Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat
1-50
51-100
101. Goemon Mononoke Sugoroku (N64)
102. Breath of Fire (SFC)
103. Blasphemous (Switch)
104. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD (PC)
105. Kero Blaster (PC)
I might not talk about it THAT much, but I try not to make any secret of it that Cave Story, like La-Mulana, is a game very near and dear to my heart. So then, why in that case did it take me SIX YEARS to play the only other game by the maker of Cave Story since that game? Who's to say :b. But point is, I finally sat down and did it XD. It took me around 2 or 3 hours to beat the game on my PC using a game pad on normal mode.
Like Cave Story before it, Kero Blaster is a game with a cute pixel art style that drops you in media res into an odd and colorful world. You play the role of Frog (presumably) in Cat & Frog corp, which is some kind of disposal company. You play the role of disposer while Cat is your boss who seems to mysteriously get sicker and more deformed as you go on more missions. Your coworkers express concern with you, but ultimately you have a job to do: cleaning up messes, and that means killing monsters! The story is a unique and odd backdrop to the story, but at least on normal mode you aren't given a ton to work on to make it mean much more than just a fun backdrop with oddball characters. This game is absolutely not trying to be Cave Story 2, and it isn't.
Though a run'n'gun, this is absolutely not an adventure game. Kero Blaster is a sort of Mega Man game that has you going through 7 levels in linear fashion. You get a new gun or passive ability after beating each boss, and you can collect money in each stage to spend at shops found at the midway point of each stage. You can upgrade your weapons at the weapon shop, and buy more health, heart containers, and extra lives at the health shop (you can also visit the health shop after a game over, which is nice). You have four guns which all fit different situations differently, and the boss design is really good. It's a very well put together action platformer, from the enemy types to the level design.
While the game might not be trying to be Cave Story 2 in terms of overall design (though I'd say it certainly matches or surpasses that in mechanical quality), the presentation has that Cave Story charm to a T. The pixel art is simply animated but very pretty looking, and the music is excellent as well. Levels all look and feel different, and hunting for secrets of extra lives and money in them is fun too.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you like Mega Man-style games, this is absolutely a game you can't afford to miss. While it certainly may not be to the scale of Cave Story, the shooting and platforming have been refined to an even greater degree which makes this a fantastic few hours to play through. Also, beating the game unlocks more challenge modes you can go through if you're not satisfied with your Kero Blast-ing quite yet. Totally worth picking up, especially if it's on sale.
106. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (Remake) (PC)
Continuing to go through the large pile of games I have sitting among my Steam, Twitch, and Epic libraries on PC, I decided to finally play through this little gem. Originally a Sega Master System game, I played through around half of the TurboGrafx16 version of this game back on the Wii Virtual Console when I was a kid. I got stuck and couldn't progress back then, but I had really enjoyed my time with it. I figured it was high time I finally put this game to rest, and what better way to do it than with an excellent PC remake? It took me around 3 or 4 hours to beat the game on normal mode with a game pad, and I only had to look up where to go next a couple times ^^;.
Dragon's Trap is the third game in the Wonder Boy series, kinda, as it's a super confusing flow chart of confusing sequel names, but that's not important. What IS important is that the game starts out, the titular Wonder Boy (or Wonder Girl, as the remake gives you the option to choose
), right at the end of the adventure: The entrance to the Mako Dragon's castle! You barge in, beat up the guards, and kill the dragon easily. But as the game's title suggests, in death, the dragon has the last laugh! A blue flame emanating from his body hits you and morphs you into a disgusting lizard man! And so it is that Wonder Boy/Girl must begin their quest to return to their normal form!Along the way, they'll battle another five dragons in their castles and gain another four monster forms as well! You'll get to be a mouse, a mer-man, a lion, and a bird! Although you can't switch between them at will (you need to visit a special transmutation hut that's hidden in certain areas of the game), each form has different special abilities that will help them get to the next area you need to go to, and they even have different specialties of what weapon they're best with. As you collect more swords, shields, and armor, it pays to check over your equipment in your inventory once you get a new form to make sure that what was previously your best equipment actually still is ^^;. But you have super deep pockets, so thankfully you never need to go and re-buy any equipment. All you gotta do is just swap the toggle in your inventory.
The actual gameplay of Dragon's Trap is more like a 2D Zelda, but without the overworld sections of something like Zelda 2 on the NES. The entire world exists along a 2D plane, and you go through it via scrolling left and right, falling down, flying up, and going through doors to access new areas, dungeons, and shops. The dungeons and bosses are challenging but fair, and even though your attack range is short, it never feels like you're underequipped for the job at hand. Each form controls differently enough that you'll likely develop a favorite among them, but not so different that it's like leaning a whole new game. The controls are great and there are secret weapon shops and heart containers scattered all over the world for you to find. The only real issue with the game design is that, in grand retro adventure game fashion, the signposting can be a bit rough in places, and having a playthrough up on YouTube to reference when you need to will likely ease the frustration of wandering around forever ad nauseum X3
You can jump and swing your sword in front of you, and you can even use special consumable weapons you find along the way if the opportunity calls for it, but that's pretty much it. Even though this is a remake, it's also just as much of a port as it is a remake. It's even running along such similar lines that you can press the trigger buttons on the controller to toggle between the old 8-bit graphics and music respectively whenever you want!
