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At least one person reading all that made it worth it haha. It was kind of just self medicating in a funny way so I had fun typing that up as I played them and kind of wanted to note the minor changes as I went through them all.

One extra thing about the MMLC is that you do get one save state per game as well. I guess this'll bug the ultimate diehards, but ... it certainly comes in handy during MM1 for me and it's nice to have instead of manually inputting the passwords.

There's also a few video options. The native resolution, borders on or off, and a few filters. Pretty much left all that on default though and it looks fantastic.

It's safe to say I won't be touching the Anniversary Collection again now that I have this. If only that one had Mega Man & Bass... always liked that one a lot more than 7-8.

That's interesting that you also mostly played MM2 & 4 as a kid. I think I remember seeing MM1 at a friend's house and then I got MM2. Then some time later I got MM4. 3 was a rental from time to time and never played 5 when I was that age. I did borrow 6 from a friend and it was actually my first classic MM beaten.

I only had the original trilogy as a kid. A friend of mine had 4, so I played it but wasn't as into it. 2 and 3, I loved. 1 was alright but too hard for me.

But X1 was my most played MM growing up. I rocked that shit for years and it's probably still my favorite MM game. OT here, of course as we're not talking about the X series.

1. Tenchi Sōzō (Super Famicom)
2. Eternal Senia (Steam)
3. Tombs & Treasure (NES)
4. Magic Knight Rayearth (Super Famicom)
5. Zelda no Densetsu: The Hyrule Fantasy (Famicom Disk System)
6. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES)
7. Seiken Psycho Caliber: Majū no Mori Densetsu (Famicom Disk System)
8. Deep Dungeon: Madō Senki (Famicom Disk System)
9. Deep Dungeon II: Yūshi no Monshō (Famicom Disk System)
10. Suishō no Dragon (Famicom Disk System)
11. Dandy: Zeuon no Fukkatsu (Famicom Disk System)
12. Lagoon (SNES)
13. Contra (NES)
14. Super C (NES)
15. Wonder Boy (Sega Master System)
16. OutRun (Sega Master System)
17. OutRun (Genesis)
18. Ninja Gaiden (NES)
19. Written in the Sky (Steam)
20. Wendy: Every Witch Way (Game Boy Color)
21. Mario Bros. (NES)
22. Popeye (NES)
23. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
24. Super Mario Bros. 2 (Famicom Disk System)
25. Phantasy Star II Eusis's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
26. Phantasy Star II Nei's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
27. Phantasy Star II Rudger's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
28. Phantasy Star II Anne's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
29. Phantasy Star II Huey's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
30. Phantasy Star II Kinds's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
31. Phantasy Star II Amia's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
32. Phantasy Star II Shilka's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)

There were a handful of Japan-only Phantasy Star spin-offs back in the day. Following the release of PSII came eight text adventures, each explaining the backstory of the playable characters. These were initially Sega Meganet games (downloadable Mega Drive games) and were later bundled together on Mega CD and PS2 compilations. Fan tranlsations for each installment have existed for some time, and now all eight (in English) can be found on Steam?!

Not so fast though. These aren't "official" Steam releases in any real sense. They're available as "ROM hacks" (they aren't, so delisting may be imminent which is one reason I rushed through all of 'em back-to-back) and you first must have the Steam version of PSII as well as the Genesis "hub" to "apply the patches" (play the games).

This is kind of a neat idea, really. Phantasy Star II didn't provide a ton of character exposition - nor did it need to - so this opportunity to gain insight into the motivations of the main cast is quite a treat.

While a graphical interface is present, as well as a persistent character portrait, these are first and foremost text adventures. Virtually all details are described exclusively with text - room and item descriptions, NPCs, and so on. The main additional graphical touches are the still enemy sprites and occasional scenery shots. Navigation is fairly simple - you can move four ways and occasionally go up and down levels (elevators, stairs, whatever). A few of the adventures contain "lost woods" sections where the scenery loops unless the correct path is taken. It's a bit cumbersome and annoying. Each "section" of the game map has a specific name displayed in yellow, which is extremely helpful when making maps.

