April Together Retro: 1980s Genesis

[Note]

Spent some time playing Revenge of Shinobi the other night. I really like this title a lot, the gameplay is fun, and the soundtrack is great. However, I'm not good at the game yet. I find some of the environments a bit odd for a ninja game, but hey, Sega got creative with it. I got to level 4-3, up to the boss that is a rip off of the Terminator. Unfortunately I couldn't get past that level, but that's the farthest I've got into the game, so hoping I can get even further next time I try.

I bought my copy of Revenge of Shinobi last fall from a local game store, without doing much research beforehand, so I wasn't sure which version of the game I had. After looking into it, it turns out I have the first version, with all the copyright infringement bosses in tact.

I'm also gonna take some time to revisit Forgotten Worlds and Last Battle.

[nightrnr]

My guess is that you have Rev 01 or Rev 02 of Revenge of Shinobi. Not a huge difference between the 2, both have Godzilla, but "Devilman" instead of "Batman" boss (which apparrently only the Japan original had).

This outlines differences:
https://tcrf.net/The_Revenge_of_Shinobi_(Genesis)

I've only played through the one in 6-pack (rev 03). (Changed the Godzilla monster, but not much else).

[retrosportsgamer]

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle is indeed horrible. I first tried this series out 20+ years ago via emulation as I remembered a bit about the first level. Gave it a whirl last night on the Sega Mini. Woof.

[o.pwuaioc]

I spent some time with Space Harrier II and Ghouls n‘ Ghosts last night.

These games are hard.

Ghouls n Ghosts is hard but rewarding. It's easily my favorite of the bunch. Plus the music is cool.

Of the games on the list, Alex Kidd and Super Thunder Blade are garbage, Forgotten Worlds mediocre, Mystic Defender was forgettable, Phantasy Star II doesn't hold up, Space Harrier II and Super Hang On might have been fun at the time, but they're really not great ports, Thunder Force II is an OK game, but not really my style, so in the sale pile it goes. Golden Axe I remember skipping and going straight for Golden Axe II, and so I haven't played it on the Genesis since I was 7/8? I still only have GAII, but maybe I have the wrong game.

Truxton, Revenge of Shinobi, and GnG are the only games on here I bought and wanted to keep, and honestly I haven't played any of them except GnG for many years, so maybe I'll want to let them go, too.

The rest I never played.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Back after losing power for a few days.

I posted a full review of Alex Kidd in Games Beaten. It is indeed quite bad. Felt like I had to slowly inch my way through the game whole. The entire experience reminded me of the WD-broken final stage of Exile: Wicked Phenomenon. Just terrible.

Still rollin' through Vermilion, though I've slowed down a bit. This game reuses tilesets to the point of insanity.

[nightrnr]

Still rollin' through Vermilion, though I've slowed down a bit. This game reuses tilesets to the point of insanity.

I suppose that's a casualty of trying to be 3 different games in a low memory cart (by later standards). Doesn't make it any less disappointing, but I wasn't surprised on that end.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Well, I finished the game. The last few hours really sucked. I hit the level cap early on and just found myself running from battle after battle as a result. The lack of inventory space becomes a major issue late-game, especially since you need a cluster of specialized keys to navigate the final dungeon -- that's like half the inventory right there!

The game starts to straight-up troll near the end too. Items hidden in obscure places. A lack of maps. Even finishing the game is a mystery..... after defeating the final boss you have to head to a specific town and "use" the mystical stones on a king's throne? Where else in the game does one "use" an item on an object? I understand this game came with a hint book... good thing, as the final stretch would be nigh impossible without it.

Kind of a lackluster experience overall. Repetitive, cryptic, but with mash-A battles that get very easy very quickly, making the whole thing feel like a "mindless" slog. Phantasy Star II is probably just as tedious, but that game had much cooler aesthetics.

[nightrnr]

I may have used a walkthrough in a couple parts on my playthrough.
I was also overleveled (not sure if I reached the cap) mostly because I failed to realize that I had a warp spell; so I walked back and forth literally everywhere searching for things (and fought most battles).

I do remember being glad to be done with it. Even so, I liked it for the most part. I won't fight any criticisms though, the game is the definition of archaic design.

A note about Phantasy Star II: I would not have survived that game without the guide it came with. One dungeon in particular is deviously tedious. And I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have found or known about the visiphone on my own.

[pook99]

tried to play last battle, it was meh, but there is a way to do a super jump which is required to get over some pits, but it doesnt seem to work consistently and the game is just not engaging enough to bother. I probably wont play through any games for this since I want to tie up some loose ends before I start the summer challenge.

[alienjesus]

Well, I finished the game. The last few hours really sucked. I hit the level cap early on and just found myself running from battle after battle as a result. The lack of inventory space becomes a major issue late-game, especially since you need a cluster of specialized keys to navigate the final dungeon -- that's like half the inventory right there!

The game starts to straight-up troll near the end too. Items hidden in obscure places. A lack of maps. Even finishing the game is a mystery..... after defeating the final boss you have to head to a specific town and "use" the mystical stones on a king's throne? Where else in the game does one "use" an item on an object? I understand this game came with a hint book... good thing, as the final stretch would be nigh impossible without it.

Kind of a lackluster experience overall. Repetitive, cryptic, but with mash-A battles that get very easy very quickly, making the whole thing feel like a "mindless" slog. Phantasy Star II is probably just as tedious, but that game had much cooler aesthetics.

Yeah. your thoughts are pretty similar to mine overall. It's not good.