Might as well get this bad boy going, use this thread for any random thoughts or musings not worthy of their own thread.  

I've been playing a soft modded original XBOX that has loads of emulators and roms on it, literally thousands and thousands of games. The Sega Genesis emulator on there was total shit so I looked up and installed NeoGenesis but it never would work. Every time I tried to boot up this emulator it would just fade to black and then bring you back around to the XBOX dashboard. So a few weeks goes by and just last Thursday night I tried to load it again and it worked!!! Just out of nowhere the shit started working and it's sweet as hell, it's exactly the same as the SNES emulator except it's better because it has Sega Genesis and you can play the games with the analog sticks. This emulator is so much better than the other one on here because you can go through and customize the button mapping on the XBOX controller, so now I'm fucking set. I fucked around and played Genesis games on there until like midnight on Thursday night. Today I was trying to put some Sega CD games on there to play but I found out that this emulator will play the actual Sega CD disc through the XBOX disc drive!!! This blew my fucking mind. My XBOX now plays Sega CD discs. 

One really awesome game that I've always known was really good but was really blown away by playing it over the last couple of days was Gleylancer. This is a shooter that was never released in the US, I believe it was Japan only but I could be wrong. The music and graphics are really good and gameplay is great for a shooter: 



Outstanding Genesis game, maybe underrated. 

Tried playing Gleylancer last night and it kicked my arse. It's been awhile since I've played a shoot em up, so I forgot the level of skill required, especially in games where it's seemingly one hit deaths. You're not wrong about the music and I like how it gives you the option of choosing which mode you want your support monsters to employ.

Actually last night was a big Mega Drive love in. I was watching one of my favourite youtubers RWhiteGoose talk about the history of the Goldeneye speed-running community and how their approach to a certain level (in this case Silo) had evolved in 20 years which turned into this really personal account of his family dealing with his mother's battle with cancer. The video went for 2 hours but it got really captivating so I had to give myself something to do while I listened to him share his story. So I booted up emulator and got to work through Aladdin.

Aladdin is one of my more personal games because I remember staying in Sydney on a family holiday, renting a Mega Drive and playing the game as a family. It may in fact be the first console game I ever played with just my immediate family and to this day, Prince Ali is one of those songs is one of those songs I cannot get out of my head. Regardless, I had an old save state from the Cave of Wonders and just played through until I cleared through the carpet level. In a lot of ways, it's a fantastic 2D platformer and maybe one of the best looking of it's generation with wonderful animations, great music and just some neat action-platform designs. In saying that, I do think it suffers from annoying enemy design, wonky hit detection and there are times where the art doesn't quite communicate what has and what doesn't have a hit-box. I still think it's a game that should be held in the same esteem as Mario, Sonic and Donkey Kong but the kinks are a part of the experience.

From one licensed game to another, I had a look at the Addams Family game. I've played the SNES game a few times and I consider it an underrated game. There are nothing like secrets in video games, in fact the coolest part of the original Super Mario Bros game is the hidden warp pipes and this is a game filled with a similar intention. The reason why I wanted to check out the Sega version was just to see how it stacked up and outside of some limitations, it held it's own surprisingly well. Some themes were completely re-done for the game that seem to suit it more while the changes they did make weren't that noticeable. The only time I found it to be unbearable was when you fight the bird for the extra piece and health and it makes this loud noise whenever it tries to shit on you. The Mega Drive usually sucked when it came to voice clips and this was no exception.

I also played through another game I spent plenty of time with as a child, Donald Duck in Maui Mallard. I completely forgot they released a Mega Drive version of the game, I thought they kept it on the Super Nintendo but Sega's version holds up well and still looks and sounds great. The game is a lot tougher than I remember it being. I got up to the first boss and it was just a bullet sponge, no matter how many hits I got it, it just wouldn't go down and I couldn't figure out it's attack patterns.

Then I just played some classics like Streets of Rage and Shining Force II which if nothing else have awesome OSTs. After playing a lot of Yakuza of late, I can't help but feel Streets inspired Sega later on.

