Games Beaten 2019:First 50:
51. Mario Party
N6452. ActRaiser
SNES53. GoldenEye 007
N6454. Mom Hid My Game
Switch eShop55. Money Puzzle Exchanger
Switch eShop56. Gunbird
Switch eShop57. Tokyo School Life
Switch eShop58. Musynx
Switch59. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
NES60. Subsurface Circular
Switch eShop61. Yoshi's Woolly World
Wii U62. ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron
Switch63. Bare Knuckle III
Switch64. Gunstar Heroes
Switch65. Space Harrier II
Switch66. Sonic Spinball
Switch67. Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Switch68. Sonic 3D Blast
Switch69. Rabbids Go Home
Wii70. Alien Storm
Switch71. Alien Soldier
Switch72. Untitled Goose Game
Switch eShop73. Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole
Switch74. Fatal Labyrinth
Switch75. Ristar
Switch76. Golden Axe III
Switch77. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Switch78. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Switch79. Bonanza Bros.
Switch80. Shining Force II [& Sega Mega Drive Classics]
Switch81. Castlevania Bloodlines Switch
82. Puyo Puyo Sun 64 N64
83. Chameleon Twist 2 N64
84. Cruis'n USA N64Castlevania BloodlinesAfter finishing up playing through 51 Mega Drive games on the Switch this year, I was looking forward to relaxing with something different. So of course, the very next game I decided to play was Castlevania Bloodlines – a Mega Drive title – via Castlevania Collection on the Switch. Consider it a victory lap of sorts I guess. Anyway, this is actually the US Genesis version of the game, so I guess we can pretend it’s a bit different.
Castlevania Bloodlines is an old-school Castlevania game of the side scrolling platformer variety, but it does have some aspects about it that make it unique. First and most obvious of these are the two playable characters. First up is John Morris, who is the closest we have to a Belmont in this game. He uses a whip in the traditional series style, and can whip diagonally upwards with it. He can also whip the ceiling and swing across gaps with it. However, I used the second (and easier imo) character, Eric Lecarde. Eric wields a large spear which can also be used to vault up to higher platforms.
The game takes place over 6 levels, most of which have a lot of sections to work through. The game seems to really dial up the gore, perhaps due to the lack of an early 90s Nintendo being involved. This is prevalent from the outset with zombies falling apart and half od a giant monster chasing you through the first stage. I’m not fussed by the gore either way really, but this game sure is a looker for the system regardless. As with most Konami games on the Mega Drive, it really feels like they’re out to impress with their special effects (and show up former employees Treasure if they can). This can be seen with stages such as the Tower of Pisa which features lots of rotating and tilting effects, and the infamous stage where bands of the level separate as you go making your footing uncertain.
The game also sounds pretty great. It’s hard to match up to the spectacular soundtracks of Super Castlevania IV and especially Rondo of Blood, but Bloodlines holds it’s own. It’s a little more sombre and atmospheric than other soundtracks in the series perhaps, certainly less energetic, but it’s still great, and it picks up and drops away where it needs to.
Subweapons are back, with the usual suspects of axe, cross and holy water in tow. New to this game is a special subweapon obtained when your weapon is fully powered up though, which lasts until you take a hit or grab another subweapon. This unleashes a powerful screen clearing blast and is very useful against bosses if you can keep it for one.
The game isn’t perfect. It’s a bit short for one, and it attempts to remedy that by giving you limited continues, which is a bit of a jerk move for a Castlevania game if you ask me. Some of the platforming challenges can be pretty brutal for your life count too. That said, I found the bosses in the game to be surprisingly easy overall, with few offering much of a challenge – and the new special subweapon often making short work of those that do.
Overall though, I enjoyed my time with Bloodlines. I don’t know if I’d say it’s as good as Rondo, but it’s a contender for me vs Super Castlevania IV. Whichever of the main 3 castlevanias of this generation you play though, you cant really go wrong. We’ll ignore Vampire’s Kiss/Dracula X.
Puyo Puyo SunAs I’ve mentioned a few times before on the site, I’m a big fan of Puyo Puyo. I’ve played Puyo Puyo 1 in various forms (the Arcade original, Mean Bean Machine, Kirby’s Ghost Trap and the TGCD port), as well as Puyo Puyo Tsuu via various means as well. But I’ve never played the third game, Puyo Puyo Sun before. So I sat down with the Nintendo 64 version and gave it a shot.
Puyo Puyo 1 is pretty brutal in it’s difficulty level, and Puyo Puyo Tsuu amps it up even further, causing me to rage and shout new and inventive swear words on a regular basis whilst playing. Tears of frustration may or may not have been shed. I put this down to the game being an arcade release. I don’t know if Puyo Puyo Sun got an arcade release too, but it feels like this game may have been targeted at consoles first, because it’s notably easier. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not easy, but it’s not quite as hair pulling as Tsuu, and I beat it within about 2 hours overall.
The core gameplay of Puyo remains, with 4 connected Puyos of the same colour disappearing. Combos are the name of the game, as if more puyos connect and match after the first, you’ll create a combo which sends junk puyos to your opponent. The bigger the chain, the more junk. If you set of a chain before the junk drops on your side, you can reduce or even counter attack the opponent back. Junk puyos disappear when other puyos are matches next to them, but can prevent you setting off massive combos if they land in the wrong places. Balancing setting off big chains with sending smaller garbage attacks to block opponents is the name of the game.
