Games Beaten 2019:1. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Switch2. Alex Kidd in The Enchanted Castle
Switch3. Streets of Rage
Switch4. Vectorman
Switch5. Galaxy Force II
Switch6. Flicky
Switch7. Phantasy Star 2
Switch8. Sonic the Hedgehog
Switch9. Altered Beast
Switch10. ESWAT: City Under Siege
Switch11. Columns
Switch12. Virtua Fighter 2
Switch13. Kirby Star Allies
Switch14. Katamari Damacy Reroll
Switch eShop15. Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!
Switch16. Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Switch eShop17. Sword of Vermilion
Switch18. Decap Attack
Switch19. Golden Axe
Switch20. The Revenge of Shinobi
Switch21. Beyond Oasis
Switch22. WarioWare Gold
3DS23. Shining in the Darkness
Switch24. Kid Chameleon
Switch25. Streets of Rage 2
Switch26. Bio-Hazard Battle
Switch27. Super Thunder Blade
Switch28. Gain Ground
Switch29. Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom
Switch30. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Switch31. Comix Zone
Switch32. Vectorman 2
Switch33. Light Crusader
Switch34. Crack Down
Switch35. ToeJam and Earl
Switch36. Dynamite Headdy Switch *NEW*
37. Golden Axe II Switch *NEW*
38. Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi Switch *NEW*
39. Columns III: Revenge of Columns Switch *NEW*
40. Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention Switch *NEW*
41. Kirby No Kirakira Kizzu Game Boy *NEW*
42. Klonoa Wii *NEW*Dynamite HeaddyDynamite Headdy is a secretly one of the best platformers on the Mega Drive, and I don’t think it gets the credit it deserves a lot of the time. The game features a huge selection of levels with lots of new and interesting mechanics from stage to stage. It has some amazing technical tricks for the system that impress but also manage to fit within the gameplay and not feel too much like out-of-place gimmicks. It has some nice visuals and an eclectic soundtrack, and it’s generally a really fun game.
One of the reasons it probably didn’t gel with people as much is it’s difficulty. Dynamite Headdy was a tough game in its original Japanese release, but then it was made harder when localised to the west – you start with less continues and it’s harder to get more. Bosses take more hits and have harder to avoid attacks. Some fights are ruined by the changes in my opinion – Baby Face goes from a fun change of pace (the boss is part of a shmup level) to an insane marathon of bullet dodging that just isn’t much fun, the boss fight on the endless staircase becomes a 10 minute slog due to making his pattern random instead of fixed, and lots of other examples.
Which is why, if you’re going to play Dynamite Headdy, I’ll always recommend you play through the Japanese version. Luckily, if you play it through the Sega Mega Drive Collection on Switch like I did, you can switch the games region to enjoy it as it was meant to be played. And enjoy it you should, because Dynamite Headdy is pretty great.
Golden Axe IIGolden Axe is a game I have lots of nostalgia for, and when I replayed it as part of the Sega collection earlier this year, I thought it still held up pretty well. It’s far from perfect, but it features just enough interesting setpieces, environmental hazards and enemy variety to be enjoyable.
Golden Axe II on the other hand, is a game I’ve never really played before now. I didn’t own it as a kid, and so this was my first time through the game. And unlike Golden Axe 1, I didn’t really enjoy myself much. It’s hard to pin down why really – mechanically it’s very similar. You have the same 3 characters, the same attacks its built on the same engine, most of the enemies are the same. For all intents and purposes, it may as well be a bonus map pack for the first game.
And yet, it just doesn’t feel quite right. The levels feel more flat and less interesting – more stone buildings and less harbour towns and stone paths on the back of an eagle here. The music is decent, but just doesn’t feel as memorable as the first game. And the game just feels completely devoid of any original ideas, and with it, kind of loses the heart of the first title.
Golden Axe 2 is by no means a bad game. In fact, I could understand people liking it more than the first, especially if they played this game before that one. But as a sequel, it feels underwhelming, lacking the charm and character of the first game whilst offering up nothing new of its own. It’s worth a play, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it. Play the cheaper and better first game instead.
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of ShinobiI’ve previously played 2 out of the 3 Shinobi titles on the Mega Drive, having finished both Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi 3 in the past. However, I’d never given Shadow Dancer a go – not out of any kind of lack of willingness, but because the opportunity just never arose. The game always looked interesting, but it being closer to the original arcade Shinobi was offputting, as that was a game I didn’t enjoy, with its 1 hit kills and stiff gameplay.
