Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Game Reviews Volume 33 From 2023 Part VII

 Well, I managed to beat another 10 games before the year ended, so here's them. All of em Sega 40% Anime Based.

Just beat Demolition Man on my 218 Genesis games Multicart. Its a Side Scrolling Run And Gun based on the 90s movie that got the future pretty right. You use Stallone and 1 button is Grenade, 1 is Gun and 1 is Jump and you can change em. If you play on Easy it ends after a number of levels and says "Play on Normal". You get a life bar that goes fast and can climb and jump on ladders and pipes. There's a few Top Down Levels like Super C where you gotta save these same looking guys and blast enemies who never stop coming. The graphics are pretty good for 16 bit and the music is good. It controls pretty well but some parts it seems like doing the same thing gets different results, like the underground level you gotta climb across this pipe and fall to a ladder on the left side, where I'd miss or get it by chance. There's a number of Voice Clips from the movie and they sound good. You can lock your aim and can move in the top down levels and Strafe with I think holding fire and another button. No Tank Controls and you go where you aim. You got endless ammo and can hold fire and shred em full auto. Its easy to bite it but there's 2 codes that help: Pause then C A B A Left or B A B A Left is an extra guy and Pause then Left Right A B B skips the level. There's also a level select code I never used that's A C Up Left Right. You fight Dennis Rodman or Westley Snipes or w/e as the boss a few times and the final one you gotta cap him as he jumps between platforms and grab the Ice Grenades, they throw em at him and fire on him b4 he thaws. Most bosses seem to keep the damage you give when you bite it so you can attrition em but I think the last boss you gotta do it all in 1 go. The games pretty tough and you get a few continues, but its easier to use codes. I liked the movie and the game was pretty good. Glad I did this.

Just beat Mad Stalker: Full Metal Forth on Genesis. Its a Beat Em Up Mech game that was on the X68000 and PC Engine but was only brought to the Genesis in the 2020s. A is punch, B is kick, Up is Jump and can double jump and you can crouch. You got a 2 player vs mode to use any of the mechs but Story Mode only has you play as 1 guy like Rise of the Robots. In other versions you could choose from 3 Mechs like Rise 2 Resurrection. The graphics are pretty cool and the Mech designs are well done and have a bit of a Robotech or Ghost in the Shell feel. The D Pad and buttons can do moves and you get infinite continues that puts you back on the ara you left on. Its a 1 plane game like Altered Beast and the bosses are pretty cheap, so you gotta outcheap em and get em in loops by doing the Rainbow Move of Jump Kick and Jump back, or for the Sword guy, Sweep the leg and walk up to Sweep again. A and B is Block and while you can do a rush attack, there's no run or fast move. After a bit you get a Life Pod that busting it heals you but not always full. The final battle is against a Rival Mech like you but a few extra moves but he's not so bad if you jump kick around. Its a good last battle like Ken Vs Raoh where there's no ninja tricks, only 2 rivals going at it 1 last time. The story is good Sci Fi with the distant future year of 2142 and a computer from the past war taking over past mechs found and you are in the only uncontrolled one and gotta stop em. I think for Mech games, Ranger X was better but thats a shooter and this is a brawler. Its kinda hard and there's a boss rush where you gotta beat like 4 bosses again, then a hypercomputer, then escape the ship blowing, then face the final guy. It took me 16 Continues to beat it. I did it on Easy and it still was a bit tough. It cost like over 90$ and I'm glad I got this game. Its pretty cool and had a colored manual and Post Card. Its got that 90s style and 80s Mechs when Anime was cool.

