I've been having a blast with Rare's additions to the Switch Online emulators so far, and this game is no exception. BACKGROUND:
I haven't heard of this one before, and that will make the observations I make in the next section interesting. Don't worry, I'll explain what I mean. SUMMARY: R.C. Pro-Am is a racing game where you race RC cars in a sort of top-down view against three CPU racers in a couple dozen assorted tracks. As you may expect, the goal is to get first in every race, but instead of a grand prix with a fixed number of races and a whole point-based ranking system, this game is endless. As long as you qualify at the end of each race (i.e. do not get 4th), you'll proceed to the next race, and so on and so forth until you reach a point where you simply cannot beat the CPUs. The game's box art boasts that there are 32 tracks, though I'm not sure how true that is. Regardless, I've encountered a wide variety of track layouts, and even if there are repeats, the game mixes it up enough with different object placements that I don't notice the difference anyway. I personally wish that the tracks themselves looked different in terms of aesthetic, but gameplay-wise, I'm satisfied. Where this game stands out for its time are its gimmicks. This game originally came out in 1988, and to my knowledge, it is one of the earliest games to introduce offense-oriented power-ups to racing games. Of course, that's since become its own subgenre of racing games (with the Mario Kart series being the most popular example most people can think of), but a lot of the other racing games from this era that I've played don't really have anything like that. Cars can be wrecked momentarily by crashing, but you can deliberately do this to your opponents by picking up either missiles (which you shoot out the front of your vehicles) or bombs (which you drop from behind) and having them run into them. You can pick these up by driving over their sprites as you race, but ammo is scarce, as power-ups (including ammo refills) do not respawn. Other power-ups include items that improve your acceleration, top speed, and handling. These upgrades carry over between races, and they level up the more of the respective item you pick up. You can also pick up an item that briefly makes you immune from crashing, as well as letters that spell out the word "Nintendo." If you manage to spell "Nintendo" out, you get bonus points, which I'm not really sure means anything outside of a measure of your success. The tracks themselves have hazards to navigate like puddles of water and rain clouds that slow you down, oil slicks that cause you to spin out, and barriers that pop out from the ground that will result in a crash if you collide with it. With how fast the game goes, it can be tricky to avoid these hazards (especially in later levels where there's just an unforgiving gauntlet of them waiting for you), though it's probably possible to memorize the layouts if you play enough. Strangely, there is no two-player mode for this game, which I'd say is quite the missed opportunity for a racer as exciting as this. I don't know if its omission is due to some sort of technical limitation or if there was no intention to add it to begin with. VERDICT: Despite having mostly straightforward tracks and an endless grand prix with no payoff, I really enjoyed R.C. Pro-Am. The action is fast, the CPUs are challenging, and it's satisfying to blow up the other racers with missiles and bombs (even if they don't stay down for long). I can see myself playing this on occasion just to see how far I can get. I would mark this as an "essential" game simply on the merit of being one of the earliest examples of the combat racing subgenre to exist, so I'd say players should play a bit of it just to appreciate where legendary series like Mario Kart took their cues from. I also think it's super fun for how simple it is, so if you want a racer that's easy to pick up, is fast-paced, and has a few gimmicks to play around, this is worth checking out. - end -
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I'm taking on another retro Rare game on NSO, and it's quite the interesting one. BACKGROUND:
I've actually never heard of this one, and that had me excited to jump into it. SUMMARY: Snake Rattle 'n' Roll is a platformer with an isometric view where you control a snake and navigate through ten tricky levels (plus one extra stage) with a lot of verticality and hazards. You have to get to the end of each level, but the catch is that in order to open the exit, your snake must have enough segments to tip the scale found elsewhere in the level. In order to do this, you must eat little colored pellets (often generated at dispensers) until the snake's last segment is flashing. As the snake, you can jump and stick out your tongue to both gobble up pellets and attack enemies. The controls may get some getting used to since everything's in an isometric perspective, but apart from the utterly infuriating levels with slippery floors or flowing water currents, movement feels mostly responsive. Good thing, too, as you'll have to deal with difficult enemy placements and precise jumps as you go along. Aside from enemies (who only really have set movement patterns and don't do anything more complex), you'll have to deal with hazards like the aforementioned challenging terrain (which will send you to your doom), things that can squish you, pointy platforms (which you cannot land on), and falling past a certain height. While enemies touching you only take away one of your segments, everything else I mentioned will typically kill you instantly. If you only have your head remaining, enemy contact will cost you a life as well. You also have to contend with a level timer, which takes away a life if you hit zero. Thankfully, you can find extra lives in some of the levels, and if you do happen to die, you respawn right where you were instead of starting the level over. I took advantage of this in a few challenging levels by taking a death and using the invincibility frames to damage boost through hazards. The overall difficulty really ramps up the closer you get to the end, as the levels will demand serious precision, wrestling with terrain you can't control yourself on, and trying to juggle all of that while a timer winds down. The last level in particular drove me up the wall, as that entire level was slippery floor with insanely precise jumps. Another one of the levels also doesn't communicate how to proceed, as it involves picking up a power-up that is not seen anywhere else and interacting with something that you never have to interact with in any other level. Though pretty much all the levels are linear, you can explore a tiny bit to find power-ups, access bonus stages, and even find warps to later levels. On the subject of power-ups, you can pick up helpful things like extra lives, a power-up to extend your tongue's range, and a diamond that grants brief invincibility. There are also power-ups that screw you over, though, with the prime example being the power-up that reverses your controls. The final stage is odd, as it's kind of a weird "boss fight," except the enemy doesn't really fight back, and you're really only trying to attack it while dodging other hazards. It's rather tough because you have to deal damage with no breaks until it dies, but I don't think it's on the level of difficult of the level that preceded it. I obviously didn't get to try this, but it looks like this game can be played in two-player where you go through levels at the same time. I think there's a competitive aspect where you try to get more points than the other player (based on the victory screen between levels), but I don't know much else. Both the isometric view and the tiled levels are reminiscent of Marble Madness (a well-known title from the arcade era), but the levels here have more personality between the less rigid style, more interesting level elements like bodies of water, and cartoony sprites. The music and sound effects are also delightful, and after learning that the soundtrack was composed by renowned composer David Wise, I'm not surprised that each level has delightful jams to go along with them. VERDICT: Although the last stretch of levels really tested my patience, I thought Snake Rattle 'n' Roll was a fun platformer that mixes the isometric obstacle course conceit of Marble Madness with action platformer elements and an interesting collection aspect with how you have to eat to open the level exit. Apart from the levels I called out as frustrating, going through the game was mostly fun, and I also enjoyed the game's quirky personality between its visuals and sounds. It would be cool to see this game reinvented for the modern age with streamlined controls and more level mechanics. I don't think there are many games quite like this one, and I think that's reason enough to give Snake Rattle 'n' Roll a go regardless of what you're into. It does get quite difficult as you go along, so I wouldn't feel bad about using save states or the rewind feature. - end - The Switch Online emulators received an interesting handful of games right at the end of October, with one of them being The Mysterious Murasame Castle finally escaping 3DS purgatory for the non-Japan audience. I already talked about that months ago when I bought it from the dying 3DS eShop, so I'll focus on the other releases for these new blog entries. BACKGROUND:
I only know of this game because of two things: the Devil of this game being an Assist Trophy in Smash Bros., and the fun fact that this was never released in North America due to its overt religious imagery. In the bit of reading I did to confirm this fact, I ended up learning that this was a game designed by the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka (two icons of the industry responsible for some of the greatest titles of the '80s). All these tidbits of trivia had me interested in checking this one out. SUMMARY: Devil World is a maze game that feels very similar to Pac-Man, but with notable twists. First, you play as this dragon creature named Tamagon, and they're here to wreck the Devil's world for some reason. The setting alone is enough to set this apart from the arcade classic, but there are some gameplay twists as well. Each level of the game is split into three stages. The first stage is the most like Pac-Man, as you must collect all the dots in the maze while avoiding the monsters moving around. The twist here is that you can only pick up the dots if you've picked up one of the crosses in the maze. These crosses also enable Tamagon to breathe fire and defend themselves against the monsters, but you must be careful since the crosses expire after a few seconds (so you'll have to pick up another one on the way). You cannot complete the maze until you've picked up every dot, so these crosses are doubly important. In the second stage, you must pick up the four bibles located on the four corners of the screen and bring them over to the center spot where the monsters spawn. You'll have to do this once for each of the four bibles, and like the crosses, having the Bible is the only way you can breathe fire and defend yourself. I find this phase simpler than the first since I don't have to traverse the whole map for the collectibles. Once you're done with the two stages, you enter a bonus round where you try and collect all the bonus boxes on the map before the timer expires. This is the place to try and get yourself some extra lives, but I suppose that's not relevant in the emulator environment. Still, it's a fun challenge to try and figure out a route to try and collect everything; it's way tougher to do than it looks. In every phase of the game, you must contend with a constant hazard: the Devil himself moving the maze by pointing his fingers in an orthogonal direction. Wherever the Devil points, the maze will scroll in that direction, and what makes this dangerous is that you can get squished by the walls and the outer border that prevents you from moving too far out of the maze. You have to take the constant changing of the maze orientation into account when you're planning your route, and that becomes more challenging as you also have to evade an increasing number of enemies. There's not really much else to the game aside from the core gameplay. The visuals are standard NES fare (the sprites for Tamagon and the Devil are pretty neat, in my opinion), and there's strangely no music apart from the intro (which is a chiptune rendition of the one song from The Nutcracker whose name always escapes me), the stage complete jingle, and the fun bonus stage music. As for the whole "religious imagery" thing, it's mostly just the pickups (which are crosses and Bibles with crosses on them) and one part of the stage with walls shaped like a cross. It has been my understanding for the longest time that Nintendo of America's policy against religious imagery is just a blanket rule to avoid ruffling any feathers, so it makes complete sense to me that this game wouldn't be released in the Americas. Personally, I don't really see anything particularly offensive about it (after all, you're using these items to wreak havoc on the Devil's world), but knowing how the United States in particular can get caught up in Christian "moral" panic, it was probably for the best that they gave this one a couple of decades before finally making it available. VERDICT: Though Devil World's gimmicks add an interesting twist to a familiar formula (particularly the Devil moving everything around), it's ultimately a straightforward arcade-like experience where you go through the more or less the same thing and try to get as far as you can while things get progressively more difficult. I was engaged by what I played here, but it took a long while before I found the levels were genuinely challenging, and I felt like I had my fill before that point. I'll probably be content with just playing this one in short bursts as opposed to going the distance for the high score. Like most of these arcade-style games, you're bound to get the gist of it after a few levels, so it's likely you'll have your fill in a short while unless you happen to enjoy chasing high scores. That said, I think this particular game's interesting history makes it worth at least a quick look, especially considering it's a Pac-Man clone with a neat twist. - end - We have some more formerly Japan-exclusive Switch Online action today, and I'm all for it. BACKGROUND:
Around the time I got into River City Ransom (also via Switch Online), I ended up reading more about it and was shocked to learn that those games were part of a much larger franchise centered around Kunio-kun (the main character of River City Ransom). Kunio-kun, as it turns out, stars in several other games outside of the beat-'em-ups I know him from, including Super Dodge Ball (which I also played via Switch Online) and this game. SUMMARY: This game is a series of four sports events that sees Kunio and his pals compete against three teams from other schools. I don't know if there's any more to that story since the cutscenes are in Japanese, but that's the basic gist. Gameplay is split into the aforementioned events: a race across town (which, amusingly, takes you through rooftops, the sewers, and someone's house), an obstacle course, an event where the participants race to climb a pole to break a party ball, and a free-for-all where all four members of each team try and beat the shit out of each other. The basic controls are the same throughout, and if you've played River City Ransom, it's pretty much the control scheme for that. There's no such thing as sportsmanship in these events, as you can take the time to kick the shit out of your opponents. This includes going out of your way to pick up weapons on the ground that you can use to your advantage. Violence is naturally the answer for the latter two events, but it's hilarious that you can wallop someone in the head so you can get ahead in the racing events. Prior to each event, you can switch between the various members of Kunio-kun's team. There's reason to do this, as their health carries over between events, and this is a good way to recover HP. You can certainly try to go the distance with just one person, but it might be an uphill battle as the damage stacks up. If you want to experience every event, you unfortunately have to win each one, which can be easier said than done against CPU players (who just seem to be faster than you either in terms of movement or attacking you). You also have to deal with quite a bit of screen flickering and lag, which makes wrestling with the controls much tougher than it already is. If you can gather a party of friends together, it's possible to play this with up to four players. I'm not sure how that affects the flow of the game, though I'd assume it just lets everyone play every event through to the end. VERDICT: Downtown Nekketsu March was amusing for what it was; while having to win every event just to experience them was not appealing, mixing in the beat-'em-up action I'm familiar with alongside otherwise unrelated sports events made for a fun diversion. I can't say I have any interest playing it again unless it's with other people, though. I feel like River City Ransom is the better entry point into the world of Kunio-kun since I think it's a more polished experience, but I think this game is worth trying at least once just to see how deep the rabbit hole goes for this franchise. My limited reading also tells me that this particular game is the most popular game in the series in Japan, so it kind of falls into "essential" territory for me based on that. - end - ![]() Out of everything added to September's Switch Online update, this was the one I was most interested in playing. BACKGROUND:
Joy Mech Fight was a Japan-exclusive title that was already obscure in itself, so it comes as no surprise that I only learned about it via Smash Ultimate (as Sukapon, a character from the game, is an Assist Trophy). It's apparently one of Nintendo's earliest forays into the fighting game genre, so I was immediately curious about it. I'm really glad whoever's in charge of adding stuff to the Switch Online emulators is less shy about adding previously region-locked titles, because I get to play them in a convenient manner. SUMMARY: As established, Joy Mech Fight is a 2D fighting game, so the basic idea of beating the shit out of your opponent until their HP is zero. Here, you play as robots with disembodied body parts (a clever way to get around the Famicom's limitations and give the characters great animations) and do your best to win three rounds out of five. Rounds behave a bit differently compared to typical fighting games, as the winner's HP is retained per round (with only a little bit of HP restored). In addition, there is no timer, which means the only way to win is to kick your opponent's ass. Depending on the play style of your opponent, this fact could either be irrelevant or the source of pure agony. This game has four modes: a story mode where you go through a gauntlet of every fighter in the game, a versus mode against the CPU, a two-player versus mode, and a mode that lets you spectate a CPU vs. CPU fight. You can also access a practice mode via the character select screen. Since the game is in Japanese, I'm not really clear on the details of the story, but based on the cutscenes, my understanding is that there's an evil doctor who made a bunch of rogue robots. In response, a good-natured doctor (who appears to have been colleagues with the bad guy) converts Sukapon into some sort of fighting machine in hopes of stopping whatever evil scheme the villain's planning. The story overall is pretty close to Mega Man; hell, you can even select in what order to fight the enemy robots. I was pleasantly surprised by the game's roster. At the start, you only have access to eight fighters (including Sukapon), but beating the story mode on higher difficulties will expand that roster to a whopping 36. Fighting game rosters during that time period didn't get that big, and even more impressive is how most of them are distinct fighters (save for eight clones). Most of them have the same body structure (with a few really unique deviations), but they all have designs that set them apart quite nicely from the rest of the pack. Each fighter has six basic moves (punch, strong punch, kick, sweep, jump punch, jump kick) and four special moves (with varying degrees of difficulty in terms of command inputs), and while that's not much to go on, the specials actually provide a fair bit of variety in terms of play style despite many of them being functionally similar across several fighters. You're not going to get much depth in the actual combat (no combos, no special cancels, no super meters, etc.), but there is still stuff to think about apart from throwing out moves willy-nilly. For example, plenty of moves are unsafe on block, others have active frames you have to worry about, and you can't just block like a turtle forever (throws go through block, and there's chip damage). I can't really say how fun the mechanics are since I only played against the CPU (and spamming specials is hilariously effective a strategy), but I feel there's potential for some neutral-heavy action given how slower-paced the game is. There was fun to be had figuring out the range of each character's moves, playing around that, determining how moves react on block, and punishing accordingly. On the flip side, there are plenty of ways to make the game not fun, like incessantly jumping in (which can be difficult to punish depending on the character), or spamming projectiles and cheesing rounds with chip damage (though most of them are slow and easy to jump over). VERDICT: Although it's hardly as deep as modern fighting games, I still had fun with Joy Mech Fight's simpler combat. I thought the workaround to give the fighters flashier animations was clever, I was impressed with the roster size, and I liked what the combat had to offer (even if the CPU really went out of its way to play lame). As far as early-era fighting games go, this one wasn't half-bad, and I'm curious as to why it was never released outside Japan. On another note, does this game have a competitive scene? I want to see some Evo-level Joy Mech Fight gameplay. I wager this is more fun when you play against a friend, but I do think it's worth trying regardless, if only for the novelty of seeing how Nintendo's early attempts at a fighting game stack up in the modern day. - end - Just when I thought Nintendo's releases for the NES emulators have scraped the bottom of the barrel clean, they throw in a pleasantly surprising curveball. BACKGROUND:
I had no idea about this game until it was made available via Switch Online, and with good reason: it was exclusive to Japan since it came out... in 1986. As painfully slow as the drip feed of new content for the emulators can be, I still really appreciate their existence for giving international players access to stuff that they'd otherwise not hear about. SUMMARY: Mystery Tower is a puzzle platformer where the goal of each of the several dozen levels is to simply get to the door. Actually doing this is easier said than done, as the door is almost always out of reach, and your character cannot jump. What you can do, however, is pick up the L-shaped blocks strewn about the level and drop them such that you can climb up to the door. Figuring out how to set up the blocks is quite challenging, as you have to contend with all sorts of limitations. These include level layouts and mechanics that prevent you from moving blocks freely, roaming enemies in your way, blocks stacked in configurations that either prevent them from being picked up or cause a cascade of falling blocks that obstruct your path, or the need to pick up crystal balls first so the skull blocking the door is removed. Even in the very early levels, these elements are employed to create some seriously tricky levels, and as someone who loves puzzles, I really appreciate that. The fact that the blocks are L-shaped adds to the challenge of the puzzles, as you cannot really rotate them unless you put them down and pick them back up on the other side. Other factors to take into account include not being able to fall while holding a block (you will die), and a power counter on the upper right. Every time you pick up a block, your power decreases by one, and if that hits zero, you can't perform the one thing you can do anymore. On occasion, power-ups will appear that you can pick up. They're mostly just for points, but some of them have bonuses like granting invincibility against enemies or restoring one point of power. There's not much else to say since the game is simple overall, but notable mechanics I encountered that made for super tough puzzles include moving platforms (that cannot hold blocks), enemies that chase you relentlessly Wrecking Crew-style, an enemy that spawns blocks, and the ability to delay the fall of free-floating blocks. VERDICT: Once again, Switch Online surprises me with a game I never heard of but ended up really loving. Mystery Tower has one simple objective and one main mechanic, but there are a wide variety of levels with a solid assortment of elements that make a straightforward puzzle platformer incredibly challenging. I can't believe this wasn't released outside Japan until nearly 40 years after its initial release, not just because this game is a clever little gem, but because there's nothing here that requires any localization for other territories. If you're as enthusiastic about puzzle platformers as I am, this is an old-school title worth checking out. I found working around the limitations imposed by the game's mechanics to be very satisfying, and a puzzle game that can give me that feeling is one I feel comfortable recommending to fellow puzzle fans. - end - ![]() The month of March brought with it some new retro games to play in the Switch Online emulators. This time around, we only have the one NES addition. BACKGROUND:
