Sir Larosenin

  • 1 week ago
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    Games I finished in February 2024 :

    6. The Ninja (1986/SMS) - 5/10
    A Commando style game ported from the arcade. I could not see the ending and no cheat code exists for level select after loosing the three lives it gives you. Not bad, but far from anything special either.

    7. Metroid: Samus Returns (2017/3DS) - 7/10
    Taken for what it is, it's a good Metroid game, with emphasis on combat rather than exploration and discovery. You even get a scan to reveal the map at will. There are some annoying enemies and backtracking, and the checkpoint system can get frustrating. Some pretty tough bosses with hard to figure weak points almost break the flow by making losing a few times between their forms almost mandatory. The unnecessary parry added to the combat also brings things to a halt, by making it both slow and the quickest way to kill enemies without taking risks. With that said, the map design and gameplay loop are good, even if the game’s environments rarely feel organic, and more like overdesigned and overstuffed video game levels. Which, combined with the slowish parries, makes backtracking an annoyance, even with the new teleport stations. The thing is, Samus Returns is just not Metroid II.

    The original was a masterpiece of design, an artistic vision realized. The clunky gameplay and cramped screen add to the atmosphere of horror and confinement, kind of like the tank controls of a Resident Evil game. Everything in the design seems intentional; the story told by the game is complemented by the zone layouts, the sound design and even the location (or absence) of the enemies; the ending twist combined with the gameplay recontextualizes the game as a sort of survival horror Shadow of the Colossus. Everything in the design is there to evoke dread. It might not be accessible by today's standards, but it’s a coherent game where every idea and choice contribute to elevate the game to more than the sum of its parts. It doesn’t work despite the limitations of the system and the rigid gameplay, but because of those. A design that was in part dictated by its hardware, with self-contained open zones that never ask for backtracking to compensate for the cramped screen of the machine and the short gaming sessions that come with a battery-powered portable machine. A map wouldn’t serve the intent of the design well, but the design itself, by splinting the game in independent zones, makes the absence of a map acceptable.

    Metroid: Samus Returns, by changing up the level layout, the mechanics, the sound design, and the visuals, shows a complete misunderstanding of what the original intent for Metroid II was. In this context, the ending doesn't really make much sense, and I’m not even talking about the baffling addition of a Ridley boss fight after everything is said and done. This game is nothing more than the sum of its parts, with said parts being mostly good, even if I had a lot of criticism to address. Metroid: Samus Returns is without a doubt the worst of the 2D Metroid games, but I still had a good time with it.

    Both remakes, AM2R even more, basically took inspiration from Metroid II to make a new Super/Fusion/Zero Mission, forgetting that it was never the intent for Metroid II to be those games and that its story isn't well served by these new designs. I do think that overall AM2R is the better of the remakes, not only because it did a better job at capturing the soul of Metroid II, but also because it’s a lot less annoying. And since the original supposedly needed a remake because of said annoyances, I don’t think the intent was completely fulfilled. At this point I think it’s best to view Metroid: Samus Return as its own thing. A much more action-oriented vision of the Metroid series which had to be longer to justify its retail cost (2-3 times longer than both the original and AM2R). Here is hoping that Metroid: Dread, even if it looks like it stays faithful to this new design approach, does better in its execution.

    8. Kirby Fighters Deluxe (2014/3DS) - 4/10
    Short arena fighting game inspired by Smash, based on a mini game in Kirby Triple Deluxe called Kirby Fighters. It’s not bad, I think, I just don’t care much for arena fighters; it feels messy, and I never quite know what’s happening. I thought it would be useless now that online play is at an end, but there was never any online on the game anyway. Still, I haven’t played any local coop or versus matches. It’s on the light side on content as it only contains an arcade mode that can be beaten in 10 minutes and offers 10 copy abilities to choose from. Compared to the original mini game, it adds CPU helpers on some fights, a few more stages and the local multiplayer. So yeah, pretty useless indeed.

    9. Wonder Boy (SMS/1986) - 6.5/10
    A shameless rip off of Adventure Island on NES. Or maybe it’s just me playing the SMS port of Wonder Boy 25 years after playing the shameless rip off on NES, which still came out before the SMS port. Anyway, to me it feels like an easy mode for Adventure Island, which definitely needs one. It stars the same level layouts, but with fewer enemies, and none of which has any projectiles, and there is way more time on the timer; contrary to Adventure Island, I never lost because I missed a couple fruits, so I think I went through it at least thrice as fast as Adventure Island. Level 5-1 in Wonder Boy is Level 1-1 in Adventure Island. Still, they’re both pretty lengthy and repetitive games that overstay their welcome. But the music, God that’s irritating.

    Pro tip: some platforms flicker when approaching them, it means they’ll fall (or sometimes rise) from under you.

