Game Reviews Volume 20 From 2022 Part I

A compilation of reviews of games I played and/or beat since my last Review Volume

Just beat Top Fighter 2000 MK VIII on Sega Genesis. Its kind of a Bootleg version of one of the King Of Fighters Games or something but with some random choices for fighters. We got Ryu, Geese Howard, Cyclops from X Men, Kyo Kusanagi, Ryo from Art of Fighting, Goku, Cassius Clay and Michael Jordon. I got a copy from the Soviet Union in one of those smaller boxes and its got a Mortal Kombat cover. B and C attack and A does nothing. You can pause and there's options to have it on Easy, Normal or Hard, 30, 60 or 99 Second Timer and best of 1 or 3 rounds. You spazz on the D Pad and press buttons to do moves and pressing Toward and B does nothing. Holding back can block and when someone does a Super Move: The game waits for a sec to make it look dramatic, but it just gives you time to press Back to Block. Its not too hard and i was actually able to loop guys with low kicks and timing. You get Unlimited Continues and after beating all 8 fighters: You get a Win Screen and that's it. It plays pretty well and has nice graphics and music ripped off from other games like Ryu using the Power Rangers Music they play when the Zords come together. Its got a 2 player mode to go head to head and some of the guys who gave me trouble were Cassius and Ryu. Its worth the few bucks you'll shell out to but a repro of this. Glad I did this one. Come for the Zany Crossover, Stay for the good fights.

Just finally beat Virtua Racing on Sega Genesis. Its a Racing Game with a Special Chip in it to process the graphics on the Genesis. Its got these Polygon Graphics and simple by todays standards but in 1994 it was really impressive to see this on the Genesis. A is Brake, B is Gas and C Changes the Camera from 1 of 4 view points (I prefer the highest one so you can see more ahead of you, but you can also go 1st person or 2 others). There's 3 tracks and if you do something, I think beat all on Normal or Hard, You unlock Mirror Versions of em where they play reversed. The music is good but to get the Credits: You gotta beat any of the 3 Tracks on Hard once. But its quite tough as you gotta get in 1st place and when the race starts: The other racers are at full speed and you gotta build it up.  If you touch a wall you crash and if you go over non pavement you slow down. Going by other cars increases your speed but you can crash up if done wrong. In the Beginner Track the hardest part is the Swerving zig zag area and the U Turn right after. If you let go the gas near the end of the zig zag for a bit you can avoid the sand the U Turn you gotta let go of the gas after entering it and keep hitting Right to get through, but hit the Gas when at the right point in the U Turn. Left and Right on the D Pad Steer and you can only turn so much with 1 press and hold, so you gotta tap and hold it right to do it. The menu is kinda off as you press a button to choose it, then press it again to confirm, which is pointless Like how in Ovens you gotta set the temp then choose Bake or Broil, So I put my Pizza in and 20 mins later: Its still cold cuz I forgot to put it on Bake! This game is pretty unforgiving and if you wanna beat it: There's no cheats, Just build skill. When 1st released this gamer was like 100$ cuz of the chip, but I got it used for like 5. I'm not big on racing games but this was ok. I doubt I'll play this again but I'm glad I beat it,

Just beat Zettai Muteki Raijin Oh on Gameboy. Its a simple quick 8 bit fighter where you play as Mechs from the 90s Anime in 8 battles with no Lives or Continues. A is jump, B is attack, Start is pause and Select opens the menu. Its in Japanese but I can read a bit so its not so bad. Typically you gotta jump over the enemy shots, go up to him and spam, the Attack button while pressing Right. In the Menu you can choose (From top to bottom) Weapon, Body and Combine. Weapon opens a choice of usually Nothing and below it is Missile or Sword. Missile has limited Ammo but does more Damage and Nothing is just physical attacks. In Body you Swap between formes and each has its own life bar and Ammo. When the foe gets to around 3 Squares: You gotta use Combine to bring the Zords Together and have access to stronger attacks and Weapons, as you can't do more Damage in the smaller formes. After you Combine your Weapons are from Top to Bottom: Nothing, Sword (Which is just longer reaching physical attacks), Flash (a small shot), Shield (A bigger Shot) and Gravity Wave(Which stuns the foe for a bit but I think damages you if you get close). After a few rounds of this: You start in your Combined Forme and get 2 other Mechs to fight with, and a stronger Combined Forme. The new Mechs are: A humanoid that's Weapons are: Nothing, Drill (Like Sword) and Bazooka (A Shot) from top to bottom, and the other one just has Nothing and Missile. Then in the final Combined Forme you have Nothing, Sword, Bazooka, Shield and Gravity Wave(Like Gravion Zwei??). Usually you wanna battle the enemy and use your Weapons up until you have like 2-3 Squares of Life left, then switch and continue, Then repeat until all 3 are used, OR if you get him down to 3 Squares before using all your guys: Just Combine and unleash your Shots, then use Sword. Decent Graphics and Fine Music. It controls ok but many times hits don't hit, but its not a big deal. It can be beat in like 15 mins. Glad I tried it.

