Yes. But that sounds less like an ambient electronica track than Gav's post.

afgavinstan wrote:

Memories of shoddy versions of Klax.

Klax on Megadrive is excellent though.

There’s a puzzle game called Virtual Lab for the Virtual Boy that displays a password after each level but has no password screen to actually enter them.

OK, I downloaded the new Red Viper emulator for Virtual Boy on the Nintendo 3DS and had a go of Virtual Lab.

Virtual Lab (Virtual Boy) - Wow, this is bad. It’s basically like a tile matcher but the tiles are parts of an intestine-like organism. By sealing all the open orifices with either a cap tile or the sides of the play area, you make that organism disappear. Clear the play area and the level ends.

Now what fucks this is that if an orifice opens into the closed side of another tile, it counts as open indefinitely so you can’t ever remove that organism. And it’s extremely difficult to prevent orifices from opening into the closed sides of other tiles. If you complete a really big organism a fairy appears and removes some stuff from the board, but other than that there’s no way of remedying the situation. This renders the game virtually unplayable.

The 3D effect is kinda bad and just consists of some thematically inappropriate stars flying about in the background. A large-breasted woman shuffles about beneath the score. But stifle those criticisms, for once you recognise the secret reason for her large breasts, you will be ashamed of your words and deeds. The developer was a trans woman who couldn’t afford gender affirming surgery and the breasts were a way of manifesting the feminine figure that she wasn’t able to have in real life.

This game was rushed to cartridge production at the end of the Virtual Boy’s life when the publisher realised Nintendo was about to shut down the console. It is borderline unfinished and unfortunately the core concept still needed a lot of work to function correctly. As it is, it’s a broken mess and one of the worst officially licensed games I’ve ever played. [1]

Donkey Kong Country (SNES) 

This gives me such similar vibes to Sonic the Hedgehog that I played earlier this year, that I'm gonna do a lazy copy/paste & edit job of that review:

Probably the weakest of the SNES Trilogy, but easily the most iconic for me.

I still get a kick out of this game, the music is top notch and is probably the pinnacle of the 16-Bit games in that regard. A lot of people hate the digitised graphics these days, and whilst I can't really argue that they've aged worse than pixel art, I still think it looks the part. 

The big negative for me is the nature of getting a 101% completion. Instead of something simple and distinctive to collect like Red coins in the NSMB series, this game uses hidden secrets within levels. It just feels a bit contrived instead of adding extra challenge like the strawberry's in Celeste for example. It's a shame as generally I do like a good mop up, and at 2hrs to see the credits with 53% it could probably have done with some padding out. 

There's not many games that transport me back in time, but this is certainly one of them. Iconic as fuck, and gets an extra point for being a serious fanboy head turning title during the great war.

4/5 

My reviews

DKCII is probably one of the most impressive 16-bit games I've played.

And you take the piss out of me for repeating my battered roll story

BS F-zero Deluxe (SNES) 

Downloaded this hack after hearing that the long lost GP tracks have been faithfully recreated. This hack includes all 10 tracks and 4 additional vehicles from the Satellaview broadcasts. I started off just playing those, but then got sucked in and proceeded to do a full 100% replay.

First thing out the gate, the GP tracks are a mixed bag, and you can see why Nintendo never bothered releasing them in the West as F-Zero 2. For starters there's simply not enough of them, and secondly the quality ranges from decent to mind numbingly dull. For the Satellaview which wasn't far off modern day DLC it's fine though.

So down to the main game, I think this has aged remarkably well all things considered. It's amazing to me how much finesse there is to the controls considering you only have a D-Pad. The tracks are expertly designed and up until I completed it on Expert I was contemplating giving this full marks.

Unfortunately the Master difficulty just feels the wrong side of fair. Rival vehicles just aggressively crash into you sending you into race ruining spirals, with no effect on themselves. F-Zero X really did perfect the series, as attacking rivals yourself became a pivotal part of each race, in this your severely handicapped and at the mercy of the pack. Some tracks here require flawless runs to stand a chance of a top 3 finish, and with only 3 attempts per GP over 5 races, you'll be seeing the game over screen frequently. I'd say at least two thirds of my playtime was spent on the Queen and King GP's on Master difficulty alone.

It's also a shame that there's no real GP league with a points tally for a finish, instead its just a top 3 finish to get to the next track, you could conceivably see the credits without ever winning a race.

Anyway, despite all the negatives this is still a top 16-Bit racer, and on Beginner, Standard or Expert difficulties is a damn good time. Oh, and if you're a fan, definitely check out this hack.

4/5 

My reviews

Yeah I remember hearing the same about Miyamoto.

I love the DKC games but YI and most Super Mario games are on another level.

Hello my name is Moot and I prefer DKC:TF to any 2D Marios.

The three SNES DKC games are overrated.

Decent platformers, but if it wasn't for the graphics, which were mind blowing at the time, they'd be largely forgotten.

DKC3 is objectively the best of the three.