SNES Classic is arriving later on, I've got no other plans but to swig a big thing of coffee and deep dive into 20 games.

Yeah Gleylancer is pretty stiff. I never could get past the first level until the other night. It's actually not that hard once you get past that first level or two. I think what makes that first level so hard is all the shit going on in the background. I really fell in love with the weapon system once I found a setting that fit me, I got into the zone and made it pretty deep into the game, there has to be some type of scientific way to prove that games like this increase your hand eye coordination. There is just something about a great shooter and the way it challenges your hand/eye, the only way to play the games is to get into what I call "The Zone" where your fucking hands and eyes are fucking locked in together so tight with your mind you reach a next level of mental consciousness, it's a unique feeling. One of the reasons why I gravitated to the stand up boxing/kickboxing phase of fighting back when I was training/fighting was because I would get into a similar zone with it, when you are standing in the pocket trading strikes with another man and you got your shit together and everything is clicking you get into a very similar mental zone that I get into when playing games like Gleylancer. Shinobi III and the original Robotron 2084 arcade game are great "Get into the Zone" games for me.

After spending so much time with Gleylancer I'd have to say it's equally as good if not better than the more lauded shooters on the Genesis like MUSHA and Thunderforce IV.

Adams Family on Genesis was a good time back in the day, there was a period when that was one of the only Genesis/Video Games we had in the house and my aunt that we were shacking up with at the time was really into it so we all played it together until we beat it. I tried to play it again back when I made my top 100 Genesis games countdown but I didn't like it as much, it's not that great really but I'd still call it a guilty pleasure of mine, one of those Genesis games I got to have in my collection.

Yesterday I played some Battletoads Arcade coop with a friend. While beat'em up games are always fun, this one was very limited, unless I was missing something. Jump, dash and attack, and there's only a tiny amount of attack patterns. So it amounted to walking up to enemies and mashing the attack button. Not particularly fun or challenging (with infinite continues), especially compared to better games like Golden Axe or Streets of Rage which have multiple forms of attack and defense, offering a greater variety of playstyles which I find to be very motivating.

Ever since I got a good Genesis emulator on my Xbox I've been playing the shit out of some Genesis games. I downloaded Road Rash CD and installed it to my Xbox and it plays perfectly through this emulator. This is a port of the Road Rash game that was released on Saturn/3DO/Playstation but it uses some graphics similar to Road Rash III. This is really cool because you cruise while listening to real music, Soundgarden and some other 90's alt-rock tracks. Gameplay to me feels better than the Sega Saturn/Playstation versions of this game I have played, I like that it feels more like the Genesis games. They improved the scaling over the Genesis games so it's a bit smoother. I still prefer Road Rash III though, that game goes so fucking hard it's unbelievable. I love how Road Rash III all the traffic and obstacles in the road, the police are all randomly generated, so every time you play the game it's different. It's so much fun kicking one of your opponents into oncoming traffic or just taking them out with the crowbar. The way you save money and buy upgrades for your bike(or buy a new faster bike) is some great replay value and the little animated cut scenes after the races are a hoot.

I messed around a little bit with Doom for 32X. I never really spent much time with this because there are so many other better versions of the game out there. There was a lot of stuff cut out of this version, including a bunch of levels and enemies. It's still a really cool game for the Genesis though just judging it within that context, it plays perfectly fine and it's Doom on a Sega Genesis.

This week I've been keeping a close eye on Super Nintendo platformers.

It's easy to forget but the SNES launched nearly 27 years ago with the forth Super Mario Bros game, Super Mario World. World had a difficult act to follow coming off the heels of the 1988 masterpiece Bros 3 and it tried to up the ante by taking advantage of the new power and creating a much bigger experience. Whenever World is brought up, it's imperatively compared with it's predecessor and while I prefer 3, Super Mario World is a classic in it's own right. Hunting down hidden exits, unlocking the hidden block stages and all the little improvements the game made on the NES entries were unbelievable and despite all the great games released for the system, Mario World would be a Top 10 Super Nintendo game for me. My only gripe is that I thought the soundtrack was inconsistent. I was never a big fan of Athletic which always sounded like a strange polka song instead of the type of song you'd associate with a Mario game.

