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)
38:
DuckTales (NES)
39:
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (NES)
40:
Groove on Fight: Gouketsuji Ichizoku 3 (Saturn)
41:
Omakase! Savers (Saturn)
42:
Hamelin no Violin-hiki (SFC)
43:
Dark Half (SFC)
Both of these games are pretty decent platform games. Neither is nearly as good as Little Nemo, but they're fun for a while. Although, I have to say that DuckTales is, initially, anything but fun. It's extremely BS that the game tries to artificially lengthen the experience by making what appears to be the first stage, the poster-child for a ridiculously infuriating gauntlet of ass-hat level design. Sure, the stages can be selected in any order, but I refuse to believe that they didn't know what they were doing by placing The Amazon at the top of the list. However, that stage wouldn't be nearly as dickish if the controls and hurt/hit boxes were better. I generally didn't have any trouble with walking and jumping, but the way the cane works is pretty egregious. That alone really holds the game back. Ultimately I probably liked DuckTales a little more than Chip 'n Dale. The latter feels lacking in ways I can't quite identify. It's probably more meant for co-op, which I didn't try, but as a whole, it felt a bit flat and barren, as a game. I actually played through every stage because I didn't realize that wasn't necessary. It felt like a bit too much of a whole lot of nothing. I don't remember any of the music from the game, either. About the only thing that really sticks out is the final level, the final boss, and the fact that I could not for the life of me throw boxes at a diagonal--even though I'm fairly certain that it's possible. Otherwise, it's a pretty forgettable experience.
I've played a little bit of the MD, SNES, and arcade versions of Gouketsuji Ichizoku, and the arcade versions of 2 and Special (all through emulation) but didn't care much for them. After playing PuriKula Daisakusen for the Saturn, I felt like putting some real time into Gouketsuji Ichizoku 3 for the Saturn. I'm not very good at fighting games that aren't GGX2 (and even then, I still kind of suck) but it's still a fun game for genre novices. I liked it a fair amount, although the AI in the arcade mode is a little weird, in that the boss matches (aside from the very last round) are about as easy as the first two matches, and the AI for the fourth match can be pretty brutal, especially for certain pairings (the enemy pairings are always the same, but the pairs show up in different orders).
So, it's a tag battle game, and has most of the standard genre trappings: supers, ultras, throws. There are also some shenanigans with dodge maneuvers, power attacks, partner attacks, and universal 22 hit combos (which I would imagine genre veterans wouldn't take too kindly to). Also, it's possible to throw a downed character at the enemy, which I thought was a pretty nice touch. It does pretty absurd damage, though.
I've heard some pretty dire things about the Saturn version, in relation to the ST-V arcade cart, but while I'm sure there are some cut animation frames, the game plays well. As a fan of Murata Renge, I love the style--I'm aware that he does a lot of porn artwork, but as with Masamune Shirow, it doesn't keep me from enjoying his more mainstream work. There are also some nice additions to the Saturn version in the form of unlockable (hi-res mode) artwork, of which I unlocked everything, and a four player versus mode that allows for true 2v2 tag battles. At some point I would really like to try that mode out.
Going into Omakase! Savers, I was kind of expecting an action game with some adventure elements, but it really turned out to be an adventure game with some action and dating sim elements. It's laid out episodically, mimicking a four part Tokusatsu TV-show. There are FMV cutscenes interspersed throughout, which center on the three heroines. Essentially, while on a field trip, they (and by "they," I mean the ditzy 'leader-type,' who I hated) unleash a bunch of ancient, mischievous spirits, from the Yamato period, on the city. Some boy (aka the camera/player) standing nearby is essentially turned into a sentient gem that can sense nearby, or remnant spirit energy, and the girls are given magical girl transformation powers, and the ability to seal the spirits. Generally speaking, in each episode, some form of misfortune besets the city, and the player has to track down the offending spirit(s) in order to trap them during some fairly unimpressive action segments. At the same time, there are a bunch of choices that can affect how attracted to the player each girl is, so that you can win the heart of the 14-to-18-year-old of your dreams. (Technically, within the context of the game, I think all three of them are supposed to be 14, though.)
