Just completed - The Bear and Badger

Wookienopants

MY OBSESSION FOR A WESTERN
MY DANCE FLOOR DATE
MY RODEO ROMEO, A COWBOY GOD FROM HEAD TO TOE,
WANNA MAKE YOU MINE, BETTER GET IN LINE
5678!!!

Blue Swirl

b0r1s wrote:

Blue Swirl wrote:

Imagine getting this for Christmas rather than Mario 3.

They put that on the box.

Parentin’ ur doin it rite - Mickey.

Moot_Geeza

The should have put that on the box to the OG Sonic The Hedgehog to make the Nintendo kids cry.

EvilRedEye

Mickey’s Adventures in Numberland (NES) - Mickey has apparently been fired from the museum and is now just a basketball lovin’ street kid. When Pete steals the ten number molds (sic) that Numberland requires to manufacture its numbers, Mickey offers to help Sheriff Donald retrieve the molds. (Incidentally, you would think ‘0’ would be one of these molds so that Numberland could create any number, but actually it’s ‘10’.)

Mickey is tasked with travelling through ten stages. In each, Mickey must find that stage’s magic number then enter a phone box that is the secret entrance to one of Pete’s hidden lairs. Mickey must then complete a simple addition or subtraction sum to retrieve the mold.

There appears to have been some attempt to address criticisms of the original here as Mickey can now take damage, attack enemies with bubblegum and die. However, this step forward is accompanied by a step backward in other areas so it’s ultimately not any better than the original overall. The game is uglier than the original and the music is consistently annoying. There is some reuse of animations from the original, which generally is fine but Mickey still labouriously brushes himself down after big falls which no longer matches with the slightly more frenetic gameplay and becomes annoying. The new ‘harder’ gameplay can be frustrating with enemy spawning often making it difficult to avoid damage. Yet it is still pretty much bereft of challenge.

Mickey can open vaults that display a cycle of numbers - tap the vault when it displays the stage’s magic number and you get a bonus star. Unfortunately, due to the level design you will frequently tap the button by mistake - often I would jump across and suddenly find a vault on the landing location. The bonus stars also do literally nothing. Additionally, in two levels, you have to walk through solid walls to find the magic numbers. These seem like odd oversights in a game that is supposed to be designed to avoid frustration for small children.

With the level count reduced from 26 to 10, this is a boring, stingy game. I think I would go as far as saying I would take Donkey Kong Jr Math over this, since that game at least provides some genuine maths challenge. [3]

RamSteelwood

I read the title as 'adventures in Northumberland' at first, that would have been an interesting game.

Blue Swirl

RamSteelwood wrote:

I read the title as 'adventures in Northumberland' at first...

I'd play it.

acemuzzy

Blasphemous 2 (PS5)

The TLDR of what moot wrote. Shoulda been called Blasphemous 1.5 [8]

acemuzzy

Planet of Lana (SeX)

Basically a six, cos none of the puzzles were very original, there was no sense of difficulty progression throughout, and an element of tedious repetition. And the look of the humans kinda annoyed me, plus the QTEs ugh.

But everything else looked so nice. And the audio was decent. So for reasons I don't quite understand I'm giving a very generous [7] instead.

The Daddy

acemuzzy wrote:

Blasphemous 2 (PS5) The TLDR of what moot wrote. Shoulda been called Blasphemous 1.5 [8]

Does that mean I can play it without playing the first?

acemuzzy

You'll be fine, mainly meaning it's a repeat rather than adding enough new stuff. No need to worry about story hangover unless you're deep in the lore.

EvilRedEye

Turbo OutRun (Arcade) - Was just looking at my Analogue Pocket after reading the Retro Club thread and noticed it had an OutRun core. Lo and behold, it also has Turbo OutRun on there, which I’ve never played before.

Unlike the original, this is a linear cross-country dash across America instead of branching path. If you Game Over you can continue by entering another coin. The levels get progressively more difficult and by the end of the game on Normal difficulty I was sometimes having to make multiple attempts at the same level. I feel like this structure is better in terms of playability than the original, which is bitterly difficult unless you change the dip switch settings to make the timer more generous.

You now have a rival racer who tries to steal your girlfriend. The police also occasionally pursue you (apparently you can actually murder them by forcing them into obstacles at the side of the road - this isn’t the naughtiest thing you can do in the game though as you can also drive through fields of wheat). You also have the titular turbo boost which is, well, a turbo boost. If you drive through oil while boosting, it sets the oil on fire, which looks pretty spectacular. Every few levels, you can select a tune-up part to add to your car. These got added to the original game in the Switch version of the original.

I don’t think the tunes are quite as good as the original and inevitably it doesn’t have that nostalgia factor.