I'd never heard of Smart Ball before, but I wish I had since it's designed by Game Freak and published by Sony. That right there is a very interesting combination given one would go onto develop one of the biggest Nintendo series in history while the other would become Nintendo's main competition and would ultimately wipe the floor with them. On the surface it's a generic Japanese platformer where all the enemies have big googly eyes, the levels are bursting with colour and the game music is jolly but there's a few twists. You control Jerry who is a slime and can stick to and climb surfaces. Jerry isn't the most powerful being but he's pretty resourceful and can use balls found littered around the stage as projectiles to bring the enemies down. Stages are divided into two parts, with the first being platform oriented while the other is about preparing yourself for the upcoming boss battle. For a game that nobody talks about, it seems like a decent deep cut.

For years I've been calling it Super Ghosts n Ghouls - how embarrassing! I really want to like this game, but Capcom did their best to make this into an quarter sucking game and it's just too difficult for me to get into.

I knew Super Castlevania IV was an early release, but I didn't know it was the forth platform game released on the system. That's pretty crazy and while I doubt it's better than Rondo of Blood or Bloodlines, IV is still a fine game with a great OST that rewards players by giving them OP items if they can clear the stages without messing up. When you've got a cross and the power to throw three at them at once, nobody can take you.

Joe and Mac rocks for being the first co-op platformer on the system. The game has a colourful prehistoric setting bursting with personality and the game follows a simple formula that works. At the end of every stage there is a big encounter you must clear and if you happen to die, instead of starting the level over, your character will appear as a ghost like it would in a beat em up. In fact, you could almost argue for the game being a beat em up given how some enemies are like sponges that require multiple hits among other occurrences.

Super Wagyan Land is a Japanese exclusive developed by Namco. The game has a lot of text and a large portion of the game is spent answering trivia questions or participating in games you don't know the rules for. The game is ridiculously easy, with the only fear of dying coming from trying to complete a pacifist challenge run instead of using your projectiles. There doesn't appear to be any bottomless pits and the levels are so short that even if you manage to die, it shouldn't take you long to complete. The game reminds me a lot of Alex Kidd and how every stage ends with a confrontation that has nothing to do with platforming. Like Alex Kidd, this design choice sucked.

Spanky's Quest is a puzzle/platformer where you've got to clear rooms by collecting keys. Clear through multiple rooms, face a boss and proceed until you reach the sixth and final area in the game. It's a really shallow game, but the soundtrack is rocking and the fact it's the first puzzle/platformer enables the game to stand out.

Home Alone was ahead of it's time. Forget about platforming, the game was about collecting items to proceed further in the game. Collect 20 treasures, send them down the shoot, go down the stairs, fight a boss usually by hitting a platform with your head so it can fall onto whatever generic monster you're fighting and continue on. This is just one of those monotonous games that ran out of ideas one level in. It's a shame, because the collect-a-thon aspect would of course become the crux of 3D platforming.

I was always a fan of the Adventure Island series. Even though it was a rip off of the Wonder Boy series and really didn't add anything new, as somebody who only had access to Adventure Island, the simple but challenging platforming and diverse gameplay made it something worth checking out. This was more of the same with a few enhancements you'd expect from a new system.

Contra III apparently qualifies as a platformer. I guess it has platforming elements, but I'd consider it more of a shoot 'em up if anything else. Regardless, the Contra series was a bad-ass and 3 really upped the ante with plenty of experimentation and diverse levels to keep the experience fresh and worth revisiting time and time again. Admittedly they weren't all winners and after the initial amazement of playing a top-down almost 3D shooter on consoles in '92 the luster wore off quick. Like all Konami games, this had a fantastic OST that still holds up today.

