Another bunch of reviews on games I played and most of em I beat from August to the end of September
Just beat Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy on DS. Its a Beat Em Up based on the 00s anime and has several Minigames to unlock. 2 buttons are Attack and 2 are Jump and you use the Touch Screen to do Alchemy by tapping the left/right corners. Touch the center to choose from other Alchemy you unlocked. Sometimes you gotta draw a Transmutation Circle on the Touch Screen to get past a part. You get infinite Tries as you an Choose Continue when you bite it and it puts you in the last screen you came into, even on a boss fight. Its not only wailing on guys, but sometimes you gotta tap the screen to use Alchemy at the right time in the right area to make the boss vulnerable or wait for him to attack and you use a Cannon Alchemy. Its got good stills from the show and some parts are voiced by the cast. Other than the 90s dub of DBZ, I think FMA was the only thing funimation did right, but I haven't seen most of their work as I prefer cool anime like Devilman and Cutey Honey and Hokuto No Ken and the Slayers OAV's and Urotsukidoji and Kekko Kamen and Yugioh. I missed a bunch of eps of the anime but did see the 00s movie with Fritz Lang so this filled me in a bit. This has good music and art and graphics and plays pretty well but some things are hidden so you outta watch a longplay if you don't wanna wander around for a while. It saves but only has 1 file and it restarts the story mode and you gotta start over when you finish the game. Some boss fights are withstanding their attack as their life burns as they attack. This is a solid game and is better if you like the show. It cost a bit but I'm glad I did it.
Just beat Rainbow Islands Extra on my 218 Sega Genesis Games Multicart. What an Ordeal! This is one of the most angering games I've played. Its the sequel to Bubble Bobble where you play as this fat kid who can't run fast or jump well, but can throw rainbows to walk up or hit enemies with. You can get Power Ups like Shoes to run faster, Red jars to give up to 2 more Rainbows or Orange jars to make the rainbows form faster by eating enemies, but if you touch an enemy you bite it in 1 hit and lost it all. Enemy's don't resummon but that's not good as you need em to get more power ups. If you take too long the water starts to rise but it only happened to me once. You gottta get to the top of all 40 levels with every 4 levels being 1 Island. Also you resummon on the boss if you fall on him, but have no power ups so its harder. You get 2 Continues but it SAYS 3 on the screen as I think it counts the 1st run as a Continue, but that's NOT what Continue means! It means RESUME! If I open a book to start I'm not RESUMing! To quote Megatron: Its either lying or stoopid! You end enemies by hitting em with Rainbows but if you Touch it with a jump, it breaks and falls and takes out any enemies close and collects Items it falls on. If you beat a guy by breaking it, You can get Gem. Get all 7 Rainbow Crystals in each Island and you can access the last few levels, And get them in the last 3 to get the good ending. The problem is: sometimes they don't give you the last Gem and you can either continue playing a game you can't finish, or restart the whole thing! And this is a long game! Its WELL over an hour! And unlike the Master System one, there's no Passwords, Saves or Codes! I did it on Easy and it took me several days to get it done. On Normal the bosses are too fast and attack more. Plus the control is bad! If you fall, you can only inch to the side and often fall into enemies. Also if you tap toward a Rainbow, you speed to the top, often into death. The game DEMANDS perfection and ANYthing less is met with failure. Its awful to make it far, only to be 1 Jewel off from making it and all enemies are gone. After you bite it, when you resummon you are invincible for a bit and touching enemies Jewels em, but it doesn't last long. Its got nice bright colors and the music is a rip off of Over The Rainbow from Oz, but the gameplay kills it. Often I'm in a situation there's no way out of and I bite it. Now that I beat it I never wanna play it again. I hate this game and want it and anyone involved to burn in the black pits of Dante's Inferno. Oh and if you get all 7 Jewels or get enough points you get an extra guy. And when you fall off a Rainbow or platform, you slowly fall until you reach something to stand on, which can take a while as many levels are long blank voids where you use Rainbows to crawl to the top. There's a mode where you can do the main 7 levels but it ends with "play the extra mode". Also 1 button is Jump and 1 is Rainbow and you can change em around in options but you use A/B to change things instead of the D Pad. Oh and you can start with 7 guys per go but you can only have up to 9 lives at most. If you get the Gems in the right order you can get permanent upgrades but I found it better to try to get all the Gems fast so you don't miss it.
