2. Sonic Advance 2 GBA
3. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Wii U
4. Advance Wars: Dark Conflict DS
5. Joy Mech Fight Famicom
6. Grandia PS1
7. Money Idol Exchanger Game Boy
8. The Battle of Olympus NES
9. Lost Kingdoms 2 GC
10. Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon DS
11. Code of Princess 3DS DL
12. Discworld Saturn
13. Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru [For the Frog the Bell Tolls] Game Boy
14. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 3DS DL
15. 3D Streets of Rage 3DS DL
16. Pokémon Shuffle 3DS DL
17. 3D Altered Beast 3DS DL
18. 3D Super Hang-On 3DS DL
19. 3D Space Harrier 3DS DL
20. 3D Galaxy Force II 3DS DL
21. 3D Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master 3DS DL
22. Sonic 3 & Knuckles Mega Drive
23. Bayonetta Wii U
24. Fighting Vipers Saturn
25. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan 3DS
26. Super Castlevania IV SNES
27. Shovel Knight Wii U eShop
28. Discworld II: Missing, Presumed...!? PC
29. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Saturn *NEW*
30. Chameleon Twist N64 *NEW*
31. Live a Live SFC *NEW*
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
I played this a bit for Together Retro, and my final thoughts are 'eh, it's OK'. The aesthetic of the game is charming, and the puzzle mechanics seem interesting, but when playing I just never had that moment of 'This is great' that I've gotten from other puzzle games like Puyo Puyo or Art Style Rotohex. I never got into that puzzle zen state and I never really had a lot of fun.
I'd love to say more about the game, but I just don't feel like I have much more to discuss. The graphics are nice, the music is decent, the difficulty feels a bit high to me, but it's not too difficult to overcome the standard settings with a bit of practice and a lot of perseverance. The saturn had a nice challenge mode thing where you could unlock more costumes and stuff, but it was literally the same as the fights in the main game. I feel they could've mixed it up a bit more with puzzle modes, challenges where you only get certain colours or ....something.
I didn't dislike Puzzle Fighter. I just didn't really like Puzzle Fighter either. I probably won't be coming back to it too often.
I'd love to say more about the game, but I just don't feel like I have much more to discuss. The graphics are nice, the music is decent, the difficulty feels a bit high to me, but it's not too difficult to overcome the standard settings with a bit of practice and a lot of perseverance. The saturn had a nice challenge mode thing where you could unlock more costumes and stuff, but it was literally the same as the fights in the main game. I feel they could've mixed it up a bit more with puzzle modes, challenges where you only get certain colours or ....something.
I didn't dislike Puzzle Fighter. I just didn't really like Puzzle Fighter either. I probably won't be coming back to it too often.
Chameleon Twist
Chameleon Twist is a an early N64 release where you play as a Chameleon who gets transformed into a humanoid and chases after a white rabbit for some reason. It is very short, and pretty easy. It is also quite fun.
You make your way running and jumping through the levels. All the levels are pretty linear, although there are hidden items to gather as you make your way through, some of which are pretty tough to find. As well as your basic running and jumping, you can use your chameleon's tongue to clear obstacles. You can use it to vault to higher levels, grapple across gaps, swing around posts and to lick up enemies, which you can then shoot out like a machine gun.
The mechanics are cool, although I feel the grappling and swinging is underutilised and the machine gun fire thing is overutilised. That said, it's still a fun romp through the game's 6 levels.
Visually, Chameleon Twist isn't very special, even by N64 standards. The models are really low poly, the textures are basic or non existant and theres more than a few 2d sprites used for enemys and stage features. Musically it's OK, nothing offensive, but nothing catchy enough that I can recall it either.
Chameleon Twist got fairly poor reviews at the time, and I can see why. Trying to justify paying £60 for this is impossible. But for £5 nowadays, it's definitely worth a look and a play, and it's good, if slightly flawed, fun.
You make your way running and jumping through the levels. All the levels are pretty linear, although there are hidden items to gather as you make your way through, some of which are pretty tough to find. As well as your basic running and jumping, you can use your chameleon's tongue to clear obstacles. You can use it to vault to higher levels, grapple across gaps, swing around posts and to lick up enemies, which you can then shoot out like a machine gun.