Going through some more early SNES platformers.



Magical Taluluto (Magical Troll) - A Japanese exclusive, Magical Taluluto was a semi-popular Shonen Jump manga from the late 80s that received a number of video game adaptations. The Super Famicom version is a direct sequel to TOSE's 1991 NES game Magical* Taluluto FANTASTIC WORLD!!! GameFreak who were in charge of developing the game lifted the template from the NES game which include a Super Mario Bros 3 esque over-world and the ability to buy power-ups via exchanging takoyaki.


(SNES v NES comparison)

On the surface, Taluluto comes across as an entry level platformer, similar to the Kirby series. The game is bursting with colour and cheerful music and there's very little hazards the player has to contend with. The biggest challenge the game poses is that Taluluto is incredibly fragile. If he just so happens to touch a mouse or a harmless bumble bee he will keel over. Unlike games such as Mario where power-ups are offered through out the level, in Taluluto, the player must buy power-ups after finishing each level. For every piece of takoyaki the player collects, the more power-ups you can buy. These power-ups include an all out attack, a speed up boost, the ability to pause all the enemies on screen, extra lives among others.

While it's a neat concept, the premise comes at the expense of the game. Outside of collecting more takoyaki, the game is a very straight forward platformer with lazy enemy designs and it takes a long time before the levels become interesting. For the most part, it's about walking right as quickly as possible, licking anything that comes within a bull's roar of Taluluto until you reach a big ball of takoyaki which happens to be the goal. Later on the game presents more maze-like levels but with very few exceptions they're far from memorable. Two levels that buck the trend is one where Taluluto is standing in-front of a giant mirror and every so often an evil version of himself will appear in his reflection and try to kill you. The first time the evil version of Taluluto spawned it startled me. In what had been such a cheery game, to come across an enemy that aggressive was completely unexpected. There was another level where you constantly had to rotate the stage to find your way through, a design choice that seemed far beyond the game's pay-grade.



In between levels, the game throws a bunch of NPCs who challenge you to card-games, with the prize being more takoyaki. Games largely seem like modified versions of Solitaire and Blackjack among others. Due to the language barrier, these stages are completely lost on me and I'm still not sure if I understood them correctly.



Like in Super Mario Bros 3 once you complete enough levels, you reach a boss level. These tend to be the weakest element of the game, as bosses fall over after just a few licks and they'll rarely get to show off any of their animations before they keel over. Even the final boss wasn't immune to such primitive game design, using the 'doppleganger' gimmick you would often see reserved for mini-bosses in Zelda. Lick the right doppleganger three times to finally rescue the girl and call it a day.



One month later, GameFreak released a Taluluto game for the Sega Mega Drive. The Mega Drive version is more linear than the SNES version, but the game is better for it. Instead of licking his enemies to death, Taluluto uses his magic wand to possess items and use them as projectiles against his enemies. Taluluto is also a lot stronger in this game, with three hearts instead of one and enemies drop health through out. Unlike the Super Nintendo where enemies were largely comprised of mice, bees and the usual assortment you would find in any licensed video game, the Mega Drive version includes more detailed enemies that appear to have more in common with the diegesis of the game. While it's missing a few features present in the NES and SNES adaptations, the Mega Drive version has a better sense of itself and is a far more enjoyable experience.

Was in the store today and saw the Sega Classic thing on the shelf. Thought of you shinobimusashi

If only you could have the same luck with either Nintendo one.

It's really too bad Sega whored themselves out so much that they probably couldn't pull off what Nintendo did with the NES/SNES classic mini's. All of the Sega Genesis things that you see with games on them are straight garbage, most likely built by AtGames who put out shoddy trash with Sega logos and roms on them. Avoid those like the plague.

Snapped a great pic today of my little neice getting down on some Sonic on my Game Gear:



Too cute, she loves that damn Game Gear, she likes Sonic, Ecco, and Shinobi. Also let her play around with the Game Boy Color I have but she doesn't like it very much. 

Sega runs in the Nobi BLOOD.