Just beat Magic Knight Rayearth for Game Gear on my 2DS. Its a RPG where you have these 3 chicks from a TMS Anime by Clamp fighting various monsters and enemies on a quest to catch this Neopet looking thing called Monoka that I wanna call Monaka after the devolved guy from Dragon Ball Super. 1 button is Yest the other is No and Start opens a Menu. The battles, which can be pretty often, have you using a kind of slot machine thing of the 3 girls at the bottom scrolling and when the image of them is their face, you can choose to use em by pressing Yes when the girl is in the center. You can use an item, Use Magic that costs MP, Run(Except during a boss) or Attack and you gotta beat on the enemy until you or it falls. There's also Wild Cards where randomly a card happens and gives a bonus like Extra Money, Life or Magic Restore, Revival, Triple Attack, Predicting/avoiding the enemy, All Attacks Being Criticals, Run or 1 hit kill (neither works on bosses) but also 2 bd cards that halve life or MP.  Is this where Cardcaptors got it from? Its got good colorful graphics and the music is upbeat. It plays pretty well but sometimes the foe attacks as I'm about to choose mine and I gotta wait a bit to loop around the Roulette. The Flame Chan or w/e spell immobilizes the foe and you can wail on em for a bit but some foes can heal with a breath. 3 bosses you gotta do some gimmick to beat like get enough Crits or I think Choose Magic even though its the Silent Forest and can't be used there. If all 3 guys bite it, you go back to the last save and can try again. There's 2 save files and overall this game is kinda easy. Its more for fans of the show but I never saw it and I liked it. Its a lite game that's not too long but has a number of cutscenes that go on. There's some puzzles like going in a forest maze but its not too bad. I'm glad I did this one and might wanna watch the Anime at some point.

Just beat R-Type on my 100 Master System Games GBA Multicart. Its a Shmup from IREM where you play as this ship an fight through 8 levels. It can be beat in like 20 mins if perfect but 1 touch of ANYthing and you go back to the last Checkpoint. Even if you Game Over you keep the Checkpoint but you can't go back so some Power Ups you might need you'll have to do w/o. You get Homing Missiles, Spheres above and below, An Option thing that shields you from enemy shots and you can launch or recall with the non fire button. Also you get a Tri Laser that rebounds, A Power Beam and a Flowing attack that goes above/below and crawls across where it lands. If an enemy hits the option it dies but if it touches you, then you bite it. You get a few Continues but on the Continue Screen you can move your Thumb around the D Pad Clockwise and get up to 12 extra Continues. After that you gotta use Counterclockwise to access the Sound Test, Hold the Option Launcher Button, move to Sound 62, Press Fire 3x, then exit the Test and you can Clockwise Spin to get an extra 30. This can be done over and over so its like an Arcade where you put an extra coin in to Continue. The graphics are good but there's a but of slowdown/flicker when too much happens. the 2nd last level is the hardest as you gotta go through this maelstrom of enemies firing at you before the boss and guys below firing missiles. Plus if you die at ANY point after the Checkpoint, you can't go back and gotta do it w/o the Option. I beat that by Pausing over and over to give me more reaction time but it still was tough. I'm not even that big on Shmups but this had cool bosses that were pretty big and colorful. Glad I beat this but its pretty tough. Oh and there are Speed Power Ups and biting it makes you go back to base mode w/o Power Ups.

Just beat Truxton for Sega Genesis on my 2DS. Its a Shmup up by Toaplan where you vertically fight through a Tallscreen (The opposite of widescreen) series of levels and pop enemy fighters and huge bosses. The graphics are good and the music is nice and it controls pretty well. 1 button is the peashooter, another also is the peashooter but I think not rapid fire and the last one is a nuke that you have a limited number of but can get more. You get Speed Power Ups and Extra guys with enough points or finding em in a Power Up and there's these P things that collect that I think give you stronger Weapons when you get enough. You got a Lightening Force Weapon with zapping in a spread pattern with enough boosts, Also is the Spread Peashooter that gives you a kind of barrier that enemies pop if they run into the sides of. Then there's the Greed Laser that is a death stream and plows through enemies. You get infinite Continues to get through and it saves your checkpoints so you don't gotta go back but if you bite it you go back to base forme w/o Power Ups. There' not much difference between using a life/continue but you don't keep the Nukes or P's you collect if you Continue. There's a good little trick to do where if you fire a Nuke and pause, the Nuke still damages as the game is paused so you can clear bosses fast this way. The game is pretty forgiving but you bite it in one hit so it kinda evens out. Its a pretty cool game and while I'm not super into Shmups I like how this gives you chances. After all, if you are in an arcade you can put in another coin and continue, so Infinite Continues is Canon. Glad I did this one. Oh and your stars are on the right side of the screen and the screen scrolls left and right as you move but its only a little bit. Often going back and forth while holding fire can clear out the enemies. I did use Save States but mainly to save time as either way I get infinite Continues.