Just beat Naruto: Ninja Council 3 on DS. Its kind of a 2D Fighting Beat Em Up thing where you do Missions. After clearing all the D Rank missions, the C rank ones are unlocked and after beating the C Ranks, the B's are, and so on. But the Missions are on a Grid design and after clearing a Column or Row: The one on the end is unlocked and is usually an A or S  Rank You can use any Ninja for a mission, except a few where it Must be the chosen one) and some Missions let you customize the Ninja with other players Jutsu. A is jump, Y is attack, Hold B to run and X throws Weapons if you have one, but Throws when close. To do Jutsu you use the Touch Screen and do a mini game like Choosing the Hand Sign Symbols or Blow into the Mic or Spazz on the Screen or the Jutsu don't work. If you get hit before the Mini Game starts then the Jutsu don't go and you used the Chakra and need to wait for it to refill. Some Jutsu can nuke the screen so if you need to beat a lot of small frys in a time limit, then run and jump around to  make sure they are out, then do the Jutsu. You get unlimited tries to do the Missions and it saves after each one. Often I find myself facing the wrong way or the foe isn't hit by my Jutsu as I cast it and I gotta try again. Its not a hard game and has voice clips from the Dub Actors. Good graphics like the GBA Games and nice music. It plays pretty well and if you are a fan of the show, its gonna mean more. It took me  under 7 hours to beat and I enjoyed it. The Jutsu have Unskipable Cut Scenes but its not too rough. When you turn on the game you get like 6 logo's in a row you can't skip, but its not the worst. You unlock new Ninja by beating certain missions and they have their own speed, power and Jutsu. I'm glad I did this one. Its not that hard, but not every game has to be Battletoads.

Just beat Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Council 4 on DS. Gotta say, its not as good as the 3rd one. Its got good graphics and sound but the gameplay was kind of a downgrade. A is jump, B is hold to Run, X is Weapon and Y is attack. You get 3 lives and unlimited Continues to beat 10 levels that usually have 4 acts: 2 platform levels and 2 boss fights. But you only save after beating the 2nd boss and if you run outta guys at any point before that: You gotta do the Whole thing over. You can use Jutsu with the Touch Screen and play a Mini Game like moving the Stylus back and forth or matching the hand signs. But you gotta tap the screen and  your character does the move to use it like running into the foe. If you get hit before  making contact: The Jutsu don't work and you used up Chakra. Also the Hand Sign thing is worse now as it spins left, then right, so yo can't cycle through all the signs, though you can tap the signs in any order. Also you can choose 23 partners who you can summon with the Touch Screen to do a Screen Attack, then once its recharged, you can do it again. There is a story that covers the 1st arc in Shippuden and it ends in Sasori, which is like that Hokuto No Ken game that ends with Susa Gumo as the final boss. If you fall too far the screen shakes and your stunned, which is bad if you land on a platform as it can fall when you can't move and drop you in a pit. The Lower screen has a map that shows the area around you but often you gotta make leaps of faith. It does show breakable walls as paths so if you see an opening, just punch it. Also you get points based on how well you did and can buy new moves and characters with em. Its not a bad game and gets better as you go on, but some parts are gonna make you mad. Also there's loading times and The Title Screen can only be advanced with Start, but on the Filer Select: Start ERASED the File!! Why would you do that?! Glad I played it, but I doubt I'll play it again.