So, okay, it's a little creepy, but aside from the audio and sfx (which range from average to bad) it's not a terrible game. I ended up winning over Kana, which is fine, I guess: She's a bit of a rough and tumble, spark-plug/tomb-boy, and a straight A student. I can dig it.
The actresses were apparently part of a fledgling idol group, and were also cast for the promotional advertisements (perhaps just the CMs) for Rayearth on the Saturn and Game Gear. The girl who played Wakaba (the orange one) was later cast as one of the Sakura Taisen girls, when it was made into a musical--she also had a few radio shows, and did some anime voice work, including that of Dokuro-chan.
This game is based on a fairly successful, serialized manga series, which managed to pump out 12 volumes. Apparently, the story here only really accounts for the first two volumes of the manga. The importance of that is only really that the ending is quite abrupt, and strange. The game doesn't really do much to try to tie things up, at all. It's a fairly fun game, for the most part, though. It's a little bit like a mix of Mickey Mousecapade and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, with the overall quality lingering somewhere between the two. Basically, you take control of Hamel, the violinist, who "recruits" Flute (a girl from the town where the game starts) to basically be his human battering ram. Flute's movement is mainly controlled through 'call' and 'wait' commands. She can also be picked up and hurled at enemies for massive damage, and is practically invulnerable while in flight. Along the way, a bunch of different animal suits can be picked up, which allow Flute to transform into things that help Hamel traverse various sections of the levels. There are 16 transformations in total, but there's a lot of overlap in the abilities, two are completely useless outside of progressing the story, and a few I only ever used once, if at all. Other than that, Hamel is equipped with his violin that can fire magical, music-note projectiles, and a movement speed that could make molasses blush. The difficulty in this one is pretty low, aside from the second boss, who is just the worst.
I was expecting something a little bit better than what I got out of this game, but it's still pretty good. I enjoyed a lot of the level design, and I think it's worth playing, overall.
Dark Half is really tragic, to me. It's from Westone, and even directed by Nishizawa Ryuichi, but is woefully unspectacular. This is really troubling to me, because Monster World IV, and Dungeon Explorer (Sega-CD) are two of my favorite games, and Dragon's Trap is also spectacular. I can't deal with this game being such a mixed bag, and just generally unimpressive. Granted, this was released around the time Westone's work seemed to be on the decline, anyway. I was just shocked to see Nishizawa listed as the director in the credits. I was sure it had to have been some young-gun at the helm.
First, I guess I'll say that the story is probably the most average thing about the game. It's initially a story about the new chosen-one who takes up the mantle of defeating the ancient evil sealed away by the great hero and his apostles, a millennium earlier, until it changes up its tune to, 'surprise, bitch: humans are evil.' (Someone check my pulse, I think this might be killing me.) Where it kind of differentiates itself, is that Dark Half has the player alternate chapters that focus on either the antagonist or the protagonist: one chapter as the Dark Lord, Lukyu (L'cue, maybe), then one chapter as Falco, repeat. While I don't hate this, I think it gives the pace of the game a bit of a herky-jerky quality. It feels rough, and not in a good way; Most of this game feels rough: the graphics, the music, the characters, the battle system, the soul system, the growth system. It plays in an isometric view, and I really don't understand the impetus for that decision. It doesn't feel like it does anything for the game, other than hiding some treasure that ultimately doesn't impact much, and making me waste my time mashing the A-button behind a bunch of walls and terrain.
Some of the 'puzzles' are super ball-busters. I might have torn out all of my hair on the last screen before the boss in the Dark Lord's sixth chapter if I didn't consult a walkthrough. I can't even believe they had that screen in the game, considering how 'time' sensitive his chapters are, and how much they bumped up the drain on soul power in that area. It's insanity.
It's not a bad game. In fact, I actually kind of enjoyed the ending, but at the same time, most of the substantive plot was crammed into the latter 20% of the game--and I'm being generous in calling some of it "substantive." I expect more from the developer, and especially the director. It's not a very cohesive experience, and ultimately, while it has some relatively original ideas, they only add up to a slightly better than average game.
On a side note, for a console that's thought of almost synonymously with RPGs, I find the SNES to be practically starving for titles that are much better than average.
