Games Beaten 2017

Post by **noiseredux** » Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:50 am

A King's Tale sucks.

Post by **dsheinem** » Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:56 am

noiseredux wrote:A King's Tale sucks.

I thought it looked and sounded nice, though the gameplay was hit (tandem/spell stuff) and miss (the general punching and kicking).

Post by **Sarge** » Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:32 am

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:
58) Contra: The Alien Wars (GB) (3.5) (8/1) (~30 minutes)

Well, folks, I always thought it was interesting that this game even exists. A Game Boy port of Contra III. As expected, it has a lot of cuts, but it could have been really good if Konami had put their A-team on it. Instead, it appears they farmed it out to Factor 5, and as such it feels like a decent Chinese pirate game instead. It's also quite easy overall. I actually think the overhead areas are pretty solid, no rotation makes for some relatively fun times. Also, the flamethrower is super-powerful. Ridiculously effective, it'll drop the last boss in a few seconds.

HLTB · Post by **Xeogred** » Wed Aug 02, 2017 5:08 pm

A decent Chinese pirate game... yeah I think I'll pass.

Probably an impressive conversion in some ways, but yeah. It's like despite being a huge Mega Man fan, I have no interest in playing the GB games outside of V and the Xtreme's since they're different. The rest look neat technically but not really fun at all.

Post by **Sarge** » Wed Aug 02, 2017 5:48 pm

Actually, the GB Mega Man games, except for the second, are all pretty good. Now, I can understand skipping the first because it's pretty uneven, the second for its jank, and the third because of the inherent samey-ness to it, but I honestly think Mega Man IV was as good as Mega Man V, so if you're only going to try one other one, go with it.

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:10 am

Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 75
* denotes a replay

January (10 Games Beaten)

February (12 Games Beaten)

March (6 Games Beaten)

April (9 Games Beaten)

May (14 Games Beaten)

June (10 Games Beaten)

July (13 Game Beaten)

75. Super Castlevania IV - SNES - July 30

Super Castlevania IV was not only the first Castlevania game to be released on Nintendo's 16-bit console but also a full remake of the original Castlevania, relling the story of Simon Belmont's journey into Dracula's castle to slay the vampire lord and save 17th Century Transylvania. Konami held nothing back with this game, making full use of the Super Nintendo's horsepower to deliver a truly incredible game that took the high standard they set for themselves with Castlevania III and raised it even higher.

Right off the bat, it's clear that Konami's team put a lot of TLC into Castlevania IV. The controls feel better and tighter than the NES games' ever did, the music is top notch, and the visuals are phenomenal. The isn't just a straight remake of the original Castlevania, though. While it does retell the events of the game and base a lot of its levels on the first game, there are several completely new levels. For instance, in the first game, you started off right there in Dracula's castle, but you start this game outside, fighting your way through the horde of eldritch horrors to get to the castle. The same goes for the soundtrack; the game's music is a mix of 16-bit renditions of music from the NES games as well as completely original tracks created for Castlevania IV. The whole game just has a fantastic presentation.

Konami thankfully kept the format of the game the same as the original - linear action platforming. Like the original, falling deaths are going to be a common thing for you - especially on the last two stages - but the game is a lot more forgiving with the landings for your jumps than the NES games were. In the games on NES, your jumps had to be pretty much pixel perfect, and while there are some jumps here that require precision, you're not often going to see Simon's foot go through part of the floor on the edge of a platform. It sounds like a small thing, but that little bit of leeway prevented a LOT of deaths in my playthrough. That will not, however, protect you from the flying Medusa heads and bats that make a return here and live for the sole purpose of knocking you off platforms at every available opportunity. The Medusa heads seem a bit harder to dodge here than in the original game because they're patterns aren't quite as exact, but they also seem easier to hit, so it balances out.