    And so, two distinct series started from the same game. Would it be possible for the same thing to happen again with the sequel?

    (Yes, it did.)

    10. Shadow of the Ninja (1990/NES) - 6.5/10 *replay*
    I’ve been wanting to replay this one for a while and I figured now was a great time since the remake is due later this year. It looks and sounds great, but it only plays fine. The controls are stiff, and some basic things are missing like when turning to the left, the camera doesn’t recenter itself. It then becomes impossible to see anything in front of the character and while it only happens during boss fights, getting hit by things outside the screen happens a lot more often than it should. The basic weapon’s range is ridiculous, and the enemy designs don’t complement the character’s toolset. The level design is nothing remarkable and the enemy placement makes it mandatory to take some hits at times if you happen not to have the right weapon for the situation. Situations that alternate a lot more often than the weapons to address them. Since you never happen to be well equipped for the circumstances, half the time the best strategy is to just rush past enemies wishing that you won’t get hit too much in the process. And the game is so short that, of course, you only get five lives (cheats exist). I remembered it being just ok, but looking at it I thought I must be mistaken; turns out I wasn’t.

    11. Night of the Scissors (2022/NS) - short
    Releasing as part of the console port of Cannibal Abduction, this short one sitting (no saves available) PSX/VHS horror game in the vein of Puppet Combo's stuff is the first of its creator. These kinds of games should be my thing, but for some reason they rarely click. The clunk feels too raw compared to old PS1 games I think; Silent Hill or Resident Evil were clunky but polished. In this one you explore a space, find the key, open the door, find another one, etc., all the while hiding if you hear scissors sounds (à la Clock Tower). Basic premise, basic design, but it manages to get under your skin. Checkpoints aren’t punishing and pausing is only possible in hiding spots, so you also can’t break the tension by pausing the game, though pausing might be useful for other reasons than just tension relief. A fairly good time with a great credits song.

    12. Lords of Exile (2024/NS) - 6.5/10
    Every year there’s a couple NES like games that come out and even when they don’t seem to do much to differentiate themselves, I still like to play them. They’re usually quite short, which doesn’t make them much of an engagement. Anyway, this one is a one man made Castlevania like (which is about half of them, the other half being Ninja Gaiden like), although it’s thematically a robots and ninjas game. First off, he fucked up the button mapping by forcing you to jump with A and attack with X on the Switch. It works, but the other buttons are used for specials and my mind is just wired to jump with B and attack with Y like in every other 2D platformer ever made (and you can’t remap off course). I’d say half my deaths were caused by a slower reaction time because of that. Other than that, it’s fairly standard, without lives, so there are no game overs, and thus no frustration upon death. Special weapons are bog standard Castlevania specials (but only three), power-ups are more like prompts/QTEs. Level design isn’t very interesting and nor are enemies. The economy isn’t working either with shops for health packs often being right after a checkpoint, making them completely useless. Cool sprites and great music, though.

    13. Chico and the Magic Orchards DX (2022/NS) - 6/10
    A short GBC style puzzle game that does what it’s supposed to. Controls aren’t very tight, and the puzzles aren’t very challenging. When you fall you practically respawn in the hole. More time should have been dedicated to the movements. A nice and short time with some fun gimmicks. Then when you think you’re done, there is another campaign mode that shakes things up with bigger levels that feel more like puzzle adventures than puzzles, but sadly there is way too much backtracking in them to stay interesting. It’s just an unambitious game that while competent, never goes beyond that. The game also crashed on me.

    14. qomp (2021/PC) - 8/10
    A short one button game inspired by Pong with tight gameplay and very cool design ideas and mechanics. The length isn’t detrimental to the proliferation of new ideas and that’s a very nice surprise. The sounds, music and visuals all work together to make the game meditative; the boss battles are genuinely creative, and the ending has a touch of mystic to it that works well.

    15. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (2024/NS) - 6.5/10
    My first contact with the CD-i with which I am not at all familiar safe from the AVGN videos, and even then, it’s not even CD-i. This game, by Seedy Eye Software (get it?) is an homage to the CD-i Zelda games, and a competent one at that. We often see Castlevania, Mega Man, Silent Hill copycats or reimaginations, but seeing a bad game reimagined is a pretty neat idea. Why remake worst classics when it’s the mediocre games that need rework? They even give the option for shitty classic controls for those who want the authentic experience. It looks and sounds exactly as ugly as it should. It’s pretty fun and boasts a structure analogous to those Zelda games, which was a weird one. After a while, going through the same levels over and over again, in a sort of level based metroidvania, becomes tedious and combat isn’t interesting, so it doesn’t help. The mid game was a slog, but the rest was a joy to play. Overall, it’s a nice atypical game that’s fairly unique, a love letter, rather than a mockery, to those old CD-i games that I was glad to experience.

