SNESdrunk reviews

[Ack]

Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - SNES obscure cartoon games

Nice. I do have a couple of things to add:

1. SWAT Kats is a Hanna-Barbara cartoon which was distributed by Warner Bros. for TBS(Hanna-Barbara was owned by Turner at the time). Time Warner then bought Turner in 1996 and acquired all of Hanna-Barbara with it, so technically SWAT Kats also falls into the Warner Bros. label now.

2. For Nicktoons like Aaahh! Real Monsters, there is also a game based on Rocko's Modern Life...though it plays similar to Eek! the Cat, so I don't recommend it.

3. You also could have included The Adventures of Mighty Max, Inspector Gadget, Super Widget, and King Arthur & the Knights of Justice, which means you could easily do a sequel video to this one at some point in the future if you're running low on ideas.

There are other titles too, like The Tick, though you could easily say that game was just as much influenced by the comic as it was the FOX cartoon. Also if anybody asks, Earthworm Jim started as a video game series first and became a cartoon later, while the Incredible Crash Dummies cartoon came out in the same year the video game did, so I'm not sure which one would be considered "first."

And that's not even getting into cartoon movies, like We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, The Pagemaster, or Bebe's Kids...though why anybody would want to talk about Bebe's Kids is beyond me.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Ha, that Eek! The Cat game footage just screams "European Amiga" in a way I can't quite articulate.

Funny, I've never seen any of these games or heard anyone talk about them. Well, until now.

[Ack]

Funny, I've never seen any of these games or heard anyone talk about them. Well, until now.

Well, that "licensed games suck" complaint isn't completely invalid...

[Sarge]

I just tried Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts for the first time. It's not that hard. Getting a feel for the controls was the hardest part for me, but once I started to get used to it I was progressing at a slightly faster rate. It takes the same kind of trial, error / memorization that Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden does.

Those are certainly reasonable comparisons, although you've got much less margin for error than Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden, given Arthur's fragility.

No, it's very doable, the brutal bit is that you have to complete the game twice, and you have to finish the game with the Goddess Bracelet, a fairly weak (in most instances) subweapon that makes the last two bosses very, very tough to take down. Expect to die a lot there.

And yes, we might know NG and CV better because of trial and error, but they're still tough games! I might think Contra is easy (and at this point for me, it is), but at one time that game was brutal.

If I had to rate the difficulty, it's a bit easier than Battletoads, just because the game is more forgiving with lives and continues, but that last red/green demon battle is one of the most technical boss fights I've ever partaken of, and you don't really get the option of laying back too much, because the timing is pretty tight on finishing the stage in time.

[Ziggy]

I made it to the boss at the end of the second level in SGnG. Honestly, the hardest part of the game in my opinion is the lack of a password system, but thankfully there's a level select that easy to access. You can even choose to start at the checkpoint when using the level select.

CV and NG are more forgiven with hits, yes. But when you use a continue in either game, you start at the beginning on the level. SGnG keeps you at the midpoint, even after a continue. Also, SGnG seems to have less "cheap deaths" that people complain about with CV and NG. For example, how many attempts did it take you to get past this part in NG (from where the video starts to the boss) or this part in CV for the first time? Perhaps there would be more "cheap deaths" in SGnG if you could take more hits, but since you can't, I feel like it's a wash.

Anyway, I was always put off from SGnG because of how brutally hard everyone makes it out to be. But the lives/continues are so forgiven that you want to keep on playing despite how many times you die. I'm glad I finally gave this game a try because I love it. Luckily, it's not too expensive on eBay.

I was curious to try Ghouls n Ghosts on the Genesis, so I loaded it up on my Everdrive. I've heard people say that SGnG is easier than it's Genesis counterpart because of the double jump, but after immediately switching from one to the other, Ghouls n Ghosts seems like the easier game. I was able to make it to the second level with a lot less deaths than I could in SGnG. There's no double jump, but Arthur seems to control a little smoother. For all I know, GnG may get way harder in later levels than SGnG, this is just my opinion of the first two levels.

I'm gonna stick with SGnG for now so I don't get confused, but I want to play through GnG on the Genesis at some point too.

[Sarge]

Oh, yeah, let's see how it gets for you later. You should be fine, though.

In all honestly, I don't think SGnG, other than the last boss fight, is so much a gradual difficulty progression, it's more of a straight cliff upwards at the first stage. Grok it there, and you've got the tools to get through most of the game. Of course, like I said, it's the second run that's going to give you some fits. Heck, even getting the blasted Bracelet requires staying alive with armor long enough to get bronze armor/gold armor/shield before it pops up. You have to know where all the hidden chests are in the last stage so you can win with the right weapon... and not lose it along the way.

[Ziggy]

By "lose" you mean accidentally pickup another weapon? Because you keep weapons in SGnG, even after you die or use a continue.

So this special weapon will only appear if your armor is fully upgraded? That sucks.

[SNESdrunk]

By "lose" you mean accidentally pickup another weapon? Because you keep weapons in SGnG, even after you die or use a continue.

So this special weapon will only appear if your armor is fully upgraded? That sucks.

Yes, and it's a shitty weapon too. It's powerful but its range sucks. If you die and to back to the birdheads at the beginning of the last level, they take FOREVER to kill.

[Sarge]

Yeah, it can be pretty easy to accidentally pick up another weapon. Then you've got to get it back in that last stage. In some ways, it's actually easier to get the Crossbow, use it to get through the stage, and just be aware of all the hidden chests are to reclaim the Bracelet right at the end of the stage. That requires a perfect run to do, though. It does, however, make the Red Arremer and the bird heads a lot easier to deal with.

I actually did figure out how to take out the earlier bird heads pretty quickly. Just edge up on the ledge below them as close as possible, then do lots of double jumps, and try to pop them as much as possible. If you can score a few hits when they're close in, the Bracelet does a lot more damage.

I got to the point where I'd get to the red/green demon fight with around 2:30, and you're going to need a lot of that time. It's very tight, especially if you don't have the run down pat. Running out of time on that fight sucks.

[Ziggy]

Can you fully complete the game on the beginner difficulty setting?