I'm only vaguely familiar with Xevious, with the most I know of it is that you fight a massive mothership in it (the design of which is rather memorable). I did some reading on it after I played it once and learned that it's originally an arcade game (meaning what I played here is a port, like many NES games I've encountered) that came after Galaga (arguably the more iconic arcade-era Namco shmup), and that it featured a lot of firsts (or at least earliest known examples) for gaming: the boss fight and pre-rendered backgrounds for the arcade version. It also set the template for the many vertically scrolling shmups I've played before (from TwinBee to Ikaruga). I learned some new things that day, which was exciting. SUMMARY: As established, Xevious is a vertical scrolling shmup, and like most other titles in this genre, you control a ship, shoot at enemies, and try to stay alive as long as you can. Your ship has two modes of attack: the regular shot, and the bomb. The former is used to destroy flying targets, while you use the latter to blow up ground-based targets like turrets and such. This is a mechanic I first encountered in the NES version of TwinBee, and it's cool to see where that originated. Unfortunately, that's as deep as your abilities go, as there's practically no power-ups here apart from the hidden extra lives you can get. Apart from a few exceptions, most of the enemies are generic fodder that either move around in some formation while also shooting a given pattern of projectiles. The challenge, as usual, is weaving through the onslaught of bullets and enemy ships flying about while also trying to shoot down enemies. In particular, it's quite tricky to attack ground-based targets with the bomb since it has a limited range; you'll need some ace maneuvering to get into that range without getting shot down yourself. Xevious holds the distinction of having perhaps the earliest example of a boss fight in a video game that I've seen. This comes in the form of the Andor Genesis mothership, a massive octagonal ship that shoots an endless barrage of bullets. The fight itself probably can't hold a candle to the plethora of iconic boss fights throughout gaming history that have come since (all you have to do is either blow up the core or dodge around like a coward until the ship leaves), but there's something quite novel in experiencing one of the firsts (allegedly) of video games. This game is interesting in that it has hidden secrets on the map that you can blow up for bonus points if you're particularly attentive. I don't know if this game can also lay claim to being one of the first games to have secrets of that nature, but I nonetheless found it interesting that it even exists here. Unfortunately, they're only good for points, but points are at least valuable here for extra lives. Compared to the arcade version (which I went and looked up screenshots of out of curiosity), the NES version looks incredibly plain. The scrolling backgrounds, while varied in terms of locations, barely have any detail, while enemies are mostly on the gray side despite a handful of neat designs. The Andor Genesis is definitely memorable, though, and that's thanks to how bloody massive it is compared to everything else you run into. VERDICT: Arguably more complex and engaging shmups have come out since Xevious's heyday, but despite how simplistic it is, I still enjoyed killing a few minutes just trying to get as far as I can and getting to face off against the mothership. Plus, it's really cool to have played at least a port of a game that turned out to be more influential on the history of games than I initially realized. Like I said, you could probably find more interesting vertical shmups out there to play if this is the kind of genre you want to indulge in right now. That being said, I think this game is worth playing once if only to appreciate a historically significant title (a major criterion that compels me to label this as an "essential" title). - end - We get a singular NES game for the Switch Online July update, and it's an interesting one. BACKGROUND:
Considering this game is fully in Japanese and I can't find anything on a Western release anywhere, would it surprise you that I don't know what this is? Additional reading reveals something interesting about the fact that this is the "sixth" story: there are seven of these games, and they appear to each be on a different platform. It's astounding how little I could find about this franchise on English-based online resources; this is niche as niche gets. I was so mystified by how little information there was about this game that I did even more digging. I encountered this blog entry by a content creator called Mackerel Phones who appeared to know a great deal more about the subject, and through them, I learned of a book titled The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers Vol. 2, which is a series of interviews with many relatively unknown devs. One of the interviews was with the principal developer of the Daiva series (their insights quoted and paraphrased multiple times in the above blog post), and the story is utterly fascinating. Long story short, the Daiva games each have the same story, but told from the perspective of different characters. And each game (again, released on different platforms during the '80s) apparently isn't just one game ported across seven systems with minimal changes. As I'll get into in the next section, Daiva has two main gameplay aspects, and while the first of those aspects is more or less the same across every game, the other was coded by a different person per system. Plus, the whole idea of releasing similar games across different systems had a cool philosophy behind it: the devs wanted to create a version of Daiva that made the most of its home system's hardware, as well as encourage players who own different consoles to socialize by sharing passwords (that work for any version of the game). Reading about the ambitious idea that is Daiva was among one of the most fun rabbit holes I've ever jumped into in a very long time. Not only did I learn about this completely obscure game series from a now-defunct game development studio (which itself is probably not well-known to people who aren't hardcore video game enthusiasts), I was enthralled by the concept of releasing this massive saga across different platforms that you needed to talk about with other players to fully appreciate and understand its story. I don't think an idea on that grand a scale has ever been attempted in video games ever since, and that alone makes Daiva a very special part of video game history. Also, I learned that the entire series is available in a collection on PC, but once again, it's Japan-only. Someone localize this and release it outside Japan, damn it! I wanna know what's going on! SUMMARY: DAIVA Story 6 is a sci-fi game where you fly around in a spaceship and stop by 14 planets in the star system to take them back (or conquer them?). I would wager the story explains why the player is doing this, but the little dialogue I encountered in this game is in Japanese, so I can't tell you what's going on. In the overworld, you control your ship and move around the star system. You start out on your home planet (where you can switch out your ships and such once you acquire resources), and you move around towards specific spots on the map in order to find the 14 planets. Once you make contact with a planet, you're taken to this pre-game screen where you choose which section to deploy your mech, where you want your support (which is health and some sort of enemy-clearing attack) to land, and where you want a barrage of homing missiles to strike. You also get info on the threat level in terms of enemy frequency, as well as the planet's gravity. In execution, I had little reason to deploy everything near the end of the map, but on paper, I like the concept of strategic preparation before going down to blow shit up on a hostile planet. The action on the planet itself is a side-scrolling platformer where you jump in shoot in a mech and blast various enemies. This bit is kinda mindless, since every level is an auto-scroller, there's no reason to jump other than to occasionally avoid enemies (there are no hazards or bottomless pits, and you get pushed through terrain that you'd assume would block your path), and most enemies are easy to dispatch or avoid (only one or two enemy types ever registered as a threat to me). At the end of every planet is a boss, and they all work exactly the same (the boss is just a number of stationary weak points that spit out projectiles). I really wish the platformer aspect were more engaging or challenging, because you almost don't need the support that you strategically deploy before the start of every level. And because the game is pushing