But I needn’t have worried, because Shadow Dancer on the Mega Drive is a blast. It’s fast paced and action packed, but with just enough of that tactical gameplay that I associate with Shinobi – one hit death forces you to be careful with how you approach enemies with better ground that you – jumping up or dropping down into a bullet has big consequences. You can be helped out though, by your ninja dog sidekick, who can be set onto enemies, stunning them for a bit and letting you move in for the kill. The dog can’t die, but can be hit, which causes it to shrink down into a puppy form temporarily, unable to attack in the meantime.
Shadow Dancer’s mechanics weakest point comes with boss fights, which can be brutally challenging with the single hit deaths. The one boss fight on top of the Statue of Liberty (the game has some fun stage designs too!) caused me a lot of headaches in particular.
Still though, Shadow Dancer is a good game and I feel it compliments the other Shinobi games on the system really nicely. Revenge of Shinobi is really deliberate and careful, Shadow Dancer is fast paced but simple, and Shinobi 3 is about utilising a well rounded moveset. All three are great, and worth your time.
Columns III: Revenge of ColumnsColumns 3 is a game that never originally released in Europe, and so this was my first time playing it. The first Columns game on Mega Drive is another game I have some nostalgia for, and I was curious how a sequel would even build upon it – after all, Columns was a very simple game with simple mechanics, a distinct art style and music.
Well, it turns out that Columns 3 reinvents the game quite a bit – rather than a thoughtful historical aesthetic and slow, calm music meant for longer 1 player sessions, it draws a lot more from the likes of Puyo Puyo and becomes a cartoony, competitive, multiplayer puzzle game. The main story mode has you progressing through a pyramid playing Columns against various monsters in a way that is entirely consistent with Puyo Puyo, and the cartoony art style and music reminds me of it too. And whilst I enjoy the original Columns, I also love me some Puyo, so I’m fine with the change.
Mechanically, being a head-to-head puzzler means that you need a way to ‘attack’ the opponent. This is done in a few ways – the first is the ‘crush’ mechanic – by building up 10, 20 or 30 jewels matched, you can press a button to ‘crush’ your opponent – removing his currently falling jewels from play and raising the floor of his well up higher, pushing his gems towards the top of the screen. The amount raised depends on how many jewels you’d matched, and then resets the count. It also lowers the floor of your well if it’s already raised. Creating combos of gems will make a flashing gem appears. Matching this gem does a random attack effect on your opponent, such as turning his screen black-and-white, making itharder to match gems, flipping it upside down or more. Finally, after a certain number of matches, a magic gem block appears containing an upwards pointing triangle, a downwards pointing one and a square. Landing it with the downwards triangle at the bottom lowers your well, the upwards one will raise your opponents well, and the square will remove all gems of the colour it lands on from your side.
These mechanics actually make for a pretty fun and tactical game. For example, saving your crush for when their magic gem appears lets you remove it from play but in the meantime you lose some of your defensive and offensive options to lower your well and raise theres. The random effects from combo jewels can be super detrimental but are harder to trigger and more unreliable. It’s a fun game and I highly recommend it. I just wish it had come out here so I could go and buy an original copy more easily!
Shining Force: The Legacy of Great IntentionShining Force is a game I’d on tried once, briefly, on the Xbox 360 Mega Drive collection. I played a map or so, thought it was interesting enough, and then kinda stopped. I think being a long time Fire Emblem fan, I was somewhat put off by how the game was so similar to Fire Emblem but different enough to where things threw me off – such as the use of MP for spells and lack of counterattacks from enemies.
So this was my first real attempt at the game, and I honestly quite enjoyed it. I still think it’s a bit of a poor man’s Fire Emblem in some ways – it’s certainly easier and a good deal goofier than that series – but it’s still a lot of fun and really charming. I suppose I should have expected as much from Camelot. I’ve had lots of people tell me how Phantasy Star is the definitive Sega Mega Drive RPG series, but to be honest they always felt kinda B tier after the original. The Shining games, have a real feel of quality which can stand head to head with some of the better SNES games.
I didn’t think Shining Force was perfect – the levelling mechanics are kind of broken sometimes – I would have characters dealing 3 damage on one map, then getting a level up or two and getting enough attack that they now dealt 15 damage. It through the difficulty balance out of whack – I had a section of the mid game where all my characters were screwed in attack and killing stuff was very difficult, but end game my guys were hitting like trucks and that issue no longer existed. I also hated the item management in the game – every character has 4 item slots, items were automatically given to the next available one, and trying to buy new weapons for guys meant lots of tedious menu navigation to make space.