Just beat Orguss for SG-1000 on my 2DS. Its based on the 80s Anime Super Dimension Century Orguss by the Robotech guys that I never saw and is a 2D Shmup. You use a Mech that turns into a Jet and back with 1 button and fires its Peashooter with the other with Start Pausing it. You get 3 lives and around 2 and a bit mins to get through 3 backgrounds of Grass, Sea and Checkerboard to get to this Tower and nail it enough as 4 enemies come at you over and over. After you pop it the game loops and has more things firing on you but I think once you beat the 1st loop its beat as you got the final guy. You take up more space in Robot Mode and the background moves slower so it takes longer to get to the goal in time, so its best to tun to Jet Mode and battle until it auto turns on the last part. You can shoot out enemy shots and for an 8 bit game in the start of the 80s, this is around as close as you can get to a Macross Dogfight in a video game. The graphics have nice color and the music is those beeps and boops people who make TV Shows think modern video games sound like. You get 3 guys and after that its game over but you can beat the game in under 3 mins if you do it right. If you get hit you blow and take a few seconds to resummon but that eats the timer, which I never ran out for me as I either got iced or beat the game before it happened. The scrolling is kinda choppy but its not bad and some of the enemy's look sort translucent and their shots can be a bit tough to see, but in good light its not bad. I wanted to play this for a while and I'm glad I did but I'd probably like it more if I knew the show other than Art I find looking up Robotech. Its a decent simple game and for its time as a quick tie in for an 80s anime, its not bad.

Just beat Ninku for Game Gear on my 2DS. Its a Fighting game based on this Anime/Manga from the 90s about this devolved kid and his homies who have some kinda quest to go on. Its one of the things that inspired Naruto and I've never seen it but looked into it after beating it. 1 button is punch, the other is kick and start pauses. You can spazz on the D Pad to do special movie and build Ki b holding both buttons. Ki don't seem to go down by using moves but I think you gotta build it up enough to access the better ones. Between fights are long things of dialogue in Japanese that I'm not able to read most of yet. Also you move around a map to Dots to advance the story but there's random battles and some parts you can say Yes or No to change if you fight or not. The game has pretty good graphics for 8 bit and the music is good. It plays pretty well and you can hold back to block and up to jump. The thing is: This game is petty hard. Probably the hardest Game Gear Game I played. A few bosses are overpowered and can end you in a few hits, but take little from your blows. I find getting em in a loop of low kicks to trip or spazzing the move the human sized guy in clothes uses to jump on the wall and dive like Mai Shiranui over and over to fight cheap. The final boss took me like at least half an hour and I had to abuse save sates to beat him as your attacks to little, even throws and super moves, and he does like 20% of your full bar in 1 hit. Also he blocks nearly every hit and is fast. I eventually learned to to hit and run moves and jumping a lot but still. Also there's unlimited Continues and a Password but if you bite it, you get sent back a certain bit back depending on where you are. Its got 2 sequels on Game Gear and I plan on doing those. Its a good game and I'm glad I played it, but its pretty unfair at times. Oh and some fights are 3 life bars each and you use 3 different guys but the foe is the same and some are several guys with low HP in a row.

Just beat Street Fighter II for Master System on my 2DS Its an 8 bit version of the Capcom Arcade Game and only has 2 buttons, 1 for Punch the other is Kick and you spazz the D Pad to do special moves. There's 8 fighters, Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Guile, Blanka, Balgog, Sagat and M Bison and after you fight them in that order its over. You seem to get unlimited Continues like the Arcade  and Start can Pause. You can turn off the Time Limit and have it on Easy, Normal or Hard and it plays pretty well for 8 bit. The graphics are pretty good but some Backgrounds are missing and the Music is pretty good with the 8 bit Beeps/Boops. There's surprisingly good voices in here and you can understand what's said. Usual best of 3 rounds and beat on the foe til 1 falls and Up is Jump with holding away from the foe on the D Pad to Block. I think they did pretty good for this and I used Blanka and put it on Easy. Its got good speed and controls pretty well and there's no points or Perfects for not taking damage, On Easy I never lost a round and pretty much creamed everyone easy. Often I'd Crouch and punch and beat em down. Yeah they cut a lot of things from here, but I think it turned out better than the Game Boy Version, although I haven't played that one, but heard it didn't do well. For doing this on the Sega Master System in the 90s in Brazil, it turned out quite well, even with some things removed. I mean if they didn't take out those things the rest of the game would be less. They kinda cut off a finger to save the hand and in here you can even play as the boss characters so its pretty cool. And they got the main ones that most people like. No Zangief, E Honda, Dhalsim or Vega, but those guys can be irritating and the ones we got were worthy. Makes me wonder if they tried to bring Fatal Fury or Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer to the system. It could be pretty good maybe. Glad I did this one. Its a quick play but a fun ride.