Was trying to think of one of my favourite arcade games the other week when I was responding to Emp's Gamer Pad question and it finally came to me.


Motor Raid - SEGA (1997)

Damn this game was fun. It was like a spiritual successor to Road Rash with a futuristic setting and a fun campaign mode that was similar to Star Fox 64. If you finished first, you'd qualify for harder courses, but if you finished second, you'd go down an easier route.

The Road Rash games had an edge to them that separated them from other arcade racers. Attacking other racers added another element of strategy to the proceedings, as a well timed hit could be the difference between first and second. Plus, it served as a nice consolation if you weren't playing well. For me, the Road Rash series peaked at 3 for the Genesis. The later entries for the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 have aged poorly because they focused too much on the combat. As the series went on, the games became less pleasant to look at and the OSTs became lazy. Either they would rely on mediocre licensed music, or would barely have any music at all like the Nintendo 64 version.

Motor Raid doesn't suffer from these problems, taking all the elements that made the original series great, while introducing others that makes the game stand out on it's own. The only problem is that Motor Raid remained arcade exclusive, it never received a PC or Saturn/Dreamcast release. Fortunately the game is fairly easy to emulate and well worth checking out.

Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

Never even heard of it. Just watched a youtube video and looks amazing. Surely this was ported to the Saturn?

Just bought myself a copy of Space Station Silicon Valley.



Got a decent deal on it and was in the mood to expand my N64 collection. The game was developed by DMA, and is one of the better 3D platformers to ever come out. In the game you control a robot named EVO who has crash landed on the mysterious Space Station and must repair his ship while conducting an investigation on the animals. The kicker is that when you start off, you're reduced to a micro-chip. Fortunately EVO is resourceful and can possess the carcass' of the robot animals. So in each stage you go along and work your way through the stage using each robot form you can find, collecting ship parts and completing other objectives.

I used to rent the game a lot when I was younger but had a hard time getting through it. I'm curious to see whether it was because I was a dumb 8-year old or whether the game really is that tough. Most importantly, I'm looking forward to experiencing one of Rockstar's earlier efforts. Right now they're one of the powerhouses in game development, so to see them produce a child friendly game should be an enjoyable break.

It's been awhile since I last bought an N64 game. The last game I bought was Pokemon Stadium 2 during the Christmas of 2015 in what I considered my Xmas miracle game. I believe I got it for half-price after learning my original copy had a faulty battery. I wouldn't mind getting more active with the collecting, and playing through all the 7s that will likely never see the light of day on the Virtual Console. Games like Beetle Adventure Racing, Hybrid Heaven, Body Harvest, Buck Bumble, Chameleon Twist, Rocket: Robot on Wheels etc.

If you could collect for one console, what would it be and what's the one game you'd like to add to your collection?

Oct 16, 2017 21:47:45 GMT shinobimusashi said:

It's really too bad Sega whored themselves out so much that they probably couldn't pull off what Nintendo did with the NES/SNES classic mini's. All of the Sega Genesis things that you see with games on them are straight garbage, most likely built by AtGames who put out shoddy trash with Sega logos and roms on them. Avoid those like the plague.

Really?

Well that sucks, as I was actually thinking of picking one up after the holidays, same with the Atari Gold 8 Flashback system with my vacation pay. I wanted to get it for Altered Beast, and Shining Force II, so that's disappointing to hear.

Been playing the Donkey Kong Country trilogy a lot lately with my little niece, she loves these games right now. I'd have to say the DKC 2 is my favorite out of the three games, the first one is a lot better than I ever realized though. My niece loves the third one because she can start off playing with the girl monkey, the baby character though is so fucking weird. My niece has been lured to the Nintendo dark side though, I tried to get her to play some Sonic and this was the reaction I got from her:



Damn you colorful plumbers and dancing monkeys! 

What I like about the DKC trilogy is that each entry has it's own dynamic.

