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My man Bone starting the year off strong! An obscure port of the worst Ys game FTW!

Ack, too! I’ve always been intrigued by the SoF games. They look like the video game equivalent of a sleazy ‘80s action movie.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:My man Bone starting the year off strong! An obscure port of the worst Ys game FTW!

Ack, too! I’ve always been intrigued by the SoF games. They look like the video game equivalent of a sleazy ‘80s action movie.

Yeah, there's something to be said for how much fun it is to blast off someone's limbs. You need to check out SoF some time. I hear SoF 2 is more influenced by tactical FPS but improves on the gore too.

I have also read that SoF: Payback is a mediocre shooter that succeeds only by dialing the gore up to 11! Any plans to play that one?

Yeah, I've got it wishlisted on GOG, but I'm not gonna pay full price for that. I have a bunch of FPS to get through before I get to that one.

Games Beaten 2019:
1. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Switch
2. Alex Kidd in The Enchanted Castle Switch
3. Streets of Rage Switch
4. Vectorman Switch
5. Galaxy Force II Switch
6. Flicky Switch *NEW*

Flicky



The journey to clear all the games in the Sega Mega Drive Classics collection continues onwards with Flicky, a fairly early release on the console based on the 1984 Arcade game of the same name. You play as a blue bird who must jump around a looping scrolling level gathering up your chicks before taking them to the exit. As you acquire each chick they will follow along behind you and copy your moves, and if you take them all to the exit at once you will get more points than if you take them in small groups.



Making this more tricky are the 2 types of enemy which appear in the level - all levels feature 2 cats who will spawn and then start looping around the level. They somewhat chase you - if you're nearby they will try to move to the same vertical level as you, and sometimes if they pass you they'll turn around and come back for you. One hit from these cats kills you, so you have to avoid them at all costs. If the cats miss you but touch any of your chicks, the line of chicks will cut off at the point they collided, and the chicks seperate from you will scatter and run along the floor, requiring you to gather them up again. Later levels feature more chicks wearing sweet sunglasses, which are a pain because they run much faster when seperated from you.



The other enemy type starts to appear later on, and only appears one at a time - an iguana enemy. This one can't make your chicks become seperated from you, but he can still kill you if he touches you. He's also way faster, and can walk up walls - both the vertical kind you'll have to jump over, and also the background walls - meaning he can run up the background to a ledge you're on, or run along the ceiling blocking you from jumping.



You can deal with either pest using various items scattered around the stage - plant pots, apples, telephones etc. Running into these will pick them up, and next time you jump the item will be launched forward, defeating any enemies it hits. They're one time use, and enemies respawn quickly, so they're nice to have but not reliable.



Flicky contains 48 stages - every 3rd or 4th stage is a bonus round where chicks are launched into the air and you catch as many as possible, but most stages have you platforming around avoiding cats. The difficulty, like many of these old-school arcade platformers, can be inconsistent, but overall Flicky is on the easier end of the spectrum. Make sure to use level selects and the likes though!



Overall, Flicky was better than I expected. Unlike many other early Sega arcade games, I feel this one aged pretty well. The Mega Drive port is also pretty solid - it's hardly a looker, but it's up to scratch with the arcade original, and whilst the music is a little different I actually prefer the Mega Drive soundtrack. Flicky is worth a play.

1. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia* (DS)
2. Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)

6:00:28

Brilliant remaster of a goodie. I've never loved the original Shadow of the Colossus but it's always been something I respect and understand how it has somewhat of a strong following. Certainly an impressive experience at the time. But in a roundabout way, this remaster feels like what the game really wanted to convey originally, or how some fans might react looking at this version and think "that's how it was in my head originally!" and how their brain remembers it. I personally don't really think any "magic" was lost in transition here with the new coat of paint. It is still a rather bizarre, desolate, atmospheric venture, with gorgeous landscapes and architecture everywhere you look. The music is far better than I could have remembered. And the story really goes places in the end. The remaster here does have some extras and unlockables I think (Time Attack, difficulty modes, NG+, Mirrored World, and photo mode things), a more modernized control scheme... but it's still a bit obtuse and different, not in a bad way though.

It'd be hard to think of a more dramatic face lift. The remake of Resident Evil 1 comes to mind. But this stays pretty unchanged from what I noticed. Overall, I honestly had a great time playing this and enjoyed it more than the original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w09sKTkyAOk

I'm happy to see Flicky get some love. It's a good game.

Hey yeah Flicky is pretty good fun. I used to play it on the Sonic Ps2 collection. If you beat the first ten levels with all perfects and in less than, I think, 20 seconds, you get a sweet sweet pixelated bikini lady portrait in the corner of the screen.

strangenova wrote:Hey yeah Flicky is pretty good fun. I used to play it on the Sonic Ps2 collection. If you beat the first ten levels with all perfects and in less than, I think, 20 seconds, you get a sweet sweet pixelated bikini lady portrait in the corner of the screen.

No lie Flicky was my favorite game to play on that collection when I was a kid (although Sonic 3D Blast is about tied with it these days, I'd say)

Was never sure if Flicky was worth a try - good to see positive reviews about it.