Just beat Grind Stormer on my 218 Genesis Games Multicart. Its a Shmup where A/C is fire and B is nuke. Its 6 worlds and after that it Loops. You get up to 5 Continues normally but if you Hold A/B/C on the Title Screen and tap Start 100 X you get the option for Free Play in Continues which means Unlimited. And you'll NEED em as this is a fast and hard game. If you bite it you return to a Checkpoint but if you use a Continue, you Still return to the Checkpoint but you get a Full Power thing that lasts until you bite it. 1 touch and ur iced and returns to no power ups, but you restore to 3 Nukes and the Full Power thing gives you 1 more. Using a Nuke makes you invincible wile its blasting. Its got nice graphics and good music but has some inconsistent slowdown which can help but theres a LOT of enemy shots to dodge but a Nuke clears em. I beat it with over 20 Game Overs and using a Turbo Pad to Auto Spam Start so it could be Slow Mo and it was still challenging. You get Power Ups like Missile and Search, which is the best as it auto targets the enemies, and you get several Options that follow you around. You collect POWER capsules that increase your attacks but if you collect another Weapon type it replaces your current one. I liked it but its quite hard, even with Infinite Continues and a Pseudo Slow Mo. Glad I did this one but its a Challenge.
Just beat Rise of the Robots on Sega Genesis. Its a Fighting Game where you play as the worst character and fight the other 6 without Continues. A B C is Punches of Light to Hard and X Y Z are Kicks of the same. On a 3 button pad Start switches between em. Also they all look the same but have different speeds. In 2Pmode 1 is always the main guy who looks like Pepsiman and 2 is never him. You press the D Pad in directions, but don't do it too fast, then press any button for special moves but its hard to pull off. Often you can exploit the AI by standing in a corner and holding Back, then kicking to make em jump attack, then kicking again when they are blocked. After a move hits, you or him or both move back, so some guys can be beat my tapping H Kick and taking a step so ur outta range of his counter. The 2nd guy can be beat by couching and hammering H Punch as he walks into t. The 2nd last guy can be beat with Down, Up, Attack, to do a headbutt, but you gotta press Attack b4 you jump from Up. I beat him by walking close, ducking and using Heavy Punch him in the parts like Jean Claude or Johnny Cage as he jumped over me with kicks. But it didn't always work and if he got too far too 1 side he'd get me in a corner and wail on me. If you block you still take damage but its less. The enemies can beat you in like a few hits and block often, but if you play smart, you can out think em. The game boss is the easiest as you only gotta hold Back and H Punch when she deflects off. There's also a Training Mode where you choose 1 enemy and face him that you can do to lean their moves. Its not so bad once you know how to manage the bad AI and learn to counter em. Its actually got impressive 90s CG Graphics like Beast Wars but in some ways: Better, But they didn't have to do 26 eps. The music is good and 1 guy from Queen did 1 song. It can be beat in like 20 mins but is tough, Like Contra. The gameplay isn't unplayable and the credits mention other consoles. Glad I played this.
Just played Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter for NES/Famicom on my DS R4. Its a dir4ect Sequel to the 1st one where 1 button is Item, 1 is Wand, Start Pauses and Select opens a Menu. Its an Action RPG where you fight by ramming into enemies at a bit off center to beat em, or use a Magic Wand to use a Fire Shot or other things. You buy Armor and Weapons and Shields to boost stats and can use Items to advance. There's good 8 bit Graphics and nice Music as well as it Controlling Nice. You gotta Grind a lot to get strong enough to get through, but its not bad and can be done by fighting the same guys in an area that resummon when you go offscreen. The Bosses you usually beat by firing a Magic Fire Attack as walking into em damages you. Its best to use a guide as there's some maze like areas and some things don't tell you what to do. If stuck, try various items. Around halfway through the game, After the Ice Area Boss, My game glitched out, I can walk anywhere and the area is ghosted over, I can't leave and can walk into enemies but am like in another plane of existence, I reloaded my save state on my DS R 4 and f'd with the settings but its always the same. Like with Y's 4 on Snes. I wanted to beat this, but I did my best and tried. My 1st time I got caught where the Door to the Ice Area wouldn't open so I Restarted and went Right in the Door instead of going back for a Healing Flower. Its a good game I'd like to have finished. Glad I tried it. You can save almost anywhere and can heal in some areas by standing still, but you need the Robe from a cave in the side of a wall on the Ice Level to do it anywhere. If you bite it you reload from 1 of 2 save files to use. Despite being called The Final Chapter, it had many sequels, Like Horror Movies.