The first is the easiest to pick up and play. The second has the best set of characters and is the most challenging entry of the series. While the third has the most diverse levels of the series. I enjoy them all, but if I had to pick a specific order it would go 2 ---> 1 ----> 3. I didn't like the cosmetic changes in the third and I preferred the music composition in the first two entries.

You sabotaged your SEGA campaign by showing her DKC. You should have showed her some of the awful SNES games and then coaxed her with Sonic 2. Before you know it, you two would be hours deep into Gunstar Heroes. DKC is like showing somebody a Sabu match, do you want them to get hooked or something?

You've gone Nintendo in your old age Shin.

2-1-3 is the universal order, though all 3 games are awesome. I can't blame your niece what so ever, Dixie Kong is a goddess. DKC2 had DIXIE AND DIDDY! TOGETHER! Iconic duo. Yeah David Wise is untouchable in this franchise so his presence was missed in DKC3 although the rope climb music levels were pretty darn good admittedly.

So turns out my sister's went halfers on a Genesis Flashback, and bought me one for Christmas, so if it's as bad as shinobimusashi says, at least it didn't cost me anything.

Anyways, I spent most of the day, trying to figure out the controls for the Mortal Kombat games, learning their special moves and what not. I'll say this, well it plays good, I do like the SNES version of the games better, still not at all bad, at least when it comes to the MK trilogy. I'll probably dive into the Sonic franchise in a bit, starting with the first game... I reckon the Sonic games should keep me busy for a couple of days, until the weekend gets here, giving me the time to fire up Altered Beast, and actually get into the game.

As for the Donkey Kong discussion, Big Pete and Blindy hit the mark, as far as the order for the DKC games go... Diddy and Dixie are definitely the best pairing in any of the games.

Dec 27, 2017 2:05:53 GMT Lony said:

So turns out my sister's went halfers on a Genesis Flashback, and bought me one for Christmas, so if it's as bad as shinobimusashi says, at least it didn't cost me anything.

Anyways, I spent most of the day, trying to figure out the controls for the Mortal Kombat games, learning their special moves and what not. I'll say this, well it plays good, I do like the SNES version of the games better, still not at all bad, at least when it comes to the MK trilogy. I'll probably dive into the Sonic franchise in a bit, starting with the first game... I reckon the Sonic games should keep me busy for a couple of days, until the weekend gets here, giving me the time to fire up Altered Beast, and actually get into the game.

As for the Donkey Kong discussion, Big Pete and Blindy hit the mark, as far as the order for the DKC games go... Diddy and Dixie are definitely the best pairing in any of the games.

You can't really compare a Genesis game to it's SNES counterpart when you are playing the Genesis port on an Atgames clone, most likely the sound and controls are off, probably some color too. I guess those things would be cool to fuck around with if you don't have a real Genny or Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection though. 

For Mortal Kombat on the Genesis I don't think it gets any better than the Sega CD version of the original game, it's really something, has all the arcade music and voices and blood is unlocked automatically, also controls feel closer to the arcade version so it's easier to pull off finishers and special moves with random button mashing. This is probably my favorite 16 bit home port of any MK game. Reviewers around the web downplay it though because there is some loading here and there, but it's not that big of a deal, no more loading than a modern day game, also I've read a few reviews for it that say it's no different than the regular Genesis cartridge version but the music and sound effects are a pretty big deal and the controls really do feel closer to the arcade version. If I'm not mistaken it also has some of the cut scenes from the attract mode that were not in the Genesis/SNES versions. 

When I say better I don't necessarily mean gameplay, more so the controller and the two extra buttons, even playing the newer MK games on the PlayStation system, you just got the four main buttons (occasionally the L&R button). Honestly, I just need to get used to the controller, well I occasionally played the Genesis at a friend's house growing up, I'm so used to the SNES controller.

