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Update!

Been about three years since I posted on this blog and idk if anyone really follows me for my thoughts, but I figured I’d bring this back.

Hopefully slowly but surely I’ll have a nice collection of reviews and my thoughts <3

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Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (2006)

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl was a game I loved a lot as kid. But going back to it, it really feels so weak compared to the rest of the franchise.

Most of everything you would like is there. Catching Pokemon and battling. That’s all great. But it’s all the little things I noticed that just make what I feel to be a bland experience.

For one, there’s barely any Pokemon to catch. Making only 150 Pokemon to catch until you see every Pokemon in that Pokedex, only then will the Pokemon encounters increase.Which pretty much means beat the game.

Even then, it’s some stupid requirement that the new Pokemon you want to find will only be seen for one day and then other Pokemon will be catchable.

For some reason it feels Game Freak were scared of having you catch Pokemon.

Then there’s the plot, which constantly needs to interrupt your game for some predictable story with cardboard characters. I find nameless NPCs in the game more appealing than these characters they want you to attach to?

And the plot of a terrorist organization trying to awaken a legendary Pokemon to change the world into their liking? Gee, haven’t heard of that before.

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Ruby and Sapphire also have an advantage of feeling a lot faster than Diamond and Pearl. R&S’s battles feel quick and smooth, while D&P’s battles feel patted.

Despite my problems with Diamond and Pearl they have a lot of stuff I liked. Sinnoh being a more interesting world to explore compared to the last three games in the series, with a lot of different terrain to explore. The presentation is excellent with fantastic sprites and fantastic music, some of the best in the series.

They added a lot more to the Pokemon Contests making them a lot more enjoyable than R&S’s. And the hidden base feature is all hidden underground that fun to explore and even excavate rare items... Only after beating the game however.

It’s these few positives that save Diamond and Pearl from terribly mediocre status. I don’t know if I can highly recommend Diamond and Pearl for any newcomer, as I feel many other games in the series do it better. But it’s still a worthy time if you just want a Pokemon game.

6/10

Game Freak/Nintendo - Nintendo DS

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Gamelog #1

SimCity 4 - A game like to joke around in for a few hours but nothing I can get to involved in

Emily is Away - A free dating sim (I guess?) If you want a AIM nostalgic callback give it a play

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 - A great fighting game for people absoultely suck at Fighting games.

Poker Night at the Inventory - A fun Texas Hold Em Simulator featuring some internet famous character... Well from 2010

Unravel - One of my new favorite games of all time. A puzzle platformer with a lot of heart

Magic Duels - A good enough MTG simulator but nothing too interesting

Fallout 1 - These old PC RPGs have no interest in me

Rochard - A fun puzzle platformer but gets really monotonous after awhile

Game Dev Tycoon - A great video game developer simulator that’s can get really addicting when you start playing.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl - A solid Pokemon game but does have some issues that can get a little annoying like limited Pokemon

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Alien Crush (1988)

One of the Turbografx-16 best games is a pinball game. Now I don’ want to make it sound like it’s anything other than a pinball game, but if you want a good example of how to convert a pinball game into digital, this is a pretty solid title to take example from.

What special about this pinball table is that it’s full of H.R. Giger inspired aliens and designs. You bump the ball, destroy some aliens and even experience a bonus boss battle.

Not much to say, just a really stylish pinball game.

7/10

Compile

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Keith Courage in Alpha Zones (1988)

Hudson Soft tackles licensed games yet again. This time based of the Japanese anime, Mashin Hero Wataru. Now I was impressed by their work on J.J. & Jeff, but I guess luck can’t strike twice.

This is platforming action game where one part you control the titular Keith Courage and the second a giant robot both wielding a sword. Now that’s sounds awesome right? Well sorry, Hudson forgot to give the characters decent controlling.

Keith himself is so stiff and slow but the robot is better but only by a little bit. There are some RPG elements by buying better equipment but you’ll need a decent amount of money, money you’ll only get if you kill enemies as Keith, which is fairly rare.