Just beat Metal Slug 7 on DS. Its a 2D Run N Gun game where you go through 7 levels of wasting dudes and robots. Its got pretty nice Graphics and the music is good as are the voices. You choose which buttons attack, use grenades, jump, cycle weapons and other things in the options. After you beat a level it saves and when you start again you can go to any level you unlocked and continue from there. It stats pretty simple and gets quite tough after a while. You get 3 lives and 4 continues so its like 15 guys and choosing what level to start with always has them full. If you bite it you go back to starting levels of grenades and no power ups and using a continue is the same as biting it as you just continue where you fell. You got several characters to play as and each has their own abilities like better firepower in a vehicle or stronger gun. I used Eri as she's got extra Grenades. There's 3 levels of difficulty and beating a level on any of them unlocks it to any difficulty, You can get in vehicles and they give you the edgy but you gotta jump out if they take enough gits or it wacks you. You bite it in 1 hit and theres often a lot of chaos on the screen so you don't know what did you in. It plays well but I felt there were times when they was no way out of getting hit and at times it felt like I pressed Duck but it didn't and I got iced. You can't jump down through things but its not so rough usually. You can get Power Ups by freeing blonde bearded guys (The Amish?!) and the touch screen shows where they are hidden on a map. The attack button uses a firearm but if you're close it used a blade to cut them out. Its a good game but kinda tough. I beat this without looking up a guide and it took all night. Oh and power ups have limited ammo. Glad i played this. Oh and you can't really fire on diagonals, but when firing some weapons and aiming around, a few shots go that way.

Just beat Mario Party 1 on N64. Its like a board game where you hit dice blocks that go from 1-10 and wander around the various game boards collecting coins to get stars. After each player moves, you play a Mini Game based on what colored squares the players landed on. You can have a 4 way, 1 on 3 or 2 on 2 Mini Game depending on depending on who got more Red or Blue colors(Green is wild and changes to Red/Blue randomly for game selection). After you get a star, the space the star was on turns to a ! spot that has Chance Time that has you roll dice to choose 2 players and an action like swap stars or 1 player steals 20 coins. The ? Squares do some effect depending on the board you are on and Red is lose coins while Blue is get coins. There are Mini Game Squares that let you do a 1 player Mini Game. If a player loses certain Mini Games, they lose coins and winning em gets coins. Each Mini Game has some action to do like tap a button a lot or spin the A Stick or jump at the right time. After the rounds you chose to play the game for are done you get bonus stars, 1 for winning the most coins in games, having the highest number of coins at any time, and landing on the most ? Squares. If 2 players have the same number they both get 1. After the game, you add your coins and stars to the bank and can buy things like Bowsers Level or the Credits or more options like "No Boo on a Game". Once you get 100 stars you unlock the final level based on a shattered star and got Baby Bowser dealing in Stars. There's also a Mini Game Island where you play a different kind of board game 1 on 1, but I never did it. There's also a place to play Mini Games for fun. The Graphics and music are good but some games like Crane Game don't let you win if the player grabs you no matter how much you tap buttons. I played this as a 90s kid but never did the whole thing  and only played the final level once. Its a great game and holds up well with only a few minor things. Glad I went through it.

Just beat the Nes Game Gremlins 2: The New Batch on my DS R4. Its kind of a Top Down Run N Gun Platformer like the bad levels in Super C  but actually kinda good. A is Jump and B is fire and Start Pauses. You get unlimited triers to get by 5 levels that have varying numbers of acts. There's also a 4 letter Password to continue where you left off but if you bite it on a boss you gotta do the area that leads up to it again. You get 3 Hearts but can get a 4th from a shop sometimes by buying the Heart in a Shop that shows up in some levels. You buy this with what look like Marbles you collect from beating enemies and biting it costs you all of em. You can also get a P Capsule that powers up your weapon that changes from level to level. The music is great as its by Sunsoft and its got excellent 8 bit graphics and cutscenes based on the movie. It controls well but I find airing at diagonals is kinda tricky. You get 1 Balloon per life (but can get more from a shop) that lets you recover from falling in a pit and lets you float over the next bit of space for a few seconds. Some platforming is tricky but not impossible. Falling in a pit just sends you back to where you last jumped from, but if you used a balloon and fall, it sends from where you fell before ballooning. The bosses take a bunch of its but can be beat by running, turning and firing. Its a good game that holds up well even if its a bit tough. 1 thing that bugged me was how on the Password Screen UP goes Z Y X and Down goes A B C, seems backwards to me. Its worth a playthrough and can be beat in like half an hour if perfect, but with mistakes took me like 2 hours. Glad I did this one.