Combat feels shoehorned and a bit unneccesary à la Tombs & Treasure. Enemies are harmed by selecting a weapon from the inventory. Damage is somewhat variable and the "dice rolls" are actually shown! As you gain stronger weapons more dice will descend to pulverize the enemy. Success in combat (and the games as a whole, really) are dependent on doing things in the proper order and having the correct equipment when engaging in combat. This is harder than it sounds, considering that one has to know to pick up random objects (a surfboard?) to use in battle. Additionally, some weapons need initial and/or periodic repair to function properly.

The tone and difficulty of these eight adventures varies wildly. Rudger finds his entire family murdered, has only one life himself, and can be insta-killed by traps. Shilka can also be insta-killed but is on some goofy quest to steal an opa-opa painting. Other characters seem to have infinite lives and more straightforward, linear journeys. Some are played for laughs. Huey's adventure takes him into the girl's showers, where he gets slapped (you actually lose 5 HP). Kinds attempts to fix the air conditioning in a bar (why?), blows the place up, lols, and then just rolls on out. This is some weird shit, man.

So are these fun? Like, at all? Ehhhhh...... I think you'd have to be really invested in Phantasy Star II to care. And I think the (mostly) text-only approach was a misfire. Anyone who's played PSII knows what a rich and vibrant world it is; to see it merely described was a bit of a let-down. Playing eight of these bastards is also an endeavor. I think a single longer journey with loads more visuals would be a more compelling experience. I suppose Phantasy Star Adventure fills that niche nicely.

I applaud you for doing it for us, bruh. Well played.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for PS1 (via ePSXe for PC). Wow, this did NOT age well.

The game wasn't hard but towards the end it tends to pull out the dick moves.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:So are these fun? Like, at all? Ehhhhh......

I tried getting into them years ago when they were first fan translated. I couldn't hack it, they just weren't as entertaining as I'd imagined. Kudos to you for sticking it out and taking one (or eight rather) for the team.

Good job finishing all the Mega Man games, Xeo. I finished 'em all recently, too. I think almost all your observations are spot on. I do think, though, that it's remarkable how "fully-formed" the original game was, though. For a non-Nintendo early release, it's an absolutely amazing game. It's quirky the way the original Super Mario Bros. is quirky, with the "proper" sequels to both of those improving things considerably.

Also, yes to Mega Man 5. My favorite Buster-era Mega Man.

Oh, did everyone really rag on the collection? I thought that it was reviewed pretty well. Or is it just that they didn't include Mega Man 7/8?

Exhuminator wrote:

BoneSnapDeez wrote:So are these fun? Like, at all? Ehhhhh......

I tried getting into them years ago when they were first fan translated. I couldn't hack it, they just weren't as entertaining as I'd imagined. Kudos to you for sticking it out and taking one (or eight rather) for the team.

If I had to recommend one I'd say Nei's is the best. She's the best character, has the most interesting backstory, and a fairly straightforward and bs-free text adventure.

Sarge wrote:Good job finishing all the Mega Man games, Xeo. I finished 'em all recently, too. I think almost all your observations are spot on. I do think, though, that it's remarkable how "fully-formed" the original game was, though. For a non-Nintendo early release, it's an absolutely amazing game. It's quirky the way the original Super Mario Bros. is quirky, with the "proper" sequels to both of those improving things considerably.

Also, yes to Mega Man 5. My favorite Buster-era Mega Man.

Oh, did everyone really rag on the collection? I thought that it was reviewed pretty well. Or is it just that they didn't include Mega Man 7/8?

When you look at it like that, yeah I can't deny that Mega Man 1 is incredible compared to other games at the time and other first installments. It really does deserve most of the credit if we break it down, with MM2 mostly just fixing up some of the quirks and polishing its formula even more. The platforming and controls have always largely been a reason why I'm a huge fan and still play them all the time, they control like a dream compared to many other games. Timeless stuff.

Yeah sadly this release got a lot of bad reviews around and the price dropped almost instantly, but I guess that's not a bad thing for fans who want it. Totally worth $20 which is what I got it for. I think it came out at $30 which still isn't that bad. The timing just wasn't good I guess, with Capcom going crazy with the ports/releases people just basically said it was more Capcom being lazy and because it includes less games than the Anniversary Collection, it must automatically be worse then!

I also wonder if they handled the audio perfectly as well. I tried listening to some stuff again on youtube yesterday, and sometimes classic games aren't transferred well for streams and all, but yikes... I was having a hard time finding listenable tracks that compared to how I was hearing them in-game!