I only ever played the SNES version.  I've played MD and SNES versions of Gods and prefered it on SNES but I don't think there was much between them.

A lively few weeks, good choice T_o_m_H. I'll have a crack at Gods before we move on (or delay if people want more Bitmaps) but suggestions are welcome for the next topic/game.

Gods is brilliant - though another one with some pretty obscure bits to puzzle out, and the password system feels broken to me.

Gods is just such a signature Bitmap Bros game, what with the Simon Bisley box art.

I finally finished Cadaver and got half way through The Payoff. The Payoff suffers from the problem of how to ratchet up the difficulty from level 5 of the original with no new gameplay mechanics. Their answer seems to have been to up the obscurity of the puzzles and add more combat - neither of which I really enjoyed, especially the action in an isometric game with airborne enemies and no shadows...
I'd have given up without save states, but I just love the world building in this game and the environment art is superb.

Finally I gave Magic Pockets a revisit. Being a game that seems to ape the console titles of the era, I'm surprised this one never got a console port. It screams the 90s, but I'm confused as to how old Bitmap Kid is supposed to be. He dresses like a teen but rides a trike and collects baby bottles of milk.
Again, the Bitmaps did their "let's not make things straightforward" thing and added possibly the most convoluted bonus/ powerup system that they could. I never got past world 3 and I can't help but wonder if that's because I wasn't killing enemies in the correct way to trigger all of the correct bonus drops.

I also can't help but think that the whole Magic Pockets idea was just the designers wondering where that guy from Gods gets all his knives from.

Can't make up my mind whether the art on Pockets is better than Chaos Engine... Probably go for CE.

If I've one major BB grip it's that despite the emphasis on music, the in-game sound is just pants compared to other games of the time.

poprock wrote:

Sorry to bang the same drum again, but is that possibly to do with port timings? Was the sound on par (or even better than) contemporary games on the ST/Amiga but compared poorly when later ported to consoles and up against more modern stuff?

I don’t know, just wondering. I’m not sure what the time gap was.

I remember the sound being weak on the ST and Amiga compared to other games at the time. Speedball 2 had some nice crunchy noises, but the other games felt pretty minimal and uninspired.

DOSBox SVN, CPU speed: 3000 cycles, Frameskip 0, Program: GAME (archive.org)

I was an Atari guy, so the in-game sound was always slightly inferior to the Amiga versions anyway.

Armitage_Shankburn wrote:

DOSBox SVN, CPU speed: 3000 cycles, Frameskip 0, Program: GAME (archive.org)

Heh. Tried that.  Well I never, shakes head etc.  Playing a game like that in a browser. 

The G.G. Shinobi (Game Gear)

Take Shinobi and mix it in with a bit of Mega Man and you have The G.G. Shinobi, which happens to make a solid handheld game for its era.

You basically have 4 levels to choose from, after completing each one you rescue a Ninja with a unique ability. Basic Mega Man stuff, but it works well so why not.

I found the last level a tad disappointing, you retread the level a few times with a boss rush mode before finally encountering the final boss, felt a bit cheap.

Still thats a minor quibble, and overall its an excellent example of what made a good handheld game back in the early 90's and a very good Shinobi game to boot.

4/5

My Reviews

If no one has any suggestions for the next round I'd like to nominate Trouble Shooter for the Mega Drive.

Its a 2D shoot em up with a lot of style that I've always fancied giving a go. There was also a Japanese only sequel.

Couple of Castlevania games recently completed in the 52 games in a year thread:

So, little disclaimer. For the most part I review games on older systems with their limitations taken into consideration, sure there are exceptions and many games I'd still give the same rating to if released today. The early 3D era has generally aged much worse though, and as such more games from the fifth generation have to be taken with a little extra grain of salt than most. If this was released today its borderline broke, but back in 1999...

Castlevania Legacy of Darkness (N64)

I have to say I enjoyed this far more than I was expecting. Is it as good as Symphony of the Night? No. Did it make the leap into 3D as well as Mario and Zelda? Nope. Is it a bad 5th gen game? I'm gonna say no.

The controls are a little floaty sure, but I soon got used to them, and within a few minutes I felt like I had a good enough grasp on them that falling to my death was my fault and not the controls.

Another common complaint is the camera, its not perfect but few cameras were back then, and there are even games today that struggle. You can recenter the camera behind your character with the R button which I found did the job more often than not, and you can even use the D-Pad for full 360 movement much like right analogs offer today. Granted on the N64 pad it isn't the best solution.

The combat is ok, there's a rudimentary lock on system that targets what enemy your facing which works well enough.

Basically I was expecting to die a thousand deaths from frustrating combat and platforming because of a bad camera, and it almost never happened. With those fears alleviated I found myself really enjoying my time with this.