Just beat Warsong/Langrisser 1 on my 100 Sega Genesis Games Ds Repro Cart. Its a SRPG like Advance Wars meets Fire Emblem where you move your guys and their troops around the board and battle enemies over terrain that gives bonus's. Different types of character do better against others with a Triangle of Archers beating Horsemen, who beat Soldiers, Who beat Archers. When you move a character to a spot you can attack or just sit there and can't go back after you selected to move there. You also have Magic that uses Magic Points that is refilled with each new area. If a character bites it they can't come back so you're better off just returning to the last save. Theres also an Interrupt Feature that's like a Quick Save that you can go back to after restarting the console. You get a 4 Save File Slots and if you lose a battle, you just return to the menu before the battle. You can equip items that give different boosts and but up to 8 of 1 type of troop per area. As you beat guys, you level up and can change Classes to get stronger and different abilities. There's a Command option that lets you choose how you want your troops to autopilot but the AI in this game is pretty bad and often enemy's send wave after wave of their own men to fall against a guy they can't touch. You can Treat to heal 3 points of damage and everyone starts with 10 HP and at 0 they bite it. Troops who start a round net to the commander recover 3 HP. The Commanders are stronger than the Troops and can cream a lot of guys depending on Class. Its got a good story that actually has some surprises and has great music and nice graphics. A does a Map Zoom out and in, B is Back and C is Confirm. I was thinking of skipping this after not being able to get through the 1st level w/o anyone biting it, but after finding out the NPC's can bite it in Level 1, I went through it and had a great time. Its a worthy game and is best with a Guide. Battle can turn out different if you save then retry the same fight. There's also this Anti Magic Bug that I heard of that makes the enemy Leaders Immune to Magic, but I never encountered it. By the end of the  game, you have high enough Magic to take out the last few bosses easy, but make sure you don't waste it all on the regular guys. There's only a limited number of enemy's in the game, so if you want to do be stronger, its best to take out the Enemy Troops 1st, then save the Leader for last. As if you take out the Leader, all his troops go. Also you get more money to buy Troops from beating more enemy's. Some troops are better against some enemy's like Guardsmen on Slimes.

Just beat The Ninja for Master System on my 200 Genesis and Master System Games Repro Cart. Its a Top Down Run N Gun like Pocky and Rocky or the Bad Levels in Contra Games. 1 button throws Shurikens in the direction you're facing, the other fires straight ahead/up and both at the same time does the Ninja Magic to Vanish for a sec and still move around so you don't get hit while invisible, Kinda like Nightcrawler in X Men. You get like 3 lives (2 1 and 0) but get an extra one at 30 000 points, then again every 100 000. After each of the levels you get an Accuracy score that goes up to 100% and you get more point the higher yo do. There's Ninja Scrolls to collect that do different things, Red makes your Shuriken stronger and can go through guys and take out more than 1 in 1 hit, Blue makes you move faster, and Green is where you have 5 hidden in the same places in the game to collect to get to the True Final Boss. You can stop enemy Shuriken by firing yours at em and some levels are auto scrolling with stuff to avoid. At the end of each level is the same boss but he throws a Super Shuriken that plows through your shots in 1 level. The enemy's appear in the same place each time so you just gotta memorize where to go. It can be beat in like 10 mins on a perfect run but i find its easier to retreat and fire Up to take the guys out. Like that Power Rangers Drug Add: A Safe trip home is worth a few extra minutes. Its pretty tough and takes some time to learn. The Graphics are good and it has nice music that reminds me of Boys by smile DK. I'm glad I played it but I don't think I'll play it again. Oh and if you take out several guys with 1 Shuriken: It can make your Hit Number more than the Shot Number but it only goes up to 100%. Not bad but can be annoying and tough. Oh and no Continues. get hit 3-6 x and its back to the start screen.

