Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Game Reviews Volume 29 From 2023 Part III

 This batch of games I beat in the futuristic year of 2023. Where's all the Hovercycles and Moon Bases and Power Armor? I'm playing Game Gear Here!

Just beat Shadow Dancer for Master System on my 2DS. Its part of the Shinobi series and based on the arcade game that was remade for Genesis. Its probably the most unfair one as you die in 1 hit and have no Continues, and the sprites are kinda big and action happens fast. 1 button is attack and is shurikens but up close is a Katana and the other button is Jump and with up or down on the D Pad lets you jump to other planes. There is a Level select code of pressing and holding the D Pad and Buttons when turning on the system, but I can't do that on my 2DS and it needs a 2nd controller. I used Save States to get through it. There's 1 left to right level then a 1 on 1 boss fight and the last level before the final boss is kinda easy as you can have the enemies go past you. There's Ninja Magic and a Dog Attack by holding down and doing something but I never figured it out. Also are bonus levels where you gotta throw Shuriken at Ninja but if 1 gets by it ends. Its pretty unfair but with enough tries it can be beat as its only like 4 levels. Quite good Graphics and the music is pretty good. The controls could be tighter as often I face the wrong way or don't jump when I wanted. Its not bad and with the  Level Select it can work but otherwise more annoying than fun. Some parts are pretty good and the bosses are often timing jumps and attacks and staying on the offensive until they fall as many have barriers and let it out to attack.  The final boss has 2 formes with 1 you gotta take out the Lime Green Yokai he fires, then stand and as he walks up, duck when he's about to swing his Naginata  and fire at the legs, then he walks back and repeats. If firing Shuriken, you might not duck when you want as it needs to finish the animation. Glad I beat it and it can be beat in like 10 mins on a perfect run but will probably take longer.

Just beat Spider-Man Return of the Sinister Six for Master System on 2DS. Its by Flying Edge and is also on NES where the AVGN reviewed it and has a number of problems. 1 button is attack and 1 is jump and holding Jump in air and pressing Attack can have you websling but you need something to stick the web shot to. The buttons are backwards so the one you normally user to Jump is attack and I had to remap the buttons in the options. The graphics are good and colorful and the music is ok but the gameplay could be much better. You have a small punch and if you ain't right in em, it does nothing and the enemy can counterpunch and take you out. You can't attack in the air unless you use a Web Shot which you gotta pick up as a Power Up and only has a few shots. Also the web power up looks like the Mine that damages you on some levels. After going through some mini maze and often solving a puzzle like getting a key or item to advance, you fight a boss and its usually him moving round and you gotta hit him when he's in range or lined up or visible. But he's attacking and often takes a while to line up and will end you well before you end him. I used save states as this only gives you 2 Continues but those are pretty much lives and I don't think you can get more. Also your health doesn't refill between levels but I think punching out guys gives you more, but I'm not sure. Also you can only climb the walls in the background and only certain ones, not the sides of the room or ceiling. Its probably one of the worse Spider Man games I've played and I hear its actually worse on NES and the Game Gear has less screen. Glad I did it but probably won't do it again. I think its based on a real Comic Book Arc like with Maximum Carnage but not as long. The other Sinister Six game on GBC was better but I think Spider Man is better in 16 Bit or on DS. Then again, this was by LJN and Bits who did R Type DX and Last Action Hero.