Its a very linear experience on the whole with a little back tracking with keys, switches etc here and there to pad it out. Only the Villa level has a bit more to it that'll require your thinking cap with a few obtuse puzzles. Just over a third of my total playtime came from that level alone.

Graphics are OK, its a little first gen for N64 looks and in 1999 that wasn't particularly great but I don't think its terrible looking. The music is a bit disappointing, what there is of it is decent enough but there's not enough of it for me and its not a patch on the iconic music in other releases in the series.

The plot is simple but decent enough, especially taking the overarching story of the four playable characters into account. Each character has a few unique levels so there's a decent amount of replayability here.

I'm actually more tempted to replay this than I am numerous superior modern games, partly because I know I could cut the play time in half knowing what to do in certain levels now. In fact the game does have a bit of a speed runners vibe to it which is always rewarding for multiple playthroughs.

Its got such a bad reputation now that its easy to forget the original got decent reviews back in the day. 8.2 from both Gamespot and IGN, and 81% from the highly regarded N64 Magazine. Despite being the superior version, Legacy got lower marks for being released less than 12 months later at full price, and rightly so. I guess sometimes patches and DLC are a good thing.

Is it worth paying today? A resounding no, unless your either a Castlevania or N64 fan, even then its no guarantee. I'm a big fan of both so I guess it's easier for me to see past its short comings.

Its a modern 1/5 mess at best, but with fifth gen goggles on its nowhere near as bad as the reputation it now has.

3/5

---

Super Castlevania IV (SNES)

One of the best Castlevania games, and possibly my personal favourite.

You could argue the whip is overpowered and that the secondary weapons lose a lot of their purpose because of it, but that's about as negative as it gets.

Its one of my all timers, still a joy to play with some of the best music ever to grace silicon.

A game I genuinely love that I'll continue to return to as long as I'm gaming.

5/5

Moot_Geeza wrote:

10. Trouble Shooter - Megadrive (1hr) 

Quirky scrolling shmup with an intriguing dual character mechanic.  The character you control directly shoots from left to right, but the second character can be flipped to fire in either direction with the C button.  Spoiler alert - you eventually add a third character that adds another layer to the controls (he pushes to the left of the screen as you head to the right, for example), and it all just about works.  On a couple of occasions you can tuck the main character behind a piece of scenery and control the second player freely, which is a legit tactic for at least one of the bosses.  It's far from perfect but it's executed well enough to be worthwhile.  I liked the way the selectable power weapon recharges fairly quickly, meaning you'll use it regularly throughout a stage rather than saving it for one specific choke point like, say, Shadow Dancer.  Graphics are mostly okay with a couple of neat looking sections.  Music is enjoyable and the cut scenes are fine with a decent enough sub-Wolfteam Anime head style.  It's unusual to see something like this breaking the 4th wall too.  Level two shits the bed after a strong start but it manages to pull it back as you progress.  It can be hard to tell whether you're actually hitting bosses - especially the second form of the final boss - but once you learn what you're doing it's fine.  More on that final boss though: you're forced to use a single character at the start of the level, and the patterns aren't really suited for the suddenly nerfed single direction fire.  It seemed like a perfect opportunity to allow the main character to flip direction, but no, so it just results in a slightly janky game of slow paced dodging/attacking.   Overall this was well worth playing though.  Apparently the Japanese version appeared later with some added bells and whistles, will take a look on Youtube at some point. Special mention for end credits done right - a jaunty chip tune and developers with names like PROPELLOR WADO and TAKAYAN THE BARBARIAN.  



You love to see it.  1991 82%

Trouble Shooter (Mega Drive)

Decent shoot 'em up, which the Mega Drive certainly wasn't lacking in.

What sets this one apart is that you control two characters named Madison and Crystal. Madison always shoots to the right, and you can toggle Crystal to shoot either side by pressing the C button. The game also has a forth wall breaking sense of humour, which is still quite rare today let alone in 1991.

Outside of that its quite standard fare, you shoot your main weapon with the B button, and have icons to collect throughout the stages to power up your weapon and increase/decrease your speed.

You have a special weapon that you can use with the A button, of which there are a handful to choose from. You don't have a set number of them to use, instead they recharge after use. If you try and use it before it recharges the charge will reset, so you have to be patient.

It's tough but not impossible. At 6 stages long and with two continues its definitely one that the average gamer should be able to see through.

Not the best shoot 'em up on the Mega Drive, but its art style and sense of humour help it stand out.

3/5

My Reviews

Both.

Will play Trouble Shooter at some point but don’t want people waiting around.

There is a sequel but it only came out in Japan, its called Battle Mania Daiginjō. There's an English patch for it called Trouble Shooter Vintage.

I played the first level after completing this. Its much the same from what I could tell but looks more polished.

I know Alien Storm. Why not.