Together Retro: Licensed to Thrill (Licensed 2D Platformers)

[Sarge]

Yeah, save some juice for next month! We don't want to all burn out. That being said, I'm really enjoying poking around for games that I wouldn't normally play otherwise. That being said, I played through a lot of the licensed NES stuff last year, with The Flintstones games and The Jetsons, and other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head.

[pierrot]

Weird. All I can say is the game uses a lot of clips from the OVAs, but not all of the OVA material of course. Which leads me to believe the game was at least produced after the OVAs, even if strangely it released before the OVAs. I don't know, I see conflicting information on the internet.

Yeah, sorry. I meant to say that it looks like it was all produced concurrently. According to the wikipedia page, all of the media debuted in 1997, with the game releasing on the 24th of July, the OVA on August 25th, and the drama CD on the 21st of November. I couldn't find a date for the comic version, but it apparently ran in Shuukan Dragon Jr, which didn't begin publication until the 26th of July, 1997. So, even if Grandoll started with the first issue of the magazine, the game would have just barely predated it.

I had just never heard of it outside of the game, so I was a little surprised that it seems like whatever production company was pushing the IP was really trying to strike gold.

[Exhuminator]

Thanks for the info on GranDoll, Pierrot. I think you're right that it was a multi-medium simultaneous release thing. Guess it didn't do so well, as there's no sequels to either the OVA, manga, or game. Oh well!

--

And, I beat another licensed platformer this afternoon:



This time it was the arcade version of RoboCop, a 1987 Data East jam.
Was it good? Not really. But better than the NES version for sure.
If you enjoy the film, and love old arcade games, you might like it.
If you're looking for balanced gameplay and imaginative design, forget it.
Full review here.




-

I'm taking a break now from this TR theme for a bit. I don't want to get burnt out. I may come back later this month, and beat a few more licensed platformers though. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to reading other TR participants' experiences with this theme in the weeks ahead.

[Xeogred]

1. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Genesis)
2. Darkwing Duck (NES)
3. Batman* (NES)
4. Journey to Silius (NES)
5. Aladdin* (SNES)
6. Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse* (SNES)
7. Run Saber (SNES)
8. Batman: Return of the Joker (NES)

* = replay



Finally checking out the weirder second NES Batman game from Sunsoft. The strange thing about this one is that I vividly remember the game cover extremely well. And something about Batman going Super Saiyan when you get enough power ups seems oddly familiar. But I don't really know if I played this game or not, none of the levels themselves really rang a bell, nor did the music or anything compared to the first game which I grew up on. But something weird about that cover... maybe I rented it once and knew that was not the one I wanted and I always opted for the original Batman?

That said, this game is cool. Quoting Sarge from the Games Beaten thread:

That being said, there were some problem spots that I ran into; I tend to forget some things between runs. The blimp stage is easiest if you just crowd the right edge, so that's actually not the worst of it. The sewer stage has some troll enemies that will knock you into the drink. The ice stage has those tornado enemies that will usually catch you unawares, not to mention those missiles that drop with virtually no warning. That cave level has a moving platform with an enemy that will toss a knife and send you plunging to your doom if you don't know it's coming. And the elevator stage in the last area leading up to Joker can take a few tries. I probably continued five times through my run. Much of that was rushing and pure carelessness on my part; familiarity breeds contempt and all that..

The blimp stage wasn't too hard for me, after knowing where the enemies will spawn a few times through haha. But yeah that ice stage and the sewer one were some of the hardest by far (that first troll bridge too). Was tough to dodge everything in the ice stage so I kind of just brute forced it after several attempts, since the levels aren't too long in this in general. But the sewer stage... okay, I used save states. Jumping was a little funky in this, then you had guys throwing knives at you, weird things rolling out of the sewers that hit you, and any little hit would send you into the death pits haha. The elevator stage wasn't hard for me, I think all the sliding action I did in Contra Hard Corps prepared me for this, heh. It was nice that Batman had a slide. This was very useful during the final Joker fights too. The bosses were frankly pretty easy, sometimes a little boring though because they were sponges... but so was Batman. I had a tough time with the weird turret boss though. I thought the flying shmup levels were really cool, crazy easy though.

Batman - Return of the Joker (NES) - Stage 7 Music - loved this track.

[Exhuminator]

Those graphics are insane for NES. Not just the technical aspect either, but the raw talent in the design. I don't know what happened to Sunsoft during the 16-bit era, but they were kings in the 8-bit one.

[marurun]

Sunsoft dropped off because their parent company lost tons of money in speculative real estate investment.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Rolled through Aladdin (SNES) last night. Love this game. Probably the best licensed platformer -- that I've been able to finish.

Playing a bit of Rambo after that. Oh dear. No.

May just call it good with Aladdin, will see how Transformers goes once the game arrives from Japan.

[nullPointer]

Playing a bit of Rambo after that. Oh dear. No.

I somehow almost beat this game as a kid (it was a rental), and so while I don't remember it as being a particularly great game even then, it's one that's been in my backlog forever. One of these days!

I finished a playthrough of Disney's Kim Possible: Revenge of Monkey Fist this morning and I recorded some thoughts over in the Games Beaten thread. While it's certainly nothing to write home about, it's fine for what it is - a mediocre platformer that does some fun things but which is held back by a few design issues.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Oh, another one down. My daughter really wanted to get in on some Popeye so I did a few loops. One of those classic platformers...... with no jumping.

[racketboy]

Thanks for the info on GranDoll, Pierrot. I think you're right that it was a multi-medium simultaneous release thing. Guess it didn't do so well, as there's no sequels to either the OVA, manga, or game. Oh well!

--

And, I beat another licensed platformer this afternoon:

This time it was the arcade version of RoboCop, a 1987 Data East jam.
Was it good? Not really. But better than the NES version for sure.
If you enjoy the film, and love old arcade games, you might like it.
If you're looking for balanced gameplay and imaginative design, forget it.
Full review here.




-

I'm taking a break now from this TR theme for a bit. I don't want to get burnt out. I may come back later this month, and beat a few more licensed platformers though. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to reading other TR participants' experiences with this theme in the weeks ahead.

I wish the Robocop game was better. Enjoy the sound effects and the style. I remember that cab being in a bowling alley my parents frequented. They had a daycare type area that I got sent to, but I would kinda sneak out and walk over to the arcade cabinets. I mostly remember this Robocop cab and the original Street Fighter cab being there . Both games came out in 1987 and I also remember Family Ties playing on the TV at the time. So that pegs it around 1987 to 1989. Nice memories. Hope you don't mind my memory lane side-rant

Anyway, I distinctly remember loving the vocal audio clips and seeing the ED-209 show up.