Just beat Ronald In The Magical World for Game Gear on my 2DS. Its a platformer called Donald No Magical World in Japan as Ronald McDonald is Donald McDonald there due to L=R. Its kinda like McDonalds Treasure Land Adventure but not by Treasure and the plot and abilities are different. It was never released here but played on an American Game Gear has it in English. You use Ronald to go through 4 worlds each with like 3 zones and a Boss and get to the end. Usually you need a Key to open the door and McDonalds Food like Burgers Fries and a Shake refills your life. There's signs that have a choice of Mini Game to play and get life or extra guys or a Power Up. 1 is a match game with 9 Squares and you flip em up to get 2 of the same, but 1 Tile is the Out Tile that ends the game. The other is a Stacking thing where 3 pipes dump out pieces of a picture and you gotta stack it up from bottom to top and avoid other images within 30 seconds each picture. I think the Burger gets you full life and makes you invincible for a bit. 1 button is jump and the other is attack but up and attack raises an Umbrella that slows your fall and can take out foes it hits, but folds up after. If you use a Continue you restart the zone but if its on a Boss you go back to the one before the boss. There's Infinite Continues and a 4 picture Password but the game can be beat un under an hour and isn't too hard. Some parts are tricky but you can extent the life bar by a few hearts or gems or w/e, but it goes after game over or biting it. Its got nice colors and graphics and good cut scenes that are friendly and innocent and pure like McDonalds is known for. The music is a lot like the Treasure Land Genesis Game and pretty nice. Even the cutscenes has different sounds depending on who's talking. Overall its pretty good and mostly forgiving as you can  keep trying until you get good or lucky.  The final boos is you taking out enemies he summons until he jumps down and you 1 shot him. Worth playing.

Just beat Super Mario Sunshine on GameCube. Its the best 3D Mario game I did, but thats like saying "its the best amputee xxx I saw cuz this one don't got dogs in it. You play as Mario and were framed for a crime by Shadow Mario who is a different colored you and anyone with a brain can see its not him. So it rips off Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. So you get this water pump backpack and gotta clean up the island by doing missions in worlds to get Shine Sprites. You only need 10 of em to trigger Peach getting kidnapped again and there's Bowser Jr. like Piccolo Jr. Garlic Jr. and Goku Jr. who thinks Peach is his mom, which she isn't sure is true or not cuz she's a full on Bimbo. You can go for all 120 Shines Sprites for a different ending screen but that's all you get and its not worth it. a is Jump and moving the A Stick lets you move or if you spin it or jerk it back and forth then you can do a higher jump, but its hard to pull off consistently. Also there's wall jumps and those can have issues to do. B is Dive or pick up things if standing still and if you squirt water and dive on it you can slide fast. L is center Camera but if jumping it makes you do a butt stomp and can be annoying to mix up and R fires the Water Pump but can do a big blast if jumping and using R right . X and Y let you go to 1st person view and the C Stick moves the Camera. There's 4 Water moves: Up Rocket, Side Rocket, Hover and Water Gun. When using the Hover and turning the camera turns and its hard to manage. The Camera often gets stuck behind things and  the foreground blocks your view. When using Yoshi you gotta bring the egg the right fruit, then ride him to the place to barf juice on the sponge thing that water won't get through. but if he falls in water he dies and you gotta do it all over again. I hate Yoshi. Each of the 7 Levels has 8  missions to do and the 7th is taking on Shadow Mario. SM runs and you gotta spray him enough times and after beating him in the 7 main levels, you unlock the final area. After a fire cave and cloud jump you face Bowser and he's in a hot tub with Peach but she's not in a sling bikini like Bimbos wear. You gotta butt hammer the edges of the tub and after all 5 go down, you win. Its not hard but the bad control and camera are rough.  I beat it w/o a guide except that boo king boss (TOTALLY not like the Sonic Adventure 2 boss) had you throwing peppers into its mouth but only said "now's your chance" and "Do something about his tongue" but doesn't say WHAT to do, so I tried jumping on him, hitting his crown and water spraying him, before I looked it up and found you gotta throw a different fruit after the pepper, which I had no clue to do so as when I threw it before, it said "its no use" or w/e. Not to mention the bad camera you can't change and the spinning floor, The graphics  are good and the music is nice and the control is better than the other 2 3D Mario games I did, 64 and 3D Land, but this still got me mad. Also the Water Gun has like inverted controls when not in 1st person mode and was kinda bad. you gotta beat the levels in order and can't do the 7th w/o the 1st 6 beat. There's a Save Files that keeps track of lives and running out lets you return with some lives. If you die you get booted out and gotta go back in after a few loading screens and go to where you lost to instead of starting already in the level. Also there's parts where you can't use the Pump. It improves on many things Mario 64 failed at, but it wasn't something I enjoyed as much as it angered me. Glad I did this but I think I had less anger with Bubsy on Genesis. Oh and like Sonic having Pinball, theres a Pachinko game but unlike sonic, its awful.

