I broke out the Evercade VS for some games with my daughter, and this was one of those we played. It’s a Final Fight clone by Toaplan, and is very silly and badly translated. You’re wrestlers, I think, one of whom is Elvis Presley, and you have to fight your way through the streets and buildings to take down the bad guys, some of whom join your cause. It’s hilarious. But not (always) intentionally so. It’s just so ridiculous. Like …
Well isn’t this a slick little arcade shooter? I’ve heard of it before but never played it, and I don’t generally get excited over shoot ’em ups as they’re not really my favourite genre, but I couldn’t help be impressed with just how much is going on at any one time on this. I suppose in some ways it’s an early bullet hell shooter, in that there are so many bullets coming at you the main focus of the game …
Not part of the Dadish Collection but I felt, having completed all those, I just had to give it a go. It’s exactly what you think it is – it’s the same game again, but in 3D. Same characters, same plot, even similar level themes, but being 3D it feels different. I have to say, that the platforming doesn’t work as well here. As is often the case with 3D platformers, judging distance is hard and in Dadish 3D usually …
And.. again. Once more it’s the same only different, with a few tweaks (underwater physics) and new bosses, but otherwise – Dadish is finding his stupid kids again across tricky platforming worlds. And it’s just as good as it was before.
Almost everything I said about the first game applies here. It’s pretty much just new levels for the same game, with some added space physics for one of the worlds. It’s clearly the same engine and same graphics, but if it ain’t broke, right?
I’d seen this game get gradually cheap and cheaper on the eShop but never bit, until two sequels came out and were bundled together and then reduced. Look, cheap things come to those who wait. Dadish – a radish who is a dad, obviously – has to navigate a load of platforming challenges to save his many, many kids. You can jump, and double jump, and that’s it, but there are a good variety of levels and gimmicks with usual …
Presumably to tie in with, or advertise, the Invincible series on Amazon Prime, this part turn based strategy, part visual novel was released for free by Amazon. And it’s pretty good! It tells a similar story to the show, but mainly from the point of view of Atom Eve, with her run-ins with useless foe Killcannon as well as family drama and love life trauma. The visual novel bits allow you to choose various responses in conversations, some of which …
Finally a Zelda game where you play as Zelda! Aside from HYRULE WARRIORS of course, but that isn’t exclusively you playing as Zelda. Yes, a game using what appears to be the same engine as the remake of Link’s Awakening did a few years ago, only this time you’re Zelda and you don’t really fight anything because you have a magic wand and can use it to summon items and creatures you have previously scanned with it. Yes – it’s …
Another Monty game. It’s very similar to the first one, really, but with the added feature that you have to collect five specific items en-route to the exit or you can’t escape. I think I was lucky in that I found them automatically or accidentally, because I certainly remember when I’ve played this previously a very long time ago I must have missed some. It wouldn’t surprise me if backtracking to find them again was impossible too. The jumping physics …
The Monty Mole games were always Too Hard. You only have to look at the random nature of the instant-death Crushers to see that. I sort of liked them at the time, but not enough to struggle through with not-my-fault deaths threatening to cut my play short – it was just too frustrating. Plus on the Spectrum I had a million other games I could play instead. So, why I bought The Monty Mole Collection, a set of three Monty …
Konami changed things in the Metroidvania formula for Order of Ecclesia in a number of ways. Firstly, you play solo as An Actual Woman, a rare thing in Castlevania games. Shanoa is part of an organisation tasked with protecting the world from the possible resurgence of Dracula in a time in history when the Belmonts seem to have disappeared. Spoiler: the organisation actually wants to resurrect Dracula. Secondly, there’s a world map with many discrete, and mostly small levels. Like …
After so many, let’s be honest, near identical Castlevania games where you go into Dracula’s castle and explore and there’s a ballroom and a clock tower and some sewers, Portrait of Ruin comes up with a way of changing that. Sure, you’re still in the castle, but you’re not up against Dracula – just some other guy who has taken over his house and put paintings up everywhere. Each painting leads to a different world, so there’s a creepy house, …
Fun fact: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow on the DS was my first Metroidvania type Castlevania game. Yes, I played the Holy GBA Trilogy a couple of years after this, and it’s 19 years since I first played Dawn of Sorrow. I’d not even had this diary going for that long at the time. Somehow, I still remembered a lot of the game. Most of the bosses, how to reach certain areas, and certainly the plot were all there in my …
Yes, it’s more of more of the same. Same baddies (mostly), same skills (that again need re-learning), same silly characters to interact with. But! Densetsu no Stafi 3 adds something new – a second, female, starfish. If my Japanese is correct, she’s Stafi’s sister Stapi. At various times in the game you swap between the two starfish, sometimes at will, other times it is forced due to Events That Happen. Although similar, they have a couple of different skills. Notably, …
See, I told you I was going to play them all. Soon after finishing Stafi 1, it was on to Stafi 2, which takes place directly following the events of the first game. Somehow, Stafi has lost all his skills so they have to be re-obtained, so really it’s a re-tread of the first game only with different levels. And more levels – seemingly a lot more levels. And different bosses. And some new gimmicks. OK, so not really a …