As a robot you kill much more enemies however all they drop is hearts. Why not both?! Strangely you can take multiple hits to lose a hearts which is good because enemies will just pile drive on you constantly due to your big sprite.

Keith Courage didn’t do much for the Turbografx, unfortunately bundled with the system in the US, giving the Turbografx less than stellar popularity

5/10

Hudson Soft - TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine 

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World Court Tennis (1988)

Like any early console, non copyright sport titles are bound to be on it. As for Namco’s World Court Tennis it is a fine enough tennis game as you’d expect. There are some problems I noticed like getting a lot of faults when I tried to serve the ball and the difficulty is more than necessary, but I’d give it a pass.

But what makes this game stand out from other Tennis games is the strange RPG Quest Mode, which is blatant Dragon Quest ripoff only instead of monsters you play tennis in random encounters. This is just silly, but as I mentioned the difficulty before so it’s hard getting far enough without constantly losing and going all the way back to the king of... Chicago...

Weird. But anyways fine enough game I suppose.

6/10

Namco - TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine

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Galaga ‘90 (1988)

Namco was quick to hop on the PC Engine’s library and this was their first game to hit the west. Now considering the time, did we really need a follow up to Galaga? Namco’s Space Invaders ripoff. Well the game is mostly the same as the original 1981 Arcade game but there are some differences.

The first being you can choose between one ship or dual ship like in the original game where one of the aliens can capture your ship, shoot the enemy down and your one ship becomes two. There’s a way to travel dimensions in this game, and I eventually ended up in a level that felt more like Xevious more than Galaga.

The game is basically a better version of Galaga, but were gamers really that desperate for a home version of Galaga in 1988 and especially in 1990 which was when it was released in the States? 

7/10

Namco - Turbografx-16/PC Engine

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R-Type (1988)

I’m not sure if I can properly review this game, because a review requires you play a good chunk of the game, and I can’t even beat level 1!

Anyways, R-Type was an arcade game by Irem and this version developed by Hudson. This port is well known for being the most accurate port of the arcade game. The major advantage of other shmups is that you can charge your beam to shoot through a group of enemies.

A notable power up is a small little orb called the force and it’s one of the most interesting power ups in a shmup. It counts as a second firing range and can attach itself to your ship where you can launch it.

Good luck keeping it though, because R-Type is one of the hardest Shmups ever, with a million projectiles flying everywhere and you die in one hit. And throughout Level are bigger enemies that take a few hits to defeat that launch a barage of projectiles at you.

You have three lives, two continues, nine chances.

So is the game bad? No, The difficulty is legendary. It possible if you have luck and good reaction time, you’ll have a good time. But this game stands out as one of the high quality titles on the Turbografx.

7/10

Irem/Hudson Soft - Turbografx-16/PC Engine

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Victory Run (1987)

It seems Hudson Soft didn’t much creative effort into their early Turbografx and PC Engine games. China Warrior was a ripoff of Kung Fu on NES, J.J. & Jeff was just a little more enhanced version of their game, Adventure Island and now today we have Victory Run, a really mediocre Outrun clone.

 Much like Outrun, you’re in a car, driving down a multilane road trying to reach your destination, but there’s a million cars in your way that would like to ruin your progress. One issue I have is the road is so limited I have terrible idea of what to expect.

I hate that there’s a gear system in this game making it so if you crash, which seems like it always will happen because you need to go fast to beat the time but you’ll also need to retract into 3rd gear to have better control of your car but then you’ll be too slow, it’ll take a while to charge up your car again.

So Victory Run make have blown the Japanese public away back in 87, with it’s impressive graphics for the time, but in terms of holding up, not so much. Outrun had a 5 lane road, yet this only had 3. Too bad.

3/10

Hudson Soft - TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine

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J.J. & Jeff (1987)

Nothing says promoting your new console with licensed games. Hudson Soft took an arcade game made by Sega called Wonder Boy in Monster World and made it into game based on the Bikkuriman license in Japan. So Part 2 of taking other games and making them with licensed properties is today’s title.