Just beat Return of the Ninja for GBC on my DS R4. Its kind of a platform action game where you play as a Male or Female Ninja and fight through 6 levels with unlimited tries. But you gotta beat each in 1 guy or you gotta start the level over. 1 button is Jump, 1 is Attack and Select uses a Magatama Bead you collect to do a Super Attack and Start Pauses. You can collect Items you keep until you bite it that let you do more things like Walk on Water, Burrow through Ground, Do a Super Jump by holding Down for a bit, Cling to Ceilings like Spider Man, or Glide on a Cloth like Mario's Cape in Mario 3. They are always in the sane area and you an get Rice Balls or Magatama Beads from slaying enemies. Holding Attack lets you charge up and fire a Shuriken and crouching then pressing Jump lets you back flip. If an enemy sees you and you don't end him fast enough, the security gets tight and you got more enemies and obstacles, but you can undo this by going in and out of doors. Its got nice 8 Bit graphics and cutscenes that look good and fitting Japanese Music. It can be tough but with unlimited tries you only gotta keep at it til you get good or lucky, but some levels are kinda mazes so I say look up a guide if you get lost. Its not bad and can be beat in like half an hour on a perfect run, but you'll probably spend more redoing things. Glad I played this. Oh and its by Natsume and is said to be based on Shadow Of The Ninja, but I think both are quite different in Gameplay, style and story.
Just beat Wendy: Every Witch Way for Game Boy Color on my DS R4. Its a Platform game by WayForward who's usually great and had nice color and music with kinda good Digitized Speech. A is Jump and B is a Magic Blast that can be improved into a Spread Shot by collecting Stars that also work as Extra Hits. You get Unlimited Continues and 5 Guys for each to get through it, and using a Continue makes you restart the area instead of from a Checkpoint, but the game isn't too hard. Using Up ore Down and Jump lets you flip Gravity and enemies are in it too, and you gotta use this to get through areas to the end. Theres a 4 character Password and it comes up between levels and its colored shapes. Spikes end you in 1 hit but if you are careful, its not too hard to get through with enough Trial and Error. I played the 1st 3 Acts but the game kept freezing so I couldn't do the flying levels, But I was able to play the 3 bonus levels that can only be done on GBA and they were the hardest. I eventually got through em and the Credits plays and it said The End. So I'm gonna count it like how I beat Super Mario 64 without getting all the stars or doing the clock level, or beating Super Hang On without doing all the tracks, Or beating Street Fighter II without using every character. Its a good game and has nice visuals and style. Its based on The Wendy The Good Witch from the Casper Series and was gonna be for a new show of it, but the show didn't get made and the game is all we got. Its well made and plays well and has a good feel and style while being forgiving. the levels aren't long and you can do em in bite sized missions then Resume with a Password. If it didn't freeze on emulation I'd have had more fun, but what I experienced was a good one.