Just beat Rent A Hero on my 100 Genesis Games DS Multicart. Its sort of a Rpg but instead of Final Fantasy battles you do kind of an Altered Beast/.Last Battle 2D fight. C is Jump or Confirm in Menu, B is Attack or Back in Menu, and A is Super Attack or Break Rocks in a Cave. You play as this teen who looks like Axel from Streets of Rage and become a Super Hero by getting a Power Suit like Batman Beyond. You do missions like Delivering Food or Solving Crimes or basically helping people and getting paid for it. You get random fights and win Money or Items  but story needed fight don't giver you Jack. You save at your home but later get an item to save anywhere. Its got good start of the 90s graphics and pretty Genesis sounding Music and the controls in the fight need a bit of getting used to, but aren't too bad. Could use some Tuning on Hit Detection. Some parts night need a guide to get through like trying to get the Tape top play in your room as the Tape Deck isn't defined. You an Search and Talk in Menu and you gotta pay a Rental Fees to keep the suit. If you are late, you gotta pay more and they take the suit til you pay. You can't pause in fights and some parts don't let you save. You can carry up to 8 items and after getting the Bracelet its 7, and you gotta buy Batteries and Drinks to restore Power and Life and you can extend the Max by Donating to the Company and buying an item from it for 2000. You also get stronger Super Attacks by donating and the Company invents em. There's a lot of Sega refs in here and the Company is called SeCa with an Arcade in 1 city with Sega Games. If you bite it you wake up in the Hospital and pay a fee, then gotta walk back to try again. Some fights you gotta lose. It was not released here but has a Fan Translation that is pretty fun. Good story and characters and humor. Glad I did this one. Its worth a playthrough. Oh and you take a free Train to other areas so no overworld and it don't count as time running for payments.

Just beat Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate on N64. Its a 3D Fighting Game based on the 90s show where you play as 1 of the characters and fight the others. Good N64 Graphics and Music and the Voices are nice The C Buttons are Light and Heavy Punch and Kick, Z is Crouch, R is Jump, You can Pause and I never really used A and B(I think 1 blocks?), But you can change them in the options. You can play on Mortal God or something in between as Easy, Hard and Normal and all it does is give you a different ending when you beat the game and makes the enemy's less rough.  I beat it in under 8 mins after setting it to 2/3 rounds and 30 second matches on Easy and only lost 3 -4 fights. Its not bad but on my TV has bad lighting so its tough to see what's going on. I used Autolycus as he's Bruce Campbell and spamming C Down got me through many fights. The A Stick and C Buttons can do different moves, as can crouching. It can save on a Controller Pack but its usually for unlocking more characters and High Scores. Its a decent game and one of the better fighting games I've done on N64. Its got music from the show like Joxer's Theme and has a bit of the Show's humor to it. Glad I played this one.

Just beat The Jungle Book on my 100 Game Gear Games GBA Multicart. Its a platformer where 1 button is jump and 1 is throw bananas and you can swap em in the options. I played on easy and you get Unlimited Continues to get through 11 levels, some are bosses, and get 4 guys per Continue. Some levels have you collect 8 gems and others have you find the panther. Its kinda tricky and you do have a life bar but there's a bunch of levels with pits. Some parts have small things to jump across that you gotta be quick on the button to get across. If you bite it then all the enemies return but the gens are still on you, until you use a continue and gotta start over. Good graphics and nice music but the controls could be better. The game tells you what the mission is at the start and the bosses I beat with Attrition by firing until one of us fell. The snake springs take some tries as you gotta jump on em 2-3x to get the angle right as its got a momentum thing where you gotta go in it at the right direction, and holding Jump lets you go higher on it. Its not bad but can be kinda annoying to get through. Glad I played it but I doubt I'll play it again. Oh and its by Virgin like the bad Double Dragon Game Gear one. Oh and there's a level select you access by going clockwise or counterclockwise around the D Pad as the opening credits go and on the start of the game you can choose your level.