for a few seconds gives you a strong incentive to push it to just the point of destruction before resetting it.
My primary complaint with the game is that it is just too hard. I could make it through the first 26 mazes with some practice, but the difficulty scales up way too fast after that. Per Fantasy Zone tradition, the temporary upgrades get more expensive as you go, making them less available as the game becomes more difficult (i.e., steepening an already pretty steep difficulty curve). Moreover, the later mazes are clearly designed for two players, with choke points making them almost impossible to clear unscathed. Two skilled players, with some practice, could probably beat the game, but one player would have to devote his life to beating this game on original hardware. The game isn’t THAT good, and I shamefully admit to using save states to beat it. If any of you go this route, I recommend self-imposing a rule that you must beat each maze at least once without dying. That makes the game a bit more like a die-and-retry platformer, and adds to the challenge significantly.
2. Reigns (iOS)
3. Castlevania: The Adventure (GB)
4. Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (GB)
5. Castlevania Legends (GB)
6. Yankai’s Triangle (iOS)
7. Mega Man III (GB)
8. Mega Man IV (GB)
9. Mega Man V (GB)
10. Sin & Punishment (N64)
11. Love You to Bits (iOS)
12. Mega Man Powered Up - Old Style (PSP)
13. Mega Man Powered Up - New Style (PSP)
14. Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA)
15. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (NDS)
16. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (NDS)
17. Detective Pikachu (3DS)
18. Super Fantasy Zone (GEN)
19. Fantasy Zone Gear (GG)
20. Fantasy Zone - The Maze (SMS)
Fantasy Zone - The Maze is a single-screen “maze” game, similar to Pac-Man. In it, you pilot Opa Opa around 51 mazes collecting coins and avoiding enemies. It is actually a pretty fun game, and it lets you play the first 26 mazes in almost any order. Moreover, it brings some pretty great ideas to the single screen maze genre. First, it allows two-player cooperative play. Second, you can use the coins you pick up to buy temporary upgrades, such as weapons, speed boosts, bombs, etc. that make clearing the mazes much easier. Finally, it has a mostly great system for generating enemies. Specifically, there is one space in the maze that acts as an enemy generator. It will generate three standard enemies that move around the maze like the ghosts in Pac-Man. After that, it will slowly fill up and begin flashing red. When it does this, all of the standard enemies freeze, and if left unchecked, the enemy generator will make each of the standard enemies generate a fast, deadly enemy that will hunt you down through the maze. Thankfully, you can reset the enemy generator by passing over it, which prevents the standard enemies from generating the “too fast to outrun, will likely kill you in seconds” enemies. This adds some interesting strategy to the game since it forces you not to stray too far from the enemy generator, which is typically in a pretty dangerous section of the maze. Also, the fact the enemy generator freezes the standard enemies for a few seconds gives you a strong incentive to push it to just the point of destruction before resetting it.
My primary complaint with the game is that it is just too hard. I could make it through the first 26 mazes with some practice, but the difficulty scales up way too fast after that. Per Fantasy Zone tradition, the temporary upgrades get more expensive as you go, making them less available as the game becomes more difficult (i.e., steepening an already pretty steep difficulty curve). Moreover, the later mazes are clearly designed for two players, with choke points making them almost impossible to clear unscathed. Two skilled players, with some practice, could probably beat the game, but one player would have to devote his life to beating this game on original hardware. The game isn’t THAT good, and I shamefully admit to using save states to beat it. If any of you go this route, I recommend self-imposing a rule that you must beat each maze at least once without dying. That makes the game a bit more like a die-and-retry platformer, and adds to the challenge significantly.