Just beat Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg on GameCube. Its by the guys who made Sonic Adventure and plays similar. You play as Billy who looks like my cousin Aiden and roll around huge eggs you enbiggen by running over fruits and they do higher damage but more a bit harder. A is jump, B fires the egg but it comes back unless its off a cliff or if its thrown in the air, X and Y use Animals you Hatch from the egg, L centers the Camera, R hatches the egg if ready but if moving lets you rush. Using A in a jump lets you bounce and can go higher, The C Stick moves the camera and if you Rush and Jump you can do a long jump. Its got bright cheerful colors and nice music that I can't understand most of the words, and its story is like Rock A Doodle where this kid gets in an animal thing and fights evil birds by getting these good birds to crow and the sun comes back. There's like 7 worlds you gotta do various mission on to get these Emblems like in Sonic Adventure and in the Eggs you hatch, you can get power ups or these Neopet looking things that have abilities based on elements like Ice and Electricity that can clear obstacles or wipe out enemies and can be used up. You have 3 Save Files and it saves after every area beat. Also are Coins to find and with enough you can summon Sega Characters instead of the Neopets, but you gotta find quite a few. You can also hatch eggs that have Minigames to play on GBA with a connection cable. You usually only gotta do the 1st 2 levels to Hatch the Golden Egg to free the bird, and the other one to beat the boss, but you can unlock more missions by saving your friends in those missions. I didn't like the Game Salesman Missions of collecting coins as it was kinda annoying and the Free 8 Chickens as it was kinda long. If you bite it, you return to a checkpoint and all opened areas/collected items are there. The camera is kinda bad but not as bad as Mario 64. If you are moving and a wall goes on the camera, it moves like the wall is stopping it, then where you are aiming is changed and you can fall off. It could use some control tuning, but I had a decent time with it. Sometimes you gotta roll an egg down a rail and the egg falls through. Also it can be hard to judge where to go in the 3D. Its not the worst but I think Sonic did it better. Its got a fun style and feel and some parts are kinda fun. But if you meat a goal, like beat 100 foes, then you gotta still go to the Emblem and that can be a while off. Also Billy can't do much w/o an egg and if you jump wrong, you can have the egg stuck on a ledge you fall off. I often have dreams of playing Sonic 2 and going through rings in a Bonus Level and going under water or in a night sky thing or by a beach and I think its was foretelling this as you go through Rings and jet around. Overall its not bad and if you run outta guys you reload the save file, also you can farm lives by hatching the right eggs as each egg always gives the same thing based on where its found. I'm glad I did this. Its lite, cheerful and has a good 00s innocence of it. A bit of tuning and it would be great.
Just beat Lady Sia on GBA, Its an action game where you play as this blonde chick who's kinda french and can turn into a Sasquatch Giantess that looks like the Catgirl from Darkstalkers in some bosses. A is jump, B is Sword and after beating certain areas or getting certain items, you can use L R and the D Pad with A/B to do things like a combo or cast a spell that uses up Magic, but the only one I remembered to use was the Water Magic that makes you invincible for a bit. in Sasquatch Mode L and Left/Right is a Charge and R is Block and Jumping and I think A or B makes you slam the ground. If you use B and hold it, it charges a Magic Attack and it goes for a bit before poofing out. Its Got good Graphics and colors and controls mostly well but often its tricky to catch a ledge or go off without catching it. The D Pad up activates switches and goes in or out of doors, and up/down lets you look around. In each level you got things to do like collecting Gems or freeing captives and if you beat it with Full L:ife/Magic and all Gems/Captives, you get a Perfect Score, If you get Perfect on each Level you unlock more levels but its not needed to beat the game. If you reach a Checkpoint then each time you bite it, you resummon with the same Life/Magic/Gems/Freed Guys but if you made it with 1 hit left, you gotta be careful. There's Unlimited Continues and it saves after each Level. I thought it was pretty good and it came out around the start of the GBA. I recall reading a Nintendo Power Advance Magazine that mentioned it to promote the upcoming GBA along with Super Mario Advance, Castlevania Circle of the Moon, Pinobee and Hot Potato. Its got a style that's like a more impressive GBC thing and is a bit more experimental in looks than later games. Its also got that European feel and some of that late 90s attitude. some parts are kinda annoying but its more forgiving than you'd think. Oh and the story is pretty nice too. Glad I got this one. Its a solid 2D adventure.
