Duck Tales on NES is up next week.  While there's a bit of traffic in the thread can we have a few more votes for future games?  You don't have to be able to take part, but I'd like a selection of good games to choose from to get a proper schedule sorted out.

Choke wrote:

Strider!

and St. Dragon.

Gynoug/Wings of Wor (MD)

JonB wrote:

Gynoug/Wings of Wor (MD)

Another game I've always wanted to play.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I've written my Bloodlines review, but when I try to paste it into the forum, it says 'body required', so that may have been a wasted 15 minutes as I'm not typing it out again.

Use the 'paste text' icon instead. For some reason you can't just paste directly into the window.

Anyway, I've DL'ed the emulator and ROM. I used to own this version of Castelvania, but I have a feeling I didn't really get that far into it for some reason. If I can manage it playing on my keyboard I'll give it another go.

Cheers JonB.

Bloodlines thoughts.....

I’m surprised how good this game is. Having read the buzz at the time, I vaguely remember assuming it was a good game rather than a great one, which is a shame, because it’s a bona fide 16-bit classic. This was my first Castlevania game (I realise I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but I should have got round to playing this series earlier), and I’ll be playing IV in the next couple of weeks as I’m definitely in the mood to make up for lost time. Perhaps there was an element of stupidity about my initial decision to ignore the game, based on the same nonsensical logic that somehow allowed me to dismiss screenshots of Donkey Kong Country as soulless crap – Nintendo hand-me-downs? No ta, I’ll play Vectorman. Segaboy innit? I’ve since seen the error of my ways, or at least admitted that the other side of the fence is similarly lush, and count many SNES games amongst my all-time favourites, thanks in no small part to my beloved GBA.

I thought Bloodlines was hard. I limited myself to save states at sub bosses and end of level bosses, and I died a fair bit. It’s a good kind of hard though, probably the sweet spot between the complete-on-your-first-go difficulty of Aladdin on MD and the laughs-in-the-face-of-Action-Replay-carts impossibility of The Adventures of Batman & Robin. There are patterns to be learned in the stages and boss fights, and with one of two dry runs you’ll progress. Without save states I could see this taking me a good eight full attempts to reach the end (seeing as I used save states, I’m not actually sure what kind of continue system it uses). Perfect then. Length-wise I think it’s fine, as retrokings stated I think he was spoilt somewhat by the lengthier SNES games of the time, which I would have poo pooed as 'quantity not quality' in 1994. I much preferred Johnny’s whip to Eric’s lance, as I found the latter character made the game slightly trickier, but managed to clock it with both (although I did completely abuse save states the second time). It’s nice to have the option of two characters though, and the choice provides extra longevity.

The graphical trickery retrokings mentioned was also impressive to my child of the 90’s mind. Sprite rotation and whatnot; in many ways it’s a lot more SNES than Megadrive in style – Konami did a great job getting the most out of the machine. In fact, many of their Megadrive titles were graphically impressive – the reflection in the water trick is borrowed from their own Rocket Knight Adventures. Music is good but not great. I’ve watched my mates play Castlevania IV on enough post-pub ‘just a quick go’ sessions to spot the remixed stage clear music towards the end too, which gave me a weird feeling of non-nostalgia nostalgia.

I’d planned to summarise with a few faults, but it does what it does so well I’m currently struggling to think of any. The last boss has a seemingly unavoidable attack, which annoyed me as it killed me twice, but that’s about all I can offer as a complaint.

Overall, I’d give it a whip cracking Official Sega Magazine 93%.

Ooh, and Snake Rattle n' Roll.

I remember him.

mistercrayon wrote:

plok on snes might be worth a jab. Hard as nails though without a rom imo.

Yeah, I had that. Was fun. It's not too hard early on IIRC, so you can certainly do a good chunk, but I can't remember finishing it.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Skerret wrote:

Bloodlines is available via VC yes?

I don't think it is. Or at least when I Googled it I found someone ranting on a blog that it's not.

No it's not and neither is the Mega Drive Probotector/Contra. In fact they're the only Contra/Castlevania games (apart from 64) that aren't available. Anyone have any idea why that might be? Surely they would be the 2 Nintendo owners would most likely be interested in seeing as they weren't on SNES back in the day?

As far as votes for upcoming games go count me in for Strider (MD) Snake Rattle n' Roll & Robowarrior (NES). I'll throw Action Fighter (MS) and Castle of Illusion (MD) into the mix

I'll second Castle of Illusion, much prefer the MS/Gamegear version though.

Played the first couple of stages of Bloodlines last night, and yup, I also died a few times on the watery bit. Good fun so far.

Yes. Just finished it and I didn't recognise anything after level 3, so that must be where I'd got to actually playing it on the MD. I admit to spamming the save states later on, but I just wanted to get through it. To think I probably paid at least £30 for this when it was first released and have now seen more in a couple of hours than I managed then.

There were some good ideas in the later stages too, so definitely worth it. The swinging mechanic with the whip was used about twice in the whole thing, so didn't seem much point really. Then again it was difficult to do using the keyboard. I probably won't bother going through with the other character, even though some bits are different IIRC.

I'll have a look for something else now.

stormyskiesahead wrote:

I'll second Castle of Illusion, much prefer the MS/Gamegear version though.

I also preferred the MS version, by some margin.  Can I be cheeky and suggest we play Land of Illusion on Master System instead/as well?  It was an 8-bit sequel that got great reviews, but I'd upgraded to the Megadrive by the time it came out.  I remember pics of Mickey throwing an apple into a snake's mouth, and from the brief section I played a while ago it seems to have kept the item throw/bum bounce mechanics of the first game.  It would be interesting to see how it compares to the original.

retroking1981 wrote:

TBH if it's a MS one I'll probably pass as I've played them (albeit not extensively) whereas the Mega Drive one I haven't.

Same for me but the other way round, played Castle of Illusion MD recently. Seeing as you suggested it though I'll be happy to back it. 

I'd love to have a crack at Land of Illusion some time, but I honestly don't know when that would be. I'm currently playing through Borderlands 2, Strangers Wrath, Skyward Sword, and Metroid Prime Wii, with a couple of dozen games unplayed and waiting their turn. Not sure if I'm gonna finish Bloodlines tbh.

Ok, for now, week six is Strider, week seven is Plok, week eight is Castle of Illusion (version of your choice perhaps), and week nine is Snake Rattle 'n Roll, as they've had two votes/endorsements each.  I'll probably peel off and play Land of Illusion in the Castle of Illusion week too, but I'll happily speed through the others as well, I don't think they're much longer than 40 minutes each.  I'd definitely be up for one of the shooters after.  OP updated.