Just beat Spider Man 1 on GameCube, Quite an ordeal. Its based on the 1st movie and has the voices from it, but Tobey McGuire sounds wooden at times as he's a Film Actor not a Voice Actor but Willem did well, as did Bruce Campbell. Its a 3D game where you do 22 Missions and save between each but failing or biting it makes you start over (And reloads the level even though you were just there). L is web Zip, R is Websling, The A Stick or D Pad can be used to move, C Stick handles the camera with Down being centering it and Up targets with Left/Right when Targeting cycling between targets. A is jump, B is Punch, Y and X are kick and Web and using the Directions on A Stick/D Pad with Web can let you do different things like Web Gloves for harder punches or Impact Web to damage from distance.  Z goes into a target thing you move with the C Stick and can webzip or aim easier. There's Gold Spiders to unlock new moves, Red heals and Blue fills web. Web sometimes recovers a bit on its own and you are never fully out but might not have enough to do web things like gloves or dome. The game has good graphics and music and has that 90s/00s feel but its too dark on my TV even at max brightness, so I'm often wandering a black abyss and walking into walls I didn't know were there. The outside levels are not as bad with webslinging from the clouds like its the 60s, but the inside levels are slogs where you  struggle against the camera. Some levels have you hiding in shadows and taking out the same guards or guys who trigger alarms and you gotta hide and wait for a while for the killbots to go by, and the hang around after the alarm stops so you gotta keep waiting. That's what you wanna do in a Superhero game! Stand still and wait in the corner like the class dunce! The combos don't add much and I hardly ever used em as they were hard to pull off. I got this in 2002 Xmas and after playing a bit, put it away to never do again cuz I hated it. Its inferior to the Genesis and N64 Spider Man game. I finished it after like 20 years and have no plans to play it again. Some fights are rough and you gotta be cheap. Against The Scorpion, I went in the tunnel and found Life, when I came out he was standing there and I snipered him with Impact Webbing. I had to look up what to do a few times cuz it wasn't clear what to do. There's a Compass that points in directions but that's it  and you gotta know what to do. If this wasn't Spider Man but Bungee Man, no one would like this game. Other than the bad Master System and GBC ones, this might be the worst Spider Man game I played. You get a bunch of save file and infinite tries but its kind of a mess. The webzip doesn't work right and often I'm aiming wrong and stick to something I didn't want to, only to be killed right after. getting the target cam stick on an enemy and trying to find the way out and center the camera in vain as enemies fire on you in a dark void isn't fun. Having to redo levels cuz of 1 mistake over and over. The endless load times and seeing that spider lower until it starts. I like the music and designs and writing which has some funny quips, but much of this game is a mess. Oh and wall crawling goes where ever it feels like and if I hold left, it spazzes around until looping the corner and going right by holding left. I like Spider Man Games but not this one.

Just beat Soulcalibur II on GameCube. Its a 1 on 1 3Dish Fighting Game where you play as these various 1600s or w/e dudes and chicks and fight to get this evil weapon or something. You have an Arcade Mode of facing predetermined guys and a boss who changes fighting styles after enough damage. You can choose how many rounds and the difficulty and can change the controls to what you want. Up and Down moves forward and back into the background and I spazz on the A Stick and tap buttons to do combos. You can also use the C Stick to auto combos or assign it to the buttons. There's Guard and Charge to make moves stronger and its kinda like the N64 Xena Game but the characters are in tighter skimpier outfits(Both Genders).  It plays well and the graphics are really good and the voices and music are nice. You can up the Brightness and its got great colors and movement and the camera works. Its more than really curvy babes in small tight outfits but actually plays well and has good speed and style. I played it a bit years ago but this time I went all the way through Arcade Mode. There's also a Konquest Mode or w/e like in Mortal Kombat but I didn't try it. You can unlock other characters and in the GameCube Version you get Link from Zelda(Is this canon?) and the Xbox and PS2 had Heihachi from Tekken and Spawn. I liked this one and even though I did it on Easy with 1 Round fights, I still had a good time. Plus you get Infinite Continues as this is an Arcade Game and in The Arcades you can put in another Coin. One of the better GameCube games I've played and I used Taki who is a Ninja or w/e trained under Fuma who worked for the Hojo Clan of Feudal Japan like in Nobunaga's Ambition that I united Japan under on Game Boy. She's fast and has good moves. Glad I did this one. Namco really went all out on this one.