Puyo Puyo Sun, besides being a pun on the Japanese word for 3 (san) also ties in to the plot and a new mechanic of the game. The plot see’s Satan bringing the Sun closer to earth with our hero Arle out to stop him as per usual. The new mechanic is the Sun puyo – a solar blob who creates more junk when matched during a combo.
Puyo Puyo Sun looks great on N64, especially with my HDMI modded system. I’d imagine on standard hardware it’s not quite as impressive as it is on Saturn, but with my console it looks crisp, clean and sharp. It really shows off what the N64 could do in 2D, which was rarely utilised. The soundtrack, being on cartridge, is a downgrade from the Saturn OST, but that’s not to say it’s bad – it still sounds great.
Overall, I had a good time with Puyo Puyo Sun. It was still tough, but not quite as unrelenting as before, and the bright colours and tropical vibes of the game kept it nice and relaxing. I think regardless of what system you end up playing this on, it’s a great time. Pick it up if you’re a Puyo fan for sure.
Chameleon Twist 2Chameleon Twist was a game I played a few years back on Nintendo 64. It let you play as one of 4 Chameleon characters with names like Davy and Linda as they platformed through a 3d world. The game had some fun and creative mechanics based around grappling and swinging with your tongue, but it was a bit short at only 6 levels, and kind of left you wanting more. Now, here is Chameleon Twist 2, with more of the same.
Chameleon Twist 2, on it’s title screen, promises us High Voltage Screaming Action, which is a big and bold claim. Is it one it can live up to? We’ll wait to see. The core gameplay here though doesn’t suggest so, as it’s built on the same mechanics as the first. A is jump, and B uses your tongue. You can move the tongue with the analogue stick as it extends to direct it. Grabbing a pole will let you either pull yourself towards it, or swing around it by holding A and B. Licking an enemy or item will pull it in towards you, and then said enemies can be spat out with another tap of B – you can lick up multiple enemies though and machine gun them all out in a row. Z lets you stand on your tongue, and doing this whilst moving lets you vault higher than a standard jump.
New moves are added this time though – holding A in mid air extends an umbrella to slow your fall. You can pull yourself to any surface with your tongue and then jump off of it again with A. Poles can now be swung around vertically as well as horizontally. So the game has a lot of fun moves, but the problem again is the execution and level design.
The game is again super short with only 6 levels, and many of these fail to use the mechanics in a challenging and interesting way. There are a few too many basic platforming sections or big open spaces with easily avoidable enemies to encounter. But the bigger problem is on the few occasions where the game does ask you to fully utilise your moveset, it feels too awkward and fiddly to use effectively – I found myself struggling a lot at these sections as the game felt a bit too unwieldy to handle the level of acrobatics it wanted me to use. This is especially apparent during the ‘tutorial’ sections, which were easily the hardest parts of the game for the most part, and I couldn’t finish most of them.
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The other issue the game is waiting. There’s a lot of sequences with moving platforms where you basically just have to sit and wait for a long time. Often, there are no hazards, secrets of anything else to find in these sections, so you can end up stuck doing nothing for a long time. The second level is the worst here, with 3 back to back ferris wheels which can take well over 2 minutes to get past, most of which standing still.
That’s not to say there’s no fun to be had here though. The game is simple fun and it looks pretty nice too, with bold colours throughout. The Chameleons have had a redesign too to look more like Chameleons, but this is only in the west – in Japan they look the same as the first game. The game’s music is decent enough too, if a little forgettable.
Overall then, Chameleon Twist 2 is a perfectly fine platformer. It’s definitely not worth a high price due to it’s fairly average quality and very short length, but it’s a fun enough game for a weekend. It’s certainly not full of High Voltage Screaming Action (often the opposite in fact), but if you like a bit of Gen 5 weirdness it’s worth a look.
Cruis’n USA
Cruis’n USA was a game I didn’t really have a whole lot of interest in until I saw My Life in Gaming’s Youtube video on the series a few years back. I knew Try4ce from the backloggery before he started that series, and his tastes often align with mine. Being that he was quite a fan, I figured it might be worth picking up the game if I saw it for cheap. And that’s just what I did.
Cruis’n USA is a racing game where you tour 14 different tracks across the USA – at least in theory, actually 8 of them are in California, but never mind! You race through these tracks in your sports car, aiming to beat the other cars to the finish line. The game definitely leans very heavily into the arcade racer genre, with a countdown timer and checkpoints which add to you time. The game also has some very unrealistic car physics, with a super twitchy car which almost seems glued to the track – no drifting and no heavy handling here guys.
The game isn’t really a looker for the system, but for an early title it doesn’t look awful. You can choose between 3 camera views for the game – the default behind the car view, then the usual more zoomed out view and the first person view. Personally, for a dumb racer like this, I go with the first person view – even if the other views are better for seeing the upcoming track. The game also adds to the fun in first person by having bugs fly into your windscreen and splat on some tracks.
The game has multiple audio tracks that play, all of which are kinda cheesy and cover a range of genres – house, rock, bluegrass and more. They are technically radio stations, so you can switch between them by pressing B whilst driving. They do get a bit repetitive though, as they music loops are super short, so even though the game only has 14 tracks about 3 minutes long each, the music gets a bit tiresome before you finish at Washington DC.
The game is fairly easy overall, at least at the default difficulty level I played it at. However, track difficulty varies drastically, and some of the earlier tracks are way harder than some late game ones. Chicago, which is track 11 or so, is also by far the hardest.
Overall, Cruis’n USA isn’t great, but it is some dumb fun which you can enjoy on occasion. It’s no classic, but if you fancy some cheese you could do a lot worse.