you along via auto-scroller (plus walls practically don't exist), the varied platform layouts hardly mattered unless there are enemies in your way (and almost all of them are easy to avoid to boot). As you explore the star system, you'll also run into enemy fleets. If you bump into them, you're thrown into this rudimentary tactical RPG grid where you move around your ship. Each turn, you're able to position your ship on any tile on your side of the map, and once the turn ends, the ship will fire two shots directly in front. The enemy ships will do the same on their turn, and you'll have to hope you blast them first. I thought transitioning into a tactical RPG for spacecraft battles was a novel idea, but the actual implementation of it was too simple for me to really get into it. All I had to do was hope the enemy ships position themselves in front of me on their turn and hope my shots (whose chance to hit appear to be dictated by chance) land. There are potentially interesting elements like asteroids (that block missiles but not lasers) and the small variety of ship types with different armaments, but they hardly mattered in the grand scheme. If you manage to build up a massive fleet by conquering planets, your numbers will easily overwhelm any encounters with enemy ships. There are also a bunch of meters below the map in the overworld that increase over time. I didn't get far enough to see what happens when they top up, but I assume it's bad. If I had to guess, these meters pertain to the enemy gathering strength, and there's a race against time to conquer all the planets before this happens. I'm also not sure if conquering planets or destroying enemy fleets do anything to slow their progress. I feel like this mechanic would have been engaging if it were presented more prominently. VERDICT: DAIVA Story 6 has a lot of cool ideas (especially for its time), but I feel like the actual gameplay doesn't realize the full potential of those ideas. Both the platforming and the tactical space battles felt too easy for me to be fully engaged, which is a bit of a shame since I enjoyed the ability to strategically plan out your planetary missions and deploy a massive, varied fleet respectively. I also enjoyed the whole conceit of moving around space tackling missions in any order, though Star Fox 2 ended up executing this idea better especially with the mechanic of how your home planet is under threat if you don't act quickly. I can't say I was invested to the story, either, since I understood none of it. Overall, I still appreciated what they were going for in terms of their ideas, even if the actual execution didn't engage me as much as I would have liked. Honestly, reading about the mostly unknown history behind the game (and the series at large) may be more fascinating than actually playing it. That said, I still think this is worth playing to see and appreciate the rather ambitious ideas it attempts for the gameplay. It also plays perfectly fine anyhow, and it would be an OK way to kill an hour of free time if you don't mind a relatively easy game. - end - ![]() The sporadic drip feed of Switch Online emulator content continues. This time around, I got two Super Nintendo games and one NES game to check out. BACKGROUND:
I knew that Nintendo made a pinball game back in the '80s but I never tried it for some reason. Better late than never? SUMMARY: It's just pinball. Keep the ball aloft with the flippers, rack up score by hitting bumpers. That's it. The stuff on the pinball table is mostly standard pinball scoring elements, like your typical bumpers, various rollover points, as well as special targets, holes, and tunnels to hit the ball into. It's nothing I haven't seen before, though I was amused by the royal flush and slot machine gimmicks. Hitting these things will simply give you points, but some of the trickier elements will reward you with awesome bonuses like stoppers that block the ball from being lost, a ton of extra points, and even a way to hit the ball back into the plunger. What I found interesting is how the pinball table is essentially a top half and a bottom half. Both halves have flippers you can control, and if you fall through the top half, it's not game over since the bottom half is still a valid playfield. Falling here, however, will cause you to lose a ball (lose all three and it's game over). It's difficult to pull off, but it is possible to send the ball back to the top half of the table, and that'll allow you to earn extra points. Most entertaining to me is the bonus stage that you're thrown into should you get the ball into a specific hole on the board. This stage has you control Mario holding up a paddle and bouncing a ball Arkanoid/Breakout-style to activate numbered circles. It's tricky to keep the ball from falling (if this happens, you just get thrown back into the normal pinball game), but if you manage to have a column of circles turn into the same color, the barrier holding Pauline (the princess from the original Donkey Kong) will shrink, and if it gets small enough, she will drop down below. As Mario, you'll have to make sure she lands on the paddle, and then lead her to the side exits for some massive points. VERDICT: Look, I don't know what you want me to say. It's pinball. There are flashier and more exciting pinball video games out there now, so I highly doubt this will capture many people's imaginations in this day and age. But you know what? I expected a straightforward time-killer with no wacky gimmicks out of this game, and that's exactly what I got out of it. Even if the table design isn't anything special and the 8-bit visuals are as simple as it gets, it was more than enough to deliver a humble pinball experience that can consistently keep me occupied on a slow day. Plus, the bonus stage was a pleasant surprise and actually quite challenging. That's good enough for me. Will this pinball game make you shit your pants in excitement? Probably not. But if you just want to play some pinball, this is a decent enough take on it that you'll be content for however few rounds you're in the mood to play for. - end - ![]() There's no mistake here; I really did do this second. BACKGROUND:
I've already explained my history with the Mother series in the blog entry for Earthbound, so no need to repeat myself. The only thing I can say about this game specifically is that I was surprised to learn at the time that Earthbound was the second game in a series, and that there was a first one. Mother 1 itself has an interesting history, as while it was meant to be released outside Japan during the NES days (I learned that it was even localized), the game never actually saw the light of day. That changed during 2015, when Nintendo finally released the game as Earthbound Beginnings via the Wii U Virtual Console, joining Star Fox 2 as one of a few unique games that saw digital releases decades after the end of their respective console's life cycle. As to why I played Earthbound first instead of the first chronological release, I did so at the behest of people who have played both games. SUMMARY: Much like Earthbound, Earthbound Beginnings is a turn-based RPG set in an interpretation of the US with all sorts of weird alien shit going on. The protagonist of the story is also a young boy (default name Ninten) who must journey across the land to collect eight melodies in order to save the world. This sounds familiar. Jokes aside, there are some interesting elements that differentiate this game from Earthbound. Early on, a link is established between Ninten's great grandfather George and the paranormal nonsense that's been occurring, as it is explained that George spent the latter years of his life studying psychic powers. Magicant (an otherworldly dimension also present in the second game) has a larger story significance in this game as well, which I found neat. This is a much shorter game than Earthbound in terms of the pacing of its story (and smaller in terms of the size of its world), so there wasn't really much time to take in each of the smaller quests and appreciate them as their own little adventures. You're pretty much just thrown into the thick of things to explore on your own, and next thing you know, you've already collected half of the melodies needed to beat the game. While I did like the exploration aspect of finding the melodies (some of them are in real interesting places), there unfortunately isn't much story impact to finding them compared to Earthbound. Battles function mostly the same as Earthbound. You got a party of three (though you'll be able to use four characters), with Ninten being the all-rounder, Lloyd being like Jeff and relying more on items, Ana being the mage, and Teddy focusing more on