    16. Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge (1991/NGB) - 7/10
    The fourth Mega Man game, first on the Game Boy and a bit of a sluggish affair, with slowdowns above an already slow game, in the same vein as the Castlevania games on Game Boy. It reuses four bosses from the first game and four from the second game, and with special weapons they are wimps. It’s only six levels long, including Wily’s lair. The music seems to have a hard time coexisting with all the sound effects. Ultimately it feels like a downgraded Mega Man instead of a Mega Man for Game Boy. It is fairly easy for a game in this series and on this platform, but the levels are as mean as they were in the first NES game and since I got good at it over the years, I kind of like it, in a Stockholm syndrome kind of way. Except the final level, fuck that one and its mean one hit death traps.

    17. Toree 2 (2021/NS) - short
    Follow-up to Toree 3D release earlier the same year. A fun linear 3D platformer that’s worth the short time it takes to play through. It looks and controls very nicely and the music is superb. I think I liked it better than the first one.

    18. Yakuza (2005/PS2) - 6.5/10
    If you're not sure whether you should play a game or watch a movie, feel like MGS games don't switch enough between the two, and like yourself some random encounters, look no further! The story isn't bad, but also it is; the writing is horrendous and the delivery is stilted. The loop consists mostly of going through the city on foot while doing random beat 'em up encounters to get to a cutscene followed by a harder beat 'em up fight. Rinse and repeat. They always make you go through the entire fucking city between every fetch quest, it’s ridiculous. From A, you go to B, then A again, and then B. Sometimes you have to find the place, other times they tell you, but forget the icon on the map. Yakuza has aged poorly, which warrants the remake it got in 2016 (no idea if it's any good though). The game doesn’t make any effort to inform the player of all the side activities available and I never made any effort myself to discover them either. I decided to keep it for the remake if I felt more like it when I got there. Still, I had a fine enough time with it. Sometimes really enjoying it and other times hating it. I often laughed when I was supposed to feel pain or sadness for the characters and when Amazing Grace started with the credits it killed me.

    One thing the remake doesn’t have is Mark Hamil in a few cutscenes saying things like “That’s where your girl works. I hear she’s hot […]. I know I’d like to nail a bitch like that.” Or “You look delicious. How about it? Would you like to be my bitch?” or during the fights: “Suck my dick you fat fuck”.

    19. Haunted Castle (1987/NS) - 4/10
    The first original arcade Castlevania game. All design choices were made to extort quarters from the players. Even with infinite credits and the settings at the lowest difficulty I fount it daunting, until I found out that the life bar can be cheesed by pressing start a bunch of times (without it I wouldn’t have cleared the first level). Visuals sometimes make the game hard to read, it’s full of traps and the enemies fly all over the place while you have no mobility and you need to hit them multiple times with the tip of the whip for it to register. It gets easier in the castle, and the visuals are especially nice, with dripping blood and weird shit happening. Just when I thought I quite liked it, I got to the last level which is a falling bridge that lasts for minutes, whole MINUTES; probably just a couple, but man that’s boring, and if Dracula kills you, it’s back at the start of the bridge.

    20. Donkey Kong Jr. (1982/NS) - 7/10
    A nice follow-up to the first one. The level design doesn’t complement the mechanics as much as in the first game, though, with very short falls killing the player. It could work, but it feels unfair at times as the level seems designed to accommodate for those short falls.
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    • WoodrowShigeru
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      WoodrowShigeru
      Editing … Looks like a busy month.
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    • Klemoib
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      Klemoib
      Editing … But did you get samus to undress though? Arzette seems like a game born from the cdi memes. In theory that sounds great to me but I saw some footage of the game and it seems to me like it's trying way too hard to be funny (and it's like a modern american kind of funny). The CDI memes are classic because they were accidentally ridiculous. But I have not played it so I might be misjudging it. The actual gameplay seems to be spot on.
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    • DJ_JJSlider
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      DJ_JJSlider
      Editing … The Wonder Boy series still sounds a huge can of worms that I haven't understood in the slightest. So like, it started as Wonder Boy. And then things got weird, and then we got Adventure Island or something. And then...I dunno...I lost track of where they were going with this. Lol.
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    • DJ_JJSlider
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      DJ_JJSlider
      Editing … Haunted Castle is still the funniest, most infuriating piece of trash I've ever played. I still can't accept the stupid "pay to win" arcade life bar, but at least that intro is too damned funny. Lol. https://youtu.be/Q859ehoT8GY?feature=shared&t=15
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    • WoodrowShigeru
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      WoodrowShigeru
      Editing … That intro gives you everything you need to know (›.‹ ) — I like how some of the GUI elements hide behind grass or cob webs.
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    The Wii U virtual console is a pretty amazing way to rediscover a classic that needs a joystick to be fully appreciated
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