But although even though that retro goodness is cool (and in some places makes the environments a little easier to see hidden blocks in because it's not hidden by the foreground anymore), the remake takes the old graphics and music and cranks them up to 11. The new orchestrated soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, and basically every track in the whole game is a real banger. The new art assets are beautifully hand-drawn (or at least styled that way) and have really pretty and fluid animations. However, I think the real star of the show is the music, as this game has some of my favorite music I've heard in a game all year.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. To paraphrase my friend AJ, Dragon's Trap is at the same time the best game on the Master System but also totally not worth playing on it due to superior ports, and this is definitely the best of those ports. It may be an adventure game that's over 30 years old at this point, but it holds up fantastically well. It's certainly a bit short, but if you like action adventure games at all then this is a fantastic time to be had that won't have you pulling your hair out at the difficulty despite its age. Not many games this old can feel so new with only a fresh coat of paint, but Dragon's Trap is absolutely a game capable of that feat.
107. Titan Souls (PC)
Another game from my PC game pile, Titan Souls is a game I heard about ages ago, got free on Twitch Prime fewer ages ago, and then finally decided to play yesterday. I knew it was a tougher game, but I really didn't expect it to be so short, as I finished it in just a little under two hours. It's another PC game you'll absolutely want a controller to play (I used my Xbox One controller), and despite its length it still manages to be a worthwhile investment. I played it on normal mode and killed 17 of the bosses (which I thiiink is all but one of them, but I couldn't find the last one ^^;).
Titan Souls is a game that clearly has some fairly strong inspirations from games like Shadow of the Colossus. You play a little person with only a bow and arrow, and you're in a mysterious land to fight and kill Titans and take their souls. Why are you doing this? It's quite unclear, but the point is that you're here to fight these giant monsters. This is another game that drops you in media res but gives you very scant context even up to the final confrontation, and it's a game that largely leaves you to your own conclusions about whether this quest was justifiable or worth it. Like in Shadow of the Colossus, these large beasts are just minding their own business until you come along to kill them, and unlike in even that game, you don't even have a person you're obviously trying to save. The only things in this land are you and the Titans, so you'll have plenty of time to ponder the nature of your quest as you wander from dwelling to dwelling of where they call home. If you REALLY wanna know a little more of what's going on (and fight an extra secret boss), you'll need to play the game several times on harder difficulties (which I did not do because the normal game was hard enough for me ^^;).
Titan Souls is a fairly difficult top-down, Zelda-like combat game where it's not just one hit kills on you, but it's also one hit kills on the bosses as well. Granted, they'll likely have a much easier time killing you than you will killing them, but that element of "just gotta land THE hit" makes it feel almost more like a puzzle game than an action/adventure game. The bosses are quick and tough, but they have patterns you can learn with enough patience. Heck, there were a couple I even managed to beat on my first try. They're not unbeatably hard (at least not on normal mode), but they provide a really nice challenge.
The method you have to beat them is with your bow and arrow, but you only have the one arrow. But that's not a problem, since not only can you pick the arrow back up when you miss a shot, but you can also hold a button to have it return to you. However, to draw back your arrow also means to stand still, which can quite understandably be a death sentence if you aren't careful about when you do it. But even upon returning to you, your arrow is still a weapons, and skillfully drawing it back towards you at the right time can be the key to defeating certain bosses who'd rather have their weak point facing away from you. You can also do a dodge roll and run, but other than that this is a fairly simple game mechanically that will have you needing to get quite good at those mechanics if you're going to see its conclusion.
The presentation is fairly melancholic in how quiet the world is. The music for the boss fights is fairly pumping, but the non-boss rooms have either fairly subdued music or no music at all. All the better to leave you alone with your thoughts with. The pixel art graphics style is nothing super unique, but it's all very well animated and the bosses all look cool. It's clean and crisp and there's very little danger of ever losing where you or the boss are on the screen due to how frantic things can get, which is an excellent quality for tough combat games to have (yet so many of them seem not to have regardless XP).
Verdict: Recommended. I think the asking price for the game might be a bit much for some people, but especially if you plan to do the harder modes, this game has more than enough content to justify the asking price. It's a cleverly crafted little action/puzzle game that is very satisfying to fight bosses in, and if you're looking for a challenge to go through over a weekend then this can be just the ticket.