The mechanics are cool, although I feel the grappling and swinging is underutilised and the machine gun fire thing is overutilised. That said, it's still a fun romp through the game's 6 levels.
Visually, Chameleon Twist isn't very special, even by N64 standards. The models are really low poly, the textures are basic or non existant and theres more than a few 2d sprites used for enemys and stage features. Musically it's OK, nothing offensive, but nothing catchy enough that I can recall it either.
Chameleon Twist got fairly poor reviews at the time, and I can see why. Trying to justify paying £60 for this is impossible. But for £5 nowadays, it's definitely worth a look and a play, and it's good, if slightly flawed, fun.
Live a Live
Live a Live is a slightly weird game to review. It's a Super Famicom RPG set over a series of chapters with different setting characters, and sometimes, game mechanics. The music is decent, with some standout character motifs, but a few less memorable tunes too, and the games graphics are best described as serviceable, especially for being quite a late release on the Super Famicom.
The battle mechanics are interesting - there's no MP and the battle takes place on a grid and plays kind of like a very simplified SRPG game - attacks hit different ranges and choosing your positioning can be important.
Here's my thoughts on each of the chapters in the order I finished them:
Ninja: The mechanic of getting 100 or 0 kills is pretty cool, and I like the stealth option you can take too. I also like how open this chapter is - there are lots of ways to approach it. It really makes you feel like a badass deadly and stealthy ninja. One of the best ones.
Sci-fi: This one has no combat at all and it's pretty awesome. It's got quite a well done horror vibe and it takes more than a few cues from Alien and Space Odyssey. There is a lot of tedious running around to find the next story trigger, but the atmosphere is awesome.
Cowboy: This one is short and sweet. The western setting is refreshing, and the trap finding and setting gameplay was fun. Another good chapter - at this point the game was on a roll.
Wrestler: This one is set up like a fighting game crossed with Mega Man. Almost no story here, just boss battles. The main character is a blue mage type character who learns opponents martial arts by being hit by them. This chapter is a little annoying to be honest - learning the arts whilst staying alive with your pitiful healing move is a bit tedious.
Caveman - I liked the simple love story plot of this chapter and the light hearted tone. The unique mechanics aren't anything special though - an item combining mechanic and a slightly pointless sniffing mechanic to find fights and stuff. I quite enjoyed this chapter overall, despite it being one of the least unique mechanically.
Kungfu - I adored this chapter. Finding your pupils, training them and then taking revenge on the enemy dojo was awesome. The atmosphere of the chapter was great, the music was great and the story was one of the msot interesting. My favourite chapter of the bunch. For anyone wondering, I chose Li as my successor.
Mecha - Even after finishing the whole game I feel that this chapter was ill fitting and out of place. Psychic powers, mecha, cyberpunks - it just...felt kinda off from the tone of the rest of the game. It wasn't helped by this chapter protagonist being the worst in the game by some margin, with crap stats, crap moves and a long charge time on everything. The weakest by far in my opinion.
Knight - Spoilers ahead! This chapter is pretty damn cool in how it turns expectations on their head. I unfortunately had an idea of the spoiler ahead of time, but seeing this chapter turn from a generic swords and sworcery setting with a destined hero, a betrothed princess and a generic villain to something more complex was really interesting. Seeing everything go wrong step by step, whilst a bit overly blunt, was really compelling and surprising after so many years of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Pretty great.
Final - Last one. Mixed thoughts on this. I like bringing all of the heros together, although the way you have to swap people in and out of the party is kinda lame. Most of the game's optional content is here and some of it just draws stuff out too much. More of it should have been like Akira's optional dungeon where there's more story insight to be gained, rather than more generic stuff like the Shin Xan Quan dungeon or the Wrestler one. I wish there had been more opportunity for dialogue between the heros too. There's lots of possible endings from this chapter depending if you choose one of the original 7 heroes or Oersted the Knight, and what options you take within. I got the best ending with my final party being Li (from the Kungfu chapter) Cube (Scifi chapter), Sundown (Cowboy chapter) and Pogo (Caveman chapter). I originally intended to use Oboro the Ninja, but Sundown was just too good once he got his last few moves to give up.