Just beat Ninja Cop AKA Ninja Five-O on GBA. Its by Hudson and Konami and you got Unlimited Tries to get through 5 worlds of 4 levels each. If you bite it you start the level over but they can be beat in a few mins once you know how to do it. A is Jump, B is Attack with Ninja Stars, but you can upgrade 2x, although getting it lowers the Level, Holding L lets you look around with the D Pad and R is a Sword, A and B uses a Super Move that you gotta build a Power Bar by icing guys. Enemies don't resummon, except Bats sometimes and you gotta get Colored Keys to open the Colored Doors. You also gotta rescue captured guys and attack at the right time or you ice em. A i\n the Air lets you use a Ninja Chain to swing from or climb onto and A when crouching is a Slide. I played it on Easy as I think it was the Default thing and the game stopped after Level 3 as you gotta do it on Normal to get the last part. I hate that. Imagine if I started watching a movie but because I came in the wrong door, it ended half way through? So I played through again and got the To Be Continued again as it was already on Normal and by pressing the D Pad, it went to Easy, So I played through a 3rd time and after beating the 3rd area took a break. On the next night I went through the last 2 areas and these were pretty brutal. Often I kept going into doors over and over because I hit Up when I pressed Jump and Jump again or Attack to aim. Its not impossible but it gets pretty irritating. Nice Colors and Music and it controls pretty well often, but that Ninja Chain gets kinda tricky to do. If you Chain and are against the wall, Using the D Pad has you move a bit off and Jumping can let you go higher. But it was kinda tricky to pull off. Overall its a well made game and is pretty fun, until it devolves into 2 hit kills and cheap hits. Although you can Quit the Level any time to start over. Oh and some levels have you start with the same Power and Life as when you ended the last. Glad I did this.
Just beat Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on DS. Its kind of a mini game collection where you play different events using various controls like the buttons or touch screen that doesn't always work. you pay as around a dozen Mario and Sonic Characters and each has their own stats like Speed, Power Stamina and Skill that help you do better in some rounds. Often you gotta run by rubbing the Touch Screen in a pattern and use the D Pad or L/R Buttons. Some events like the Triple Jump or Javelin throw were tricky as the touch screen wouldn't register the slice. There's regular events like the normal Olympics and Dream Events with more Video Game things like Items and Special Attacks. There's a Free mode to play any game 1 at a time and a Mission mode that has each character do some thing I never tried. In the Circuit mode you play a few predetermined Minigames and doing better gets more points, At the end, whoever has more points wins. Also you can have a Coin thing you can use once per tournament that doubles your points gained from that event, so use it in one you are good at. 1 thing that bugs me is if you wanna quit or start over with the same contestants, you can't do it between rounds, so if you screw up, you gotta hammer buttons to get to the next one and THEN start for options. Also there's a lot of cutscenes of the characters before and after matches you gotta tap the screen to get through. The Graphics are nice and theres voices and music from both series that works well. Even if you get last place in an event, you can make up for it in others. Each event has instructions to read before starting. Overall its a pretty nice game and is a good Crossover of the 2 franchises. Glad I did this one. Oh and I only used Sonic Characters except Robotnik.
Just beat Pokemon Puzzle League on N64. Its a Puzzle Game where you move the icon around and swap blocks with A or B and match 3 or more in a vertical or horizontal line. If you get multiples or have blocks fall and match, you get to dump a line on the opponent that they gotta match at least 3 blocks next to and turn it into normal blocks. Thicker lines need to be done one row at a time. If the blocks get over the top of the screen its game over but you got unlimited continues so you can play til you get good or lucky. You play as the main guy from the anime before he devolved with the bad art style and its got the season 1 and some of 2 voices from the 4Kids dub. L and R make the blocks rise faster so you have more blocks to match but the screen slowly rises as the game goes on, unless you make a match, then it stops for a sec, but you can still makes moves so it can get you enough time to get through. If you play on Easy it says "try Normal, But after "beating" it on Normal, the game stops near the end and says "try Hard", which kinda bugs me. I hate how games don't let you finish the game on Easy or Normal, Why even have the mode if you can't beat the game on it? Imagine you won a trip to Japan, but the ticket only goes to california and to get the rest of the way, you gotta go to new york and get a different ticket! But that only goes to hawaii, so you gotta go back to new york to get the REAL one! I mean its not that hard a game,but having to go back and redo the whole thing as I was on the wrong mode is kinda gay. Then there's a Harder Mode but I got the credits and its only more of the same kind of battle so Imma count it as beat. You don't need to get all the Stars in super mario 64. Also you can choose how many rounds there are but I did 1. There's also a 3D mode with you do it in a Cylinder and loop around, but I prefer 2D. I liked this and this is how the 32/64 Bit Generation should have been: Better looking 16 Bit Games and not bad 3D.
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