Overall though, Shining Force was a good time. I enjoyed my weird ragtag squad (favourites from my team included Kokichi the jetpack riding, lance wielding old codger and Domingo, the floating squid monster mage) and I enjoyed the games overall tone and atmosphere. Translation was OK for the era – nothing fantastic but certainly not the worst, and the visuals were top notch for the system.
I’m very much looking forward to playing through the rest of Shining Force 2, which I’m working through currently. It’s just such a shame I’m getting into the series now though, considering the price Shining Force CD and Shining Force 3 seem to go for these days. Still, the fact that I’m still somewhat contemplating shelling out for them should tell you how much I liked what I played here!
Kirby No KiraKira KizzuAKA Kirby’s Star Stacker. Here’s a c-c-c-c-combo breaker for my run of Switch (and Mega Drive) games this year. Back in May I got married, and then my wife and I went to Japan for our honeymoon. I picked up this game whilst I was there, and played it on the train ride home. And speaking of combos, that’s what this game is all about.
Kirby Star Stacker is a puzzle title where you’re tasked with clearing a certain amount of stars on each level to clear it. Blocks drop down in pairs of 2, with 4 types being available – Kirby’s friends Rick the Hamster, Coo the Owl and Kine the Fish from DreamLand 2, and a generic star. If 2 of kirby’s friends are matched, they will disappear, but this also works if they are joinedtogether in a line by a line of stars – the characters disappear and so do all the stars between them. This is the only way to remove star pieces from play, which is required to beat the stage.
If you make a combo, Kirby will throw some extra stars into play. These dropin a way where they will form a new line if possible. If this happens, Kirby will throw more stars into play – potentially making more lines and so on. Each time Kirby throws stars into play he throws more, and Kirby’s stars disappear instantly if they don’t make a match, reducing the star counter. Big combos result in Kirby throwing 12 stars at a time, which can make a big reduction to the number needed for clearing the level.
Kirby Star Stacker is a fun game for the first 4 of its 5 difficulty levels (lovingly titled Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Super Hard and Insane). Normal through Super Hard difficulty don’t particularly live up the their name – they’re short and pretty easy overall, with some challenge by the time you reach Super Hard. But Insane absolutely lives up to it’s name, and to be honest, somewhat ruins the game. It has 50 stages (compared to 16 or so in other difficulties) and requires hundreds of stars cleared per level, making levels drag on WAAAAAYYYY longer too. But the main issue is that the block layouts are such that it’s entirely RNG dependent if you can even make a start – I’ve had levels where there’s only room for 4 tiles to drop in at the start and none of the ones given to me could make a match. Stage 43 in particular took me hundreds of attempts just to clear the first 20 moves or so. It really ruins an otherwise super fun game.
I still think Star Stacker is worth playing. It was somewhat addictive for much of the time I played. However, those levels in Insane are just that, and not at all fun, so don’t force yourself through them.
KlonoaKlonoa is a game I first played a few years back on my PSP. That was an emulated version of the PS1 game, and I thought it was fantastic. So fantastic, that I wanted to own a copy of it for original hardware. Then I saw the price tag that comes with and was sad – I’d begrudge paying that much for a cartridge, but I might fork out on something like that now and again. But for a PS1 era disc? I didn’t think it was worth the risk.
And so I looked into picking up the remake on Wii. It wasn’t exactly cheap either, but it was a bargain compared to the price of the PS1 copy. And it’s a pretty good remake, very faithful to original hardware. I played through it in a weekend (Klonoa is a fairly short game for the era) and I had a great time. However, despite what some people might say, I do think that this is the lesser version of the game.
The visuals on the Wii are pretty nice. Colourful and bright, with lots of charm. But they do look like a lot of games from the Gamecube and Wii era, whereas Klonoa on PS1 had a really distinct look that stood out from other games when it released, and even today it feels unique. The PS1 game also had a bit more challenge – Klonoa’s health has increased from 3 to 5 bars in this remake, which makes the game much easier. Klonoa on PS1 isn’t super challenging or anything, but it had a little bite to it before and it’s quite breezy now. The Wii difficulty feels like people imagine Klonoa to be, whereas the PS1 difficulty fit better with Klonoa’s actual dark undercurrent – it’s cute and cuddly, but the story isn’t always! Lastly, some of the techniques used in the PS1 game feel like technical showcases or cool tricks on that system, but on the Wii they’re just, y’know, standard stuff. Games which utilise technical tricks for level design can often lose some of the magic when the technical trick is no longer that tricky in a remake.
Still, if you want to play the game and own it physically, there’s certainly nothing with this Wii port. Klonoa is a great game either way, and I highly recommend it. Absolutely a must play in my book.