Me and my little niece just beat Pocahontas for Genesis, finally. Been playing this game with her for a few weeks now(actually since around Thanksgiving), using save states on my soft modded XBox to get through it. She was fascinated by the Pocahontas movie so we had a lot of fun with the game, it's surprisingly good. It's a little too difficult for a 2 year old so I was the one doing most of the playing but the little girl stayed engaged with it and kept wanting to go back to it, she stayed involved in trying to figure out what to do in all the levels and got a kick out of all the characters from the movie popping up along the ride. I've never played Prince Of Persia but I've read that the gameplay is what Pocahontas is similar to, it's different from most video games from that era for sure, a lot of problem solving and some pretty cool platforming gameplay style. Really I'd give this a pretty high score, 8/10, if you got a little one that digs Pocahontas this game is a good little supplement to the movie, I dig the music and the atmosphere of the levels, it's cute and charming little game that is simple enough for a little girl to get into while still being a fun little challenge, it's a lot better than I thought it would be. I wonder if the SNES version is any better/worse/different. 

The SNES version of MK definitely looked better than the Genesis port, but it paled in comparison in just about every facet. Granted the four button lay-out was ass for fighting games, but that was easily remedied by buying a six button layout. Obviously that isn't going to do you much good, Lony, but that's one factor why Sega fanboys didn't care. I agree with Shin that the CD was the best home console port and the load problems aren't a big issue unlike other ports. In the PS1 version of Mortal Kombat trilogy, the game will actually load mid-battle for certain moves.

For whatever reason, despite essentially being a DLC of MK3, both PS1 and N64 ports suck. The N64 cut a bunch of characters, while the PS1 version had the aforementioned issues along with cut modes. In hindsight, these flawed ports are interesting to talk about, even though the games themselves were fairly panned.

I'm going to take it that most PWers rank the MK series similarly to DKC? 2 --> 1 --> 3?

So one of my goals for 2018 is to beat every single game on the Super Nintendo Mini. So far I've beaten Super Mario RPG, Castlevania IV and Final Fantasy VI, so that only leaves 18 games to get through.

To make things easier, I decided to go by chronological order, starting off with Super Mario World. This is a title that I feel is compulsory gaming and would be apart of any Gaming 101 class. It's a game that builds on a lot of ideas from it's predecessor while taking advantage of the new hardware, by making stages bigger and giving the player more hazards to contend with. While it's missing a few power-ups from the previous game, the introduction of Yoshi introduced a mechanic that had been used in other franchises, but was utilised a lot better here. Yoshi provides a lot more utility than the average player and when you get into the different colours and advanced techniques, you're able to do things outside the box. What's great is that the developers encouraged this exploratory behaviour, and some of the best moments are finding all the secret exits. Personally speaking, the one level that escaped me for the longest time was a water level under the bridge. In a level filled with chainsaws, the goal is to take Yoshi with you for the entire ride, get to the very end, jump underneath the posts and leverage off Yoshi behind the posts to the secret exit. I would never have thought of that, but it was ingenius.

I'm by no means a speedrunner, but the game can be beaten fairly quickly. On a normal playthrough, I was able to finish all the castles within 2 hours while unlocking all the hidden blocks. Strangely the level that gave me the most problems happened to be in World 3. I'm not sure if I was just tired, but I died a lot on 3-4 and Castle 3, more than any other level in the game.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of the game is going through Star Road, but since I've got so many games to get through, I'm going to pass on it until a later date. No doubt this is going to be one of those games I return to every now and then when I want to kill time.

Next up was F-Zero, a series I've played little of. The only game I actually own is F-Zero GX for the GameCube and I love it and it's 60 FPS glory. SEGA did an amazing job capturing the insanity and the smoothness of the action and it's one of my favourite games of that generation. The original on the other hand is a mystery, with only the 16-Bit version of Big Blue resonating with me. Playing through the game again, it's an enjoyable arcade style racer that's got some of that launch day charm. They love to show off the paralax scrolling in this game and you can see they really wanted to take advantage of the hardware. On the other hand, they didn't want to over-extend themselves, so there's only 15 tracks in the game, divided by 4 difficulty settings. I didn't want to do 60 races, so I settled for a Beginners run through and found it to be a fun pick up and play game. Outside of the last level which is filled with hazards and sharp turns, the only level that gave me grief was White Land II. There's a jump you've got to make and unless you know the trick to it, you fail the race instantly. As it turns out, you've got to hold down on the D-Pad to get significant air. I'm sure that was explained on a manual, but since I was too lazy to pull my phone out, I had to rely on google to fill me in.