Just beat Digimon Rumble Arena 2 on GameCube. Its a 1-4 player 2D Fighting game kinda like Super Smash Bros but with simpler graphics and style. The graphics are kinda chunky but it fits the 90s Digimon art and the music and voicing is good with I think guys from the show. You get infinite Continues and usually gotta beat the HP outta the other players until you are the last one left, but there are some Secret Levels like King of the Hill where you stay on this area til the counter gets high enough, or Keep Away, where you have to hold an egg til the counter gets high enough. You can change the controls and assign buttons to moves and the D Pan or A Stick works to move. 1 button is attack, 1 is special attack, there's Guard, Grab, Digivolve and Jump. As you beat out foes, they drop orbs and you collect enemy dropped ones until the bar below the HP Bar fills and you can Digivolve. You usually got 3 levels, Starting, upgraded and final form and each has its own abilities. Its  kinda rare and I paid over 200$ to get this with the middleman.  Its not a long game and theres a Digidex (ripping off Pokemon eh?) to see the stats and moves and formes of the characters and you can unlock more by playing single player. That mode starts from the same point and goes in a tree where you go right choosing up/down levels and at the end facing a strong Digimon. How is Neemon a final boss?! And why is he so good?! After beating the last guy you unlock him and can start again. You get points and there's high scores and it plays somewhat well, but sometimes the controls didn't respond well, like going up instead of left. Oh and Malomyotismon can have a power instead of Digivolving where he changes your controls. If you fall off a level its death and you get a few lives each level like  in Smash Bros. But there's power ups and 1 is an extra guy. Its a pretty good game and has guys from the 1st 4 seasons. I tried Gatomon and won using Agumon into Wargreymon. Glad I did this.

Just beat Mario Party Advance for GBA on my 2DS, I played it before  but the card couldn't save so I beat it on a trip back to the same beach I played the 1st run at. Its a board game where you choose Mario, Luigi, Peach or Yoshi and roll dice to go around the area 1 space at a time, Green Spaces  is an extra dice roll, Yellow is nothing, Red costs you a turn and Blue is a chance for more Mushrooms. You spend Mushrooms to roll dice and can run into Bowser Jr who can take a Mushroom or teleport you or block your path for a few turns. You can go any way you want within the spaces and going back uncounts the spaces so you get them back, but once you reach the final step its done. You go around the board and stop by places to do quests to win Gadgets and after getting enough, The Bowser Pipes in the center get unsealed and you can do it. Some quests you gotta talk to 1 guy, go to another space, and return, others you gotta solve a mini game. Some can only be done by certain characters so after you run outta Shrooms, the game ends but it saves after and you can start again with any character until you get em all. The characters have personality and there's clues to how to solve the puzzles if you read em. This Sherlock Holmes Toad pops up and his name is 1 letter off of a real daemon god so that's there. Good graphics and music and every few turns you get a mini game to win more Mushrooms and some are good but others like the sled one are tough. It had some annoying parts but overall it was a decent game by Hudson to me. You can play it a few mins, then take a break doing it a few missions at a time and at you own pace. Also you don't gonna have it on 20 turns min and if you plan it out, you can go from Green space to the next and get far on 1 roll. There's also a Map and a thing where you look around and a list of characters to see who and where is what. Some parts are hard to make out like A/B looking similar on the instructions, but its doable. Glad I did this.

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