Overall, Live a Live is actually somewhat flawed. The battle mechanics need better refined, the graphics aren't too hot, storytelling is solid but could be better. But it is interesting, it is compelling, and at about 20 hours including some of the bonus content, it doesn't outstay it's welcome - it keeps throwing new stuff at you fast enough that you appreciate all it does right more than getting sore about what it does wrong. It's highly recommended by me. Play it!
The battle mechanics are interesting - there's no MP and the battle takes place on a grid and plays kind of like a very simplified SRPG game - attacks hit different ranges and choosing your positioning can be important.
Here's my thoughts on each of the chapters in the order I finished them:
Ninja: The mechanic of getting 100 or 0 kills is pretty cool, and I like the stealth option you can take too. I also like how open this chapter is - there are lots of ways to approach it. It really makes you feel like a badass deadly and stealthy ninja. One of the best ones.
Sci-fi: This one has no combat at all and it's pretty awesome. It's got quite a well done horror vibe and it takes more than a few cues from Alien and Space Odyssey. There is a lot of tedious running around to find the next story trigger, but the atmosphere is awesome.
Cowboy: This one is short and sweet. The western setting is refreshing, and the trap finding and setting gameplay was fun. Another good chapter - at this point the game was on a roll.
Wrestler: This one is set up like a fighting game crossed with Mega Man. Almost no story here, just boss battles. The main character is a blue mage type character who learns opponents martial arts by being hit by them. This chapter is a little annoying to be honest - learning the arts whilst staying alive with your pitiful healing move is a bit tedious.
Caveman - I liked the simple love story plot of this chapter and the light hearted tone. The unique mechanics aren't anything special though - an item combining mechanic and a slightly pointless sniffing mechanic to find fights and stuff. I quite enjoyed this chapter overall, despite it being one of the least unique mechanically.
Kungfu - I adored this chapter. Finding your pupils, training them and then taking revenge on the enemy dojo was awesome. The atmosphere of the chapter was great, the music was great and the story was one of the msot interesting. My favourite chapter of the bunch. For anyone wondering, I chose Li as my successor.
Mecha - Even after finishing the whole game I feel that this chapter was ill fitting and out of place. Psychic powers, mecha, cyberpunks - it just...felt kinda off from the tone of the rest of the game. It wasn't helped by this chapter protagonist being the worst in the game by some margin, with crap stats, crap moves and a long charge time on everything. The weakest by far in my opinion.
Knight - Spoilers ahead! This chapter is pretty damn cool in how it turns expectations on their head. I unfortunately had an idea of the spoiler ahead of time, but seeing this chapter turn from a generic swords and sworcery setting with a destined hero, a betrothed princess and a generic villain to something more complex was really interesting. Seeing everything go wrong step by step, whilst a bit overly blunt, was really compelling and surprising after so many years of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Pretty great.
Final - Last one. Mixed thoughts on this. I like bringing all of the heros together, although the way you have to swap people in and out of the party is kinda lame. Most of the game's optional content is here and some of it just draws stuff out too much. More of it should have been like Akira's optional dungeon where there's more story insight to be gained, rather than more generic stuff like the Shin Xan Quan dungeon or the Wrestler one. I wish there had been more opportunity for dialogue between the heros too. There's lots of possible endings from this chapter depending if you choose one of the original 7 heroes or Oersted the Knight, and what options you take within. I got the best ending with my final party being Li (from the Kungfu chapter) Cube (Scifi chapter), Sundown (Cowboy chapter) and Pogo (Caveman chapter). I originally intended to use Oboro the Ninja, but Sundown was just too good once he got his last few moves to give up.
Overall, Live a Live is actually somewhat flawed. The battle mechanics need better refined, the graphics aren't too hot, storytelling is solid but could be better. But it is interesting, it is compelling, and at about 20 hours including some of the bonus content, it doesn't outstay it's welcome - it keeps throwing new stuff at you fast enough that you appreciate all it does right more than getting sore about what it does wrong. It's highly recommended by me. Play it!
. They managed to top that with the final boss though who is pathetically a QTE 
. The ending itself isn't bad though in fact I found it to be rather freaking awesome and it left me wondering where they are going next with this series.