Just beat Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - The Movie for Game Gear on my 2DS. Its a 2D Fighting Game based on the 90s movie where you play a round as a Ranger, then as the Thunder Megazord, even if using the White Ranger. Then fight some Oozemen until; Ivan Ooze comes in and busts you. Then most of the movie is skipped with Text and you face 2 rounds as the Ninja Megazord against Ivan Oozes Zords. Both buttons attack and spazzing like Street Fighter lets you do a Power Move for each button. The Rangers are hit or miss but the Yellow one is probably the worst with both Super Moves being throwing her Daggers. The Thunder Megazord isn't bad but isn't so great and the Ninja Megazord is better with a spin kick like in Double Dragon but going forward and at an angle. Rocky and Tommy are pretty good and I didn't use Billy or Kimberly as there's only 4 Ranger Rounds and I used Adam 1st. You get 6 Continues and can have the game in Easy, Normal or Hard and 1, 3 or 5 best of rounds. If you bite it on the Zord Battle, you continue on that battle and don't gotta go back and face the Ranger part. In the Ranger part you fight Puttys and Oozemen but they have a bit of HP and you et a bit back each time you beat one. The graphics are good and its got good colors. The Life Bar is Yellow on Blue so you easily know how you are and the animation is good. The gameplay is pretty fast and it controls pretty well but some jumps are in arcs. The music is from the show and is pretty cool and the sound effects fit. I liked this one and I'm glad I did it. Its a decent game and a nice tie in to the Movie. Better than the 90s GB Version of it The AVGN Reviewed. It can be beat I under 30 mins or your pizzas free and its got nice artwork based on the Movie like Lord Zedd and Ivan Ooze. Its kinda simple and not that tough but its a decent Power Rangers Game.

Just beat Ninku 2 - Tenkuuryuu e no Michi for Game Gear on my 2DS. Its a 2D Fighting game based on the manga that inspired Naruto. You play as 1 of 3 guys at a time, A Devolved Ninja Kid, A Guy in blue, and a guy in undies, and fight a few battles while hammering through walls of Unskippable Japanese Text you can't read. 1 button is punch and the other is kick and doing Quarter Circles on the D Pad with them does different super moves. Both Buttons together held charges Ki and unlike the 1st game, you use Ki to do Super Moves and gotta keep stopping to recharge. Also you get Ki by taking damage. The graphics are good and the music is nice and it mostly plays well, but sometimes the moves wouldn't go, but it might be my D Pad. If an enemy gets behind you, then you gotta not press anything and wait to turn around. Sometimes if you are holding back, then the foe is ahead of you now and you ain't blocking. The direction you sweep the D Pad in determines which super move you do and when they get behind you and you didn't turn around, it does the wrong move. I usually used Fusuke the Devolved Kid and the other guys didn't seem as good as in the last game. You can slide forward kick holding Diagonal Toward the enemy and kick. You get unlimited Continues to beat this and after losing you can hammer through text to try again and maybe choose another fighter. There's no Map or random fights and you always have full life and its always 1 on 1. There are less fights and the game isn't as long as the 1st but its also more balanced. The hard parts are less hard and the easy enemies are tougher. The final boss is the blonde guy with Ice Powers and he can still take you down in a few hits, but he actually takes more damage when you do hit. The final boss is MUCH more fair and he's not as aggressive. Every Enemy seems to take less damage than you but its not impossible. I'm glad I did this one and its pretty good. In some ways better than the 1st, in others not. It evens out. Oh and when the guys get too far apart the screen jump cuts zoomed out, which can be a bit disorienting.

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