A fun OutRun-style racing romp and worth a look if you’ve worn out the original. [8]

Moot_Geeza

acemuzzy wrote:

Planet of Lana (SeX)

Basically a six, cos none of the puzzles were very original, there was no sense of difficulty progression throughout, and an element of tedious repetition. And the look of the humans kinda annoyed me, plus the QTEs ugh.

But everything else looked so nice. And the audio was decent. So for reasons I don't quite understand I'm giving a very generous [7] instead.

My thoughts too, except I gave it a 'low 8' while saying it's really a 7. Also not sure why, other than the fact that it looks really nice and I'm a tart.

hylian_elf

My thoughts were “I can’t be bothered after a couple of hours with it, I have better things to do or games to play”.

Moot_Geeza

Getting over halfway through a game then turning my back on it would make me feel a bit like I'd left the gas on.

EvilRedEye

Whoops, I’ve gone and finished another game!

OutRun 2019 (Mega Drive) - It’s OutRun but set in the implausibly futuristic world of 2019. Your car is now rocket-powered and after travelling at top speed for a while will boost at incredible speeds. You race through four levels, each of which has branching pathways like in the original (but they all reconverge at a singular goal).

There’s some really cool stuff in this. There are now full-enclosure tunnels, bridges made of glass and sections where a second elevated track run over or alongside the regular track, reached by these little ramp car things. I had a quick go of the MD ports of OutRun and Turbo OutRun before this and given those are merely passable and a pale imitation respectively, it’s quite impressive to see these features on the Mega Drive along a decent attempt at putting OutRun style visuals on the Mega Drive. It feels like a technically impressive game. The soundtrack is also pretty nice, not as good as the original obviously but I preferred it to the Turbo OutRun soundtrack.

The game sometimes feels difficult to control. It doesn’t help that the boost is applied automatically, which is honestly pretty annoying. I played in Manual mode and never gear changed after the initial switch to High - I think they should have made the game Automatic only and used the gear-change button to control the boost.

I had a good time with this but it feels slightly less refined than OutRun, Turbo OutRun and Rad Racer. [7]

JonB

Moot_Geeza wrote:

acemuzzy wrote:

Planet of Lana (SeX) Basically a six, cos none of the puzzles were very original, there was no sense of difficulty progression throughout, and an element of tedious repetition. And the look of the humans kinda annoyed me, plus the QTEs ugh. But everything else looked so nice. And the audio was decent. So for reasons I don't quite understand I'm giving a very generous [7] instead.

My thoughts too, except I gave it a 'low 8' while saying it's really a 7. Also not sure why, other than the fact that it looks really nice and I'm a tart.

I think I said 7 but don't really know why too.

yourfavouriteuncle

I’m getting mixed up with my side scrollers here. Which was the one that was by a Limbo guy and turned out to be a bit turgid?

Moot_Geeza

Somerville. Shite.

yourfavouriteuncle

Ah, that’ll be it. Cheers

Moot_Geeza

Cocoon soon though. Something different, but from the other guy wot made Limbo/Inside.

hylian_elf

Got my eye on that.

RamSteelwood

JonB wrote:

Planet of Lana (SeX) Basically a six, cos none of the puzzles were very original, there was no sense of difficulty progression throughout, and an element of tedious repetition. And the look of the humans kinda annoyed me, plus the QTEs ugh. But everything else looked so nice. And the audio was decent. So for reasons I don't quite understand I'm giving a very generous [7] instead.

My thoughts too, except I gave it a 'low 8' while saying it's really a 7. Also not sure why, other than the fact that it looks really nice and I'm a tart.

I think I said 7 but don't really know why too.

think i said similar. it has a nice charm to it that carries it. also i think i just find myself enjoying these simpler shorter games more over complex aaa games, which i just struggle to motivate myself for. I've not played zelda for months, i just can't be chewed to think about all the systems and mechanics and finding missions etc. 'walk right and complete the room' type games seem to work much better for me now.

EvilRedEye

Weren’t we quite mixed on Limbo at the time? Maybe Cocoon guy is the good one and the Planet of Lana guy is a hack.

Minnesänger

EvilRedEye wrote:

Weren’t we quite mixed on Limbo at the time? Maybe Cocoon guy is the good one and the Planet of Lana guy is a hack.

Don't forget Somerville.

EvilRedEye

Maybe Cocoon guy is the good one and… [looks at notes] the Planet of Lana and Somerville guys are both hacks.

Moot_Geeza

So which one made Toby: The Secret Mine?

EvilRedEye

[Screams and throws notes into the air.]

JonB

The original Playdead guy who came up with Limbo is still at Playdead, isn't he? What's the connection with Planet of Lana?

EvilRedEye

I think I just got Planet of Lana and Somerville mixed up above.

Moot_Geeza

So who gets the Burly Beef?

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