Now I'm playing through Super Ghouls and Ghosts, a game that looks amazing but is incredibly cheap. Two hits, a horrid checkpoint system and RNG out the wazoo. You better believe I'm just going to save scum my way through this game.

I picked up Sega Rally Championship 2 for Dreamcast last weekend. It's pretty addicting gameplay wise, controls are really good for a racing game and the graphics really show off what the Dreamcast can do, excellent frame rate for such a fast moving game.

The game is very arcade, I like it and at the same time I don't like it. The tracks are really short and there aren't many of them, I can't get past the second level because of the checkpoint "beat the clock" style of gameplay, you can't really cruise the way I like to in racing/driving games it's just a quick sprint through the short track. Not a whole lot of depth to it but the gameplay is tight.

It just isn't the same at home. When you're in the arcade with 3 of your buddies duking it out behind the wheel, it's fantastic fun and a staple of any arcade trip.

Finished Super Ghost n Ghouls on the SNES Classic. I wish I could say I did it all on my own, but the 100 save states tell a different story. The game is clearly designed with the hardcore gamer in mind and isn't concerned about being an enjoyable game. While the game has amazing graphics and some interesting ideas, the game is constantly looking to challenge the player and test their defiance. Only those with enough tenacity could get through this game back in the day - fortunately now we've got save states to make things more manageable. In a lot of ways, Ghosts n Ghouls on the arcade is a more impressive game, but this has a lot of tricks that felt exclusive to the Super Nintendo that helped make the game stand out. Similar to Castlevania, there's a stage where you rotate the environment in order to proceed which is one of those nifty early system showcases.

This feels like one of those games that you could only recommend to teenagers. As a kid, it would have been far too frustrating and I couldn't see too many of them getting past the third stage, let alone completing the game. Meanwhile adults would have better things to do than master this game. That leaves teens and even then, I wonder how many people back in the day spent the time and had the patience to beat a game like this?

I do love the Game Over screen in Sega Rally 2, "GAME OVER YEAAAAAAAAAAA" :lol:

I could never get into the Ghouls & Ghosts games, they are kind of cool but way too hard for me. The Genesis got a port of one of them that was a really big deal at the time it came out(like 89 or 90 when the console had little to no third party support because of Nintendo monopoly).

I actually prefer the SEGA version as well. It was more focused than the SNES title which seemed to have all these self-imposed challenges. Since Super Ghosts n Ghouls was the first game designed exclusively for home consoles, Capcom attempted to make use of the system's hardware. So there's multiple stages where they'll include all these gimmicks you would find in games like Super Mario World and Super Castlevania. Had the game made more adjustments for the home console market (more health upgrades, less enemies on screen etc.) it would have been an amazing game. However, it seemed like they wanted to have their cake and eat it as well, so the game isn't as consistent as the other entries.

Meanwhile Ghosts n Ghouls was the anticipated sequel and built on the strong foundations of the original game.

Went to wal mart on my lunch break to shop for something for my neices birthday this weekend and found an SNES mini!!! Scored it for like $80, too bad it was the last one i would have bought one for myself.

Finished Contra III.

When I wasn't cursing out how difficult it was, I was enjoying every minute of it with one exception. The fifth stage is a Mode 7 top down level where certain tiles will spin you right around. I'm not one to get motion sickness, but this really got my head spinning and the boss of the stage employs it to make life far more challenging. It's the only blemish on what's otherwise an intense entry in the series.

With that said, I really should have played this game on easy. Playing the game on hard, just for one extra phase of the last boss and an extended ending wasn't worth it.

I hear Hard Corps is just as good, if not better.