Just remembered a section I found odd in this - the undead oarsman that whisks you off to a faraway cave that contains an orb that allows you to call the boatman.   I assume it can be used elsewhere as he ferries you both ways without it, but where and to what end?

I had the thunder helm equipped which did help, but not enough. I have tons of items but nothing that would obviously help at a glance.

I'll boot it up again tomorrow to mop up the unexplored screens/rooms and give it another go.

Is there an extended ending to getting everything in the game?

I think there are a few endings. Not that much difference I don’t think? Beat last boss with most of the castle uncovered to get the best ending.

How long should we run SotN? In no rush to change game but if we're all done with the various degrees of dabbling I'll wrap it up.

Yeah sorry I've been dragging my heels, I rarely play games during the week; I'm off work til Monday now so will stick a shift in.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSP)

I could write several paragraphs about the minor negatives of this game, but they're just that, minor. They're almost all forgiven because it plays like every Castlevania before it, bloody brilliant.

There's something so simple and satisfying about CV for me. Even something as simple as jumping and hitting a candle evokes fun, it just feels great.

But, there's one flaw that seriously lets it down, the lack of difficulty. The last game I played where the difficulty hurt a game overall like this was The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

Unfortunately it's not just the combat, but also the way the Metroidvania (ergh) castle opens up. It feels like a Metroidvania lite, it doesn't have enough moments of unlocking a new ability and having that excitement of going back to unlock new areas. It's just to straight forward to complete.

Also, the inverted castle, bit disappointing tbh. It just felt like a missed opportunity. Everything was almost exactly the same, right down to the secret areas.

So yeah not as good as I was expecting or hoping. It didn't live up to the Metroid or Vania parts of the awful portmanteau that the genre has adopted, but it's by no means a bad game. Its still a very good one in fact, and had it been more challenging or the castle more creative in the basic progression it would have been a 5, as it is...

4/5

My Reviews

I put several into into this last weekend, will write thoughts next weekend I promise, feel free to move onto the next game in the meantime ofc.

One thing I love is that yes, back dashing and tapping block in-between does speed you backwards constantly. Love that kind off stuff.

Spiderman games?  Was cycling through a load on the Pi recently, actually stumbled on a GBA effort that felt (and sounded) pretty good.  I'd be up for an unfocused dabble with the character.  The MD game has aged poorly, but Maximum Carnage felt better than reviews at the time suggested, for example.  

If people want something less scattershot I'm happy to pick from suggestions.

I'm up for that, will change the thread title if no-one objects.

I'm up for GBs.

I put a good number of hours into SotN two weekends ago, it's just about got some claws into me but clearly not enough for me to boot it back up. Having said that, I have been very preoccupied with RDR2 atm so perhaps once I clear that out of the way I'll get back on it. My gut feeling is a 3.5/5 atm, I enjoy it whilst playing but the lack of challenge and lack (so far) of needing to make use of a lot of the stuff I'm getting is hampering it.

Ghostbusters was my favourite game on the c64. You're right Davy, you had to get 2 men past the marsh mellow man. If you did, you'd go directly to the top of the building and cross the streams.

I think this was way ahead of its time, once you finished the game you would get a sort of new game plus thing where you could spend the money you earned on better starting equipment and do it all over again. Catching slimers was well executed to, you'd have to position 2 men and a trap and time when to close the streams in and then when to fire the trap. I never got bored of that.

Are we doing a specific Ghostbusters, or just any from the series?

Will try to delve into some at the weekend.

Sweet.

Played about 20 mins of the Mega Drive game.

It's ok but the shooting feels a little clunky, definitely not bad but I'm not sure it's worth playing.

Will give it more time over the weekend.

Ghostbusters (MD)

Did not enjoy this unfortunately, got to level 3 out of 6 before giving up and deleting the ROM. Feels a bit clunky and the sprite size to screen ratio means it's often easier to take a hit than it should be. 

Also it doesn't feel much like a Ghostbusters game. You very rarely use the proton pack, instead relying on projectiles. Also where's Winston?

I do like the stylised graphics and the music is decent enough. The option to play the first few levels in any order, and the presentation of them being cases you accept on the city grid are nice touches.

It's not a terrible game, but I feel there were far better games available on the Mega Drive in 1990, let alone the intervening years.

2/5