While it's true that Konami made good use of the Super Nintendo's capabilities, including some fantastic use of parallax scrolling and some truly impressive Mode 7 functions, they did so at the expense of some performance. While most of the game runs extremely smoothly, when there's a lot going on or heavy use of Mode 7 features, the game suffers from significant slowdown. This doesn't ruin gameplay, per se, but it's severe enough that it can break your rhythm if you don't expect it. It's a shame, too, because the visual effects used are incredible, especially for 1991, and the game is nearly flawless otherwise. Also, as seen below, apparently Colonel Sanders' angry wraith haunts Dracula's castle. Still not sure what that's about.

Super Castlevania IV is not without its flaws, but it still remains an exemplar of what a 16-bit adventure game should be. The controls are solid, the level design is superb, and the visual and musical presentation are almost unrivaled in the fourth console generation, at least from my experience. This game is nothing short of a masterpiece, and while there are some disappointing performance issues where some of the more graphically intensive effects come into play, that does not detract from incredible overall product. It's not a particularly cheap game, it's not nearly as expensive as some Super Nintendo games these days, and it's absolutely worth every penny. This is a must for Castlevania fans and SNES collectors. Even more casual gamers are doing themselves a disservice by not at least downloading the Virtual Console release on Wii or Wii U.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:02 pm

An update...finally!

1. Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero (Wii U)
2. Blek (iOS)
3. Bloo Kid 2 (3DS)
4. HarmoKnight (3DS)
5. 3D Fantasy Zone II W (3DS)
6. Fantasy Zone (SMS/3DS)
7. 3D Fantasy Zone Opa Opa Bros. (ARC/3DS)
8. Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa Opa (SMS/3DS)
9. 3D Classics Twinbee (NES/3DS)
10. Rainbow Bell a/k/a Twinbee (ARC/DS)
11. The Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild (Wii U)
12. The Guardian Legend (NES)
13. The Clash at Demonhead (NES)
14. The Goonies II (NES)
15. Day of the Tentacle Remastered (iOS)
16. Mario Kart 64 (N64/Wii U)
17. Drancia Saga (3DS)
18. Chain Blaster (3DS)
19. Color Commando (DS)
20. Ace Mathician (DS)
21. Jump Trials Supreme (3DS)
22. Dragon Quest VII (3DS)

I may have missed a few, but here goes...3D Fantasy Zone II W is one of the best shmups on any platform. Fantasy Zone II on the SMS at least looks good. The home ports of Fantasy Zone and Twinbee are vastly superior to their arcade counterparts. BOTW is the real deal...so is The Guardian Legend. Clash at Demonhead has great personality and gameplay; The Day of The Tentacle has a great personality. Mario Kart 64 is one of the best in the series. The Goonies II is awful. I wish that Drancia Saga - a single-screen, side-scrolling ARPG with the bump system, beautiful sprite work, and fantastic cameos from some of the eShop's best indie game heroes - had a little more depth.

EDIT: I added Chain Blaster, Color Commando, Ace Mathician, and Jump Trials Supreme. The first is a forgettable shmup with cool graphics. The second and third are forgettable puzzle platformers. The fourth is like playing N+ as Luigi from SMB2...You can beat each of them in a day.

DOUBLE EDIT: I forgot DQVII! (I thought I beat it in 2016, but I was wrong.) It is a really good game, but it is a bit uneven and entirely too long. The episodic nature helps with the length, but it also prevents the game from building momentum.

Post by **Sarge** » Thu Aug 03, 2017 11:59 pm

Aw, I like The Goonies II. Been a long time since I've played through it, though.

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:53 am

Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 76
* denotes a replay

January (10 Games Beaten)

February (12 Games Beaten)

March (6 Games Beaten)

April (9 Games Beaten)

May (14 Games Beaten)

June (10 Games Beaten)

July (14 Game Beaten)

76. Castlevania Adventure - Game Boy - July 30

The Castlevania Adventure gets a bad rap, and it's really not nearly as bad as folks make it out to be. It's got its flaws, for sure, and I'll address those, but for a game from 1989 on the original Game Boy and one of the system's first games, I thought it was really quite good, and aside from some frustration, I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing it.