physical damage. The PSI/PK spells are more or less standard stuff, with various offensive spells, support spells, and even spells like Telepathy (which see use in the overworld). Each party member also has equipment like weapons and armor, but the selection is so tiny that it's irrelevant until you can snag the best items in the game (which happens a lot sooner than you think). Enemies can be a pain in the ass (often attacking in groups, and with some using spells that can one-shot you), though they don't have as many tricks up their sleeve as the enemies in Earthbound. Most of the time, they'll just try to attack you and not really bother with non-offensive spells. There are a bunch of quirky enemies in this game, too, but I will say that Earthbound's cast of enemies is more memorable to me overall since that game had a greater variety of silly battle dialogue. Unlike Earthbound, the enemies don't move around in the overworld. Instead, you have your classic random encounter system a la Dragon Quest, and boy, it is real annoying to explore the world because of it. And despite the frequency of enemy encounters, you'll still be forced to grind quite a bit in this game, as Lloyd and Ana are literally at Lv 1 when you recruit them, meaning you actually have to take the time to catch them up with Ninten just so you can use them effectively. Managing inventory space is much worse here, because not only do you have less slots, there's literally only two ways you can offload unnecessary items in the entire game. Thankfully, one is easily accessible, and for some weird reason, equipped items don't take up an item slot (whereas in Earthbound, the second game, they do, which weirded me the fuck out). Also somewhat mercifully, there are only a few instances where you really need the space for key items anyway, so I actually got to make room for consumables in my playthrough. Money works much the same as Earthbound, as you'll have to call your dad to have him deposit cash into your account, and you have to go to an ATM to withdraw your balance. Not much to say here that I haven't already in the previous blog entry on Earthbound, apart from the fact that I used money even less in this game. The game has its fair share of fun moments and oddities, like the ability to get a cold (which is a status ailment in this series) just by talking to the wrong NPCs, a dude who fills your inventory with Mouthwash, a part where you ride a fucking tank, and an enemy that says "hello", leaves, and gives you XP anyway. I could tell that the charm of the series has been present from the very beginning and they upped the ante in the second game. This definitely looks and sounds like a late-era NES game with its simple yet adorable sprites, and catchy chiptune music, which has a bit of the genre diversity I was surprised by in Earthbound. VERDICT: I did not enjoy Earthbound Beginnings as much as I did the sequel, as it was much more limited in a lot of respects (be it item variety or exploration) and had some frustratingly dated elements (random encounters, poor inventory management). That said, I still found stuff to enjoy about this game, and I came off the experience really appreciating Earthbound even more since I got to see where all the neat ideas and memorable elements in that game got their start. On its own, I probably wouldn't have liked it much at all, but playing Earthbound first and then coming back to this to compare and contrast allowed me to appreciate what it brought to the table. I don't think I'd recommend playing Earthbound Beginnings until you finish Earthbound, since the second game implements the concepts this one introduces in a much more polished manner. Battles in the second game were more enjoyable, there was a lot more world to explore, and there was more silliness to encounter. Once you've done that, I think going back to play this one would make for a more rewarding experience, if only to see how the cult classic series got its start. It may behoove you to keep a walkthrough handy just in case, however. - end - ![]() Who knew Nintendo still had NES games they could bother adding to the emulator? BACKGROUND:
I know of the original Mappy (which was another arcade game from the '80s by Namco), but I've strangely never played it before (that, or I tried it once and forgot about it). I also know of this particular sequel, but have only seen others play it on YouTube. SUMMARY: Mappy-Land is a side-scrolling platformer where you control a mouse named Mappy and try to collect six specified items (indicated on the top right corner) as quickly as possible, all while avoiding an onslaught of cats trying to kill you. You'll be moving back and forth the levels City Connection-style, and once you have collected all six items, the path at the end of the level will unlock and you can proceed to the next level, where it's more of the same. Mappy himself doesn't have much he can do, apart from a short hop that gives him the ability to briefly avoid danger. You'll have to rely on the trampolines strewn about the level to get to higher platforms or to survive a long drop (because there is fall damage in this game). While hopping on a trampoline makes you immune to the enemies until you land, you can only bounce three times on one until it breaks, likely sending you to a horrible death below. It's a simple yet neat mechanic (I liked how easy it was to control at what height you land), and it's personally satisfying for me to see where Pac-Man's up special move from Smash Bros. (which is him using the exact trampoline as a recovery move) actually comes from. While most of the game is simply running away from cats while trying to collect the collectibles, you're not completely defenseless. Each level will have a few interactables that you can take advantage of to incapacitate enemies, like bombs that blow shit up, or pulleys that you can use to kick enemies out of the way. You can also pick up power-ups that can serve as distractions, like a fish you can throw that'll lure all nearby cats away. These are pretty handy in a pinch, especially in later levels where all the enemies move much faster than you do. The game is split into four rounds of eight levels, each with its own little story. The first has you collect cake (or maybe it's cheese?) for Mapico's (Mappy's girlfriend or something) birthday, the second has you collect wedding rings for Mappy's wedding with Mapico, you collect Christmas trees in the third for, well, Christmas, and the last round has you pick up baseballs as a birthday gift for Mappy Jr. It's a nice, wholesome tale about a mouse finding mouse love and starting a mouse family, and the brief scenes at the end when you complete the last level of a round even play the appropriate music depending on the occasion. After the fourth round, you simply loop back to the first story, at which point you just go on repeat until you decide that you've had your fill. Each of the eight levels are themed, from a trainyard, a spooky area near a graveyard, a Wild West-themed level, and even a jungle. The themes themselves are reused every round, but the individual layouts are different. In later rounds, you can even enter buildings to find sub-areas, which have an additional item you need to get on top of the six collectibles in order to move on to the next level. I was pleasantly surprised you could go into buildings at all; it isn't much, but it adds a tiny bit of exploration to the game. A few of the areas have gimmicks to them, like the spooky area giving you a flashlight to ward off ghosts, or the jungle having vines you have to climb onto. Again, it's not much, but the variety was neat. Other miscellaneous elements include secret bonus areas that are surprisingly tricky to find and reward you with extra shit, and a score system that doesn't matter at all apart from extra lives. VERDICT: Mappy-Land is a simple collect-a-thon platformer that I had more fun with than I initially thought I would. Though it eventually loops back around, I like that there was a little bit of story to the game, and while the game is undeniably repetitive as a whole, it personally didn't feel that way to me until I looped back to the first story. I guess trampolines are really that fun. I'd say this game is worth playing at least for a little while, if only to appreciate an old school Namco character from the '80s arcade era. Whether or not this is worth skipping to over playing the original, I can't say, since I still have to play the original Mappy for myself. - end - ![]() Well, it's been quite a while since Nintendo could be arsed to add anything to the NES Online library. Since I can't afford the Switch Online Expansion Pack yet, these scraps will have to tide me over for now. BACKGROUND:
Though I was born well past the original Dig Dug's heyday in the arcade, I have actually played it before. I just can't recall for the life of me if it was via emulation or through one of those Namco arcade game collections. In any case, I didn't know they made a sequel, so color me surprised. SUMMARY: Unlike the original Dig Dug, which is all about navigating a maze of tunnels underground, Dig Dug II takes place entirely aboveground. Each level is an island with enemies running around, and the goal of killing everything to proceed is the same. You're still able to stick an air pump into enemies in order to blow them up original Dig Dug-style (still a gruesome way to kill someone), but now you have an additional tool in your arsenal: a jackhammer. You can use this jackhammer at specific points on each level, and doing so while holding a direction will create a crack on the ground going in the specified direction. These cracks can serve as "walls" to deter enemies, but more importantly, you can create a whole system of these cracks such that when both ends of a connected system of cracks hit the coast, that entire section of the island crumbles and sinks into the ocean. This will kill everything standing on the broken-off section (including yourself, if you don't move quickly), and is an effective way to clear the board if you can time and position things right. It's certainly a fun puzzle challenge to weave past enemies and manipulate hordes of them to their deaths via terrain destruction, but you can get away with just killing them the old fashioned way for most of the early game. It's only on certain levels where using the jackhammer is crucial, as such levels will often feature too many enemies to take out one at a time or have a layout that's difficult to move around in. Overall, I liked the jackhammer mechanic, but I think more could have been done with regards to designing more levels around it, or by lessening the effectiveness of the air pump (thereby forcing players to rely on the jackhammer more). Other than that, there's not much to say aside from the fact that this is a pretty standard arcade game for the time. There's not really an end to work towards, and it's pretty much all about surviving long enough to get the highest score you can. VERDICT: Dig Dug II is as straightforward an arcade experience as its predecessor, with a simple objective, easy-to-understand controls, and the usual escalation of difficulty the longer you go. While I liked the new jackhammer mechanic, I wish the game were designed more around it, though I suppose that means I still get to enjoy the classic method of inflating enemies to death. Can't really say I enjoy this more than the original, but I found it a serviceable time-killer. I would recommend playing the original Dig Dug before checking this out, since that game has the legacy of a bona fide arcade classic and one of Namco's big successes in the '80s. That said, you really won't lose anything if you play this first, since the sequel retains a bunch of the iconic elements of the first. - end - With me checking out this one NES game, I'm finally done with May's Switch Online emulator updates. BACKGROUND:
As is tradition, I've never heard of this game prior to its addition to the Switch Online emulator service. One quick search reveals that it was never released outside of Japan until the Wii era, which is probably one of the reasons why I don't know about it. SUMMARY: Ninja JaJaMaru-kun is an arcade-style platformer where the goal is to defeat all the enemies in each level. I like to think of it as the game City Connection (also an NES game available on Switch Online), except with a ninja. Like most games of this era, there's little focus put on the story, so I don't really know what's going on. The most I can glean based on the elements of the game is that the protagonist ninja dude is trying to rescue what I assume is a princess being held captive by a pirate. Yep, definitely a game from the '80s. Though the overall aesthetic varies from level to level, each has a similar layout of four floors that you can jump between once you break the bricks scattered about the level Mario-style. Each level has you face off against eight assorted enemies, and you must defeat them in order to progress. Your ninja character can stun these enemies by jumping on their head, then dispatch them by throwing shurikens. It's quite simple, and the objective is the same all throughout the game. In terms of design, the enemies have some distinct designs, but gameplay-wise, there's little to differentiate them other than slightly unique attacks or movements. The general strategy of stomping them then throwing a shuriken works across the board, and the challenge lies more with not getting blindsided by another enemy. There's also the matter of dealing with the game's not-so-smooth controls; jumping in particular takes quite a bit of adjusting to. Breaking the bricks not only allows you to move across the level, but sometimes items will appear once you break them. Some of these items are benign, adding only to your overall score, others are bad and straight up kill you, while others are power-ups that have almost imperceptible benefits (seriously, I had to look up what they did because I couldn't figure it out). What is noticeable, however, is what happens when you collect three distinct power-ups. Doing so summons a frog which the ninja will mount, at which point you're completely invulnerable and devour any enemies in your path. It's not really that essential a power (especially once you get used to the game and get consistent at avoiding and killing enemies), but it's always fun to completely blast through a level with it. Defeating all the enemies can be a challenge in itself, but time is also of the essence. Not only is there a visible timer on the screen, but once a certain amount of time passes, the game will go out of your way to kill you. A fireball that relentlessly follows you can spawn, and the evil pirate dude (who is mostly a background element for most of the game) will throw an onslaught of bombs at you. These are a pain in the ass to deal with, so I did my best to clear levels as quickly as I could. The game also has a random element in a collectible sakura petal that occasionally drops in the level. Collecting three of these takes you to a shmup-style bonus stage (which unfortunately only rewards bonus points). It doesn't really mean anything, but I guess it's neat. VERDICT: Ninja JaJaMaru-kun is one of many games from the '80s that I think of as arcade-style. There's an emphasis on score, the gameplay is simple, restricted to a small area, and is largely the same all throughout, and there's not much else apart from that. I was entertained for the little bit I played it, but after a dozen or so levels, I felt like I've experienced most of what the game has to offer and was comfortable stopping. The most I can recommend is playing this game for a couple of minutes (or play through a few levels) and see if you like it. If you're not really into repetitive arcade-style games, you'll have your fill quickly. Regardless, I think it's a serviceable time-killer. - end - ![]() With this last game, I'm finally caught up with all the NES and SNES games that came out in the three months I didn't have my Switch. I'm glad I was able to get this done when I did, as when I started writing this post, Nintendo announced new additions to the Switch Online emulators. By the time you see this published, I'm already playing through those games. BACKGROUND:
Per usual, I didn't know what this game was, but when I first saw the announcement trailer for the update that this was a part of, I found the snippet of gameplay oddly familiar-looking. I looked the game up, and sure enough, this game is apparently a prequel to Solomon's Key, another NES puzzle platformer I really enjoyed. As such, this was one of the games I was very excited to play when I got my Switch back. SUMMARY: Like Solomon's Key, Fire 'n Ice is a puzzle platformer, but its gameplay is quite different. As I said before, this is a prequel to the original, and it sees the wizard Dana on one of his earliest adventures to save Coolmint Island from the wizard Druidle. Basic stuff, but I did appreciate that they tried to build on Dana's story a little bit. The basic idea of each level in this game is to extinguish all the fires. In order to do that, you must utilize Dana's ice magic, which allows him to place or destroy ice blocks diagonally down in front of him. This is about the only similarity this game has with Solomon's Key, as the original's main mechanic also revolves around placing blocks down. In order to put out the fires, you either have to push a single ice block in their direction, or drop one down directly from above. Dana's movement is quite limited, as he can't jump, but can climb up tiles one block tall. The game's various level layouts make navigation a lot harder than it looks, and you must use your ice magic to help you move around on top of using it to clear out fires. The levels get increasingly tough, because you have to start thinking many steps ahead to set up the blocks you need to use to extinguish the fires while also making sure you don't accidentally lock yourself out of a portion of the level by laying down a path. This game has a ton of levels, with ten worlds each containing ten levels. The difficulty increases at a comfortable pace, and the tougher levels are a genuine challenge. Little things like a quick reset button help make more difficult levels less stressful, and I also liked the addition of a stopwatch if you want to speedrun levels. What's awesome about this game is that it apparently has a full level editor that allows you to make custom levels. I found the editor a bit confusing to use at first, but once I figured it out, it was fun to experiment with all the game assets to make my own shit. Puzzle games that let players make their own levels are always worthwhile to me, and while this game obviously lacks the online capabilities of modern titles, the mere act of creating levels is still a fun exercise in creativity. Whereas Solomon's Key had an art style that's reminiscent of more serious fantasy outings, Fire 'n Ice feels more cartoony. The music is similarly cheery, but I must admit that I have a special attachment to Solomon's Key's signature theme. VERDICT: Fire 'n Ice scratched my puzzle platformer itch with a ton of levels that play around with the game's simple mechanics in many ways. It has a lot of what enjoyed out of Solomon's Key, but with slightly less hectic levels and neat additions like a quick reset. And while the level editor won't see much use outside of local play, I'm impressed that this game has it at all. I absolutely enjoyed this game in nearly every respect, and contrary to what most people online think, this is an indication that not every addition to the Switch Online emulators are obscure duds. If you're as enthusiastic about puzzle games (or puzzle platformers in particular) as I am, this is a game well worth trying. While you're at it, go play Solomon's Key too if you haven't already. - end - ![]() Now that I'm done with the SNES portion of the Switch Online updates, I'm gonna catch up with the NES additions. There were only two NES games added during my three-month absence, so this won't take long. BACKGROUND:
As expected, I have no idea what this game is. SUMMARY: Nightshade is a point-and-click adventure game where you play as the titular character, who's a vigilante out to stop the Ancient Egypt-themed villain Sutekh from bringing Metro City into ruin. The story sounds pretty serious at the start (you get a whole monologue from Nightshade about how Metro City became a cesspool of crime and how it needs a hero), but instead of feeling like the gritty Dark Knight Trilogy, the game leans more towards the 1966 Batman TV show and is decidedly more light-hearted. Sutekh is just your usual mustache-twirling villain with weird and esoteric plans of conquest, the game has a ton of humorous dialogue (including snarky meta humor and pop culture references from the early '90s), and the seemingly edgy Nightshade is the butt of many a joke. Although the narrative leans more towards the campy side (which I enjoyed), some of the backstory actually is a bit dark. You don't see too many threads that piece together what happened before the events of the game, but the few you do encounter paint an intriguing tale. I wouldn't call it particularly innovative, but I did find some elements of the backstory neat. This game has all the usual ingredients for a typical point-and-click: a context-sensitive control scheme that allows you to interact with various objects in different ways (e.g. examine, use, pick up, etc.), puzzles that involve using said system on your surroundings, looking for items that help with solving puzzles or acquiring more crucial items, and plenty of text-based interaction. Overall, the puzzles are straightforward (i.e. nothing I haven't seen before in other point-and-clicks), but there are a few clever ones sprinkled in there, and the various items you acquire see use in areas far from where you found them. As long as you're diligent in inspecting your environment, I don't think most people will have any trouble solving most of the puzzles in this game. I will point out that I found this game's control scheme quite cumbersome to navigate. Naturally, I can't fault a game that came out on a console for not being able to perfectly replicate a point-and-click experience with a mouse, but I feel like they could have done better than what the game has. Typically in point-and-clicks, interacting with an object will bring up a menu of possible actions that you can perform (e.g. inspect, use, pick up, etc.). Nightshade makes you open up such a menu first and then select the object, which I found a bit of a pain to adjust to. It also doesn't help that actual menu navigation and cursor movement feel painfully slow. Item management is also annoying, as you often have to manually move the cursor down to the item menu to select items. Metro City is a decently sized open area that you can explore, and not only is there a lot to check out, the game is actually quite open-ended. I made serious progress just exploring whatever I felt like, and I ended up finding clues meant for the early game that I no longer needed because I'd already stumbled upon what I needed. This aspect, to me, helped offset the relatively easy difficulty of most puzzles, as I still got a sense of satisfaction from the fact that my random exploration led to significant progress. An interesting mechanic this game has is the Popularity Meter. Performing tasks such as defeating enemies and helping citizens with side quests raises your popularity. Some areas can only be accessed if you have a high popularity, which means it's imperative that you raise your popularity if you want to progress. The game doesn't really communicate that part well, but seeing the meter go up as you do completely optional stuff for the NPCs is quite satisfying, so I suppose that's something. Speaking of defeating enemies, there is combat in this game. It's initiated like a typical RPG random encounter when you run into enemy sprites while exploring. The combat itself plays like a fighting game, but it's pretty simple and honestly kind of aggravating. You can really only do a couple of moves (all of which have terrible range), your only mobility outside of your slow-ass walk is a jump, and pretty much every enemy has something about them that gives them an irritating advantage over you (like better mobility, higher priority attacks, projectiles, jump-ins, specific vulnerable states, and all sorts of other bullshit). I liked this concept on paper (it's not everyday you see combat in a point-and-click, let alone one styled like a fighting game), but the execution led to a fair share of frustrating moments. Another unique thing this game does is instead of straight up giving you a game over when you lose all your HP, the villain puts you in one of various death traps that you can attempt to escape. These death traps require some quick thinking to solve, but if you succeed, you can continue playing from where you left off. If you fail to escape, that's when the game gives you the proper game over and puts you back at the start. I thought this was such a cool idea; not only were the death traps themselves neat mini-puzzles, but the idea that you can avoid a game over by solving a puzzle really stood out to me as a one-of-a-kind concept. Plus, it works within the game's setting. VERDICT: I have my fair share of issues with Nightshade, and while those issues led to a number of frustrating moments, I still think this game was a good effort overall. I liked the more "open world" take on the standard point-and-click adventure, there were some novel ideas like the fighting game-style combat and the death traps, and I found amusement in the mostly light-hearted story and occasional humor. The odds that other players will find the points of frustration I highlighted annoying seem likely in my view, so if those issues seem like deal-breakers to you, I won't begrudge you not trying this game. That said, I think there's still merit in trying it out, because I think it does do some fun things with its gameplay. - end - |
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