Castlevania Adventure is a prequel to the original Castlevania and sequel to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. The game's protagonist is Christopher Belmont, the member of the Belmont Clan who faced Dracula in the 16th Century - 100 years after Trevor Belmont but 100 years before Simon Belmont. Unfortunately, the folks at Konami's American office didn't know what they were doing and put Simon's name both on the box and in the manual, leading to a ton of confusion when Castlevania Adventure II: Belmont's Revenge came out a few years later and suddenly started talking about some dude named Christopher.

As I said, I don't think this game deserves a lot of the harsh criticism it gets from players these days, but there are some definite flaws. It takes him FOREVER to get anywhere, and you can forget about outrunning enemies. He also drops like a rock after he jumps. If you've played the first Castlevania NES, you know that Simon got a little bit of air before he landed. I guess Christopher ate a hearty diet of lead because he drops faster than my bank balance when a new Nintendo console launches. In sharp contrast to his supersonic drop, his gait is downright glacial. Christopher moves about as quickly as a continental shelf. His slow speed and rapid descent in and of themselves didn't bother me, but it made stage 3 excruciating to get through. In stage 3, you spend the majority of the level jumping from rope to rope and making pixel perfect jumps. All this while you're being pursued by a spike wall that moves just a little too fast for comfort. You pretty much have to climb the rope to the top to be able to make your jumps with how fast he falls, but remember that he moves really slowly, but ALSO REMEMBER that there's a massive wall of instagib spikes rapidly closing in on you. It's extremely stressful and indescribably frustrating and really the low point of the entire game.

Now that I've discussed the game's major flaws and why most of the Castlevania fandom seems to despise it, let's take a look at what the game does right and why I, personally, really enjoyed it. The game is broken into four stages, and as I've already said, stage 3 sucks ass. The first two stages, however, are a lot of fun, and aside from the normal frustration that comes with Castlevania games, I had an absolute blast playing them. Yeah, Christopher's slow as molasses in an igloo, but that's okay (when you're not trying to outrun homicidal spike walls). Stage 4, being the last stage and the one in which you fight Dracula, is obviously a very challenging stage, but it didn't feel as maliciously sadistic and almost unfair as stage 3 did. It'll frustrate you, for sure, but it's still fun to play. One thing that I think is important to note is that the game doesn't try to do too much. I'm sure you've all played a game that had some great ideas but just did too much either for the hardware or the controls to really facilitate properly. Castlevania Adventure didn't do that. With a D pad and two buttons on a handheld system that already isn't particularly powerful, they didn't needlessly complicate things; they kept it simple by removing subweapons and hearts. Some folks are going to be disappointed by that, sure, but keep in mind that this was not only the first Castlevania game on a handheld but one of the first third party games on the Game Boy; it's more important to get the core gameplay right than to do too much and screw it up, and I think given the game's slow pace, less is more.

Don't let the internet fool you; the Castlevania Adventure isn't nearly as bad as folks make it out to be. It's far from perfect, but at the end of the day, for what it is and when it was made, it's a good, competent Castlevania experience. The movement is slow, and Christopher falls too fast, but all things considered, I thought the game controlled pretty well. Given the Game Boy's limitations and the fact that this game came out just six months into the system's life, I think Konami made a fantastic first effort here. It may not have aged well, but that doesn't mean that it can't still be an enjoyable experience if you can put it in the context of 1989.

Post by **Sarge** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:09 am

It's playable, but there's a lot wrong with it. In my mind, it's a below-average action-platformer, and in comparison with the rest of the series, it's even worse. Which, of course, is probably why it gets so much hate; it's not being judged in a vacuum, it's being judged compared to other entries.

For the record, I gave it a 3.5 out of 10 earlier this year (5.0 as average). It's not good, but as you say it's not as bad as the interwebz make it out to be.

(Belmont's Revenge, however, is very good.)

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