In Japan, this game was titled and starred a Japanese comedy duo, Kato-Chan and Ken-Chan who had a TV variety show on at the time. Since republishing the Bikkuriman game would not make Sega happy, NEC thankfully had this game they publish in the west changing it o J.J. and Jeff.

J.J. or Jeff must solve a case as they are hired as detectives. The other one you don’t choose joins along just to get in your way or goof off in the background. Much like the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2, there is a difference between the two, as Jeff can run faster but have terrible traction. Hudson based this game off one of their earlier titles, Adventure Island on the NES, however it’s not a complete port, just the concept of eating food to keep your Vitality meter up, but instead of throwing axes, J.J. or Jeff can kick, bounce on top of enemies like Super Mario Bros or use a spray can to shoot a spray cloud when you crouch.

In the Japanese original, this was actually Kato or Ken farting, in fact a lot of the toliet humor of the original game was pretty much censored, everything except the poop. There are a lot of things you can kick in this game, which will give off mini secrets like coins and fruit. You can kick a door to find either J.J. or Jeff in some costume, who’ll give you a hint then refill your vitality or a slot machine where you can spend your coins to get more vitality or even 1up. You’ll also need to kick certain spots to progress in the level, which show how bad the hitboxes on these kickable spots are.

But the game itself is actually fairly decent, it is Adventure Island after all and it would technically be the last Adventure Island game for four years. I wouldn’t say it’s incredibly important game, but in terms of 1987 platformers, if you want something a little different, this one’s okay.

7/10

Hudson Soft - TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine

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China Warrior (1987)

China Warrior is essentially a shittier version of Kung Fu on NES. However the appeal of this game is the large detailed sprites and for 1987 these are pretty good graphics but this is the first example of graphics over gameplay.

You play as a Bruce Lee ripoff and you constantly move as a group of Emperor Palpatines attack you, as well as locusts and rocks. Punch and kick like in Kung Fu until you get to the boss, which the only strategy I got is wait for them to get close enough and kick them. Eventually you’ll get to bosses that are just pallet swaps of your main character.

This feels like a rushed title. Yes the graphics look impressive but 30 years later, it doesn’t hold up to a good title.

3/10

Hudson Soft - TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine

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Super Mario Bros 3 (1988)

Once was the 2nd best selling game of all time, the true follow up to Super Mario Bros after the not sequel and romhack. And what else can I say? It’s one of the most beloved video game titles of all time and consider the best game on the NES.

Just imagine Super Mario Bros on steroids and that is pretty much Super Mario Bros 3 in a nutshell. Not just the Mushroom and Fire Flower come back but four new power ups. The most common are the Super Leafs which let Mario turn into a Raccoon and gain the power of flight and can glide to precisely land where he needs to be.

The other three are pretty rare. The Frog Suit is kinda lame, all it does is lets you swim underwater better and on land gives you frog physics. The other two however are amazing, The Hammer Brother Suit which lets you throw hammers that destroy anything and the Tanooki Suit which is just like the Super Leaf but gives you the ability when you press down to turn into a statue to have enemies dodge you.

Mario traverses over 8 worlds, with a boss being a Koopaling. Once the offspring of Bowser but now are just goons he hired I guess. Beat them then you’ll travel to the next world usually based on a landscape theme like a desert, a tundra or even the sky. Mario travels on an overworld where he can pick the next level. Also there are Toad Houses that can give you more items and these Spade spot that let you try to get more lives if you are lucky. As I said with items, you can hold items you collect throughout the worlds,  mostly found through Toad Houses and Hammer Bros travelling around the overworld.

Is there anything I don’t like about this game? Well, the fact the Starman power up last only about 4 seconds is a turn off as well as World 7′s Pipe Maze, which is just a mess and my least favorite level in the game.

But not a whole lot of complaints on this one, this is a fantastic game that shines even today despite being on a fairly outdated piece of hardware.

10/10

Nintendo EAD/Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System 

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Super Mario Bros 2 (Japan) (1986)

Following the massive success that was Super Mario Bros, Nintendo EAD followed up pretty quickly with a sequel on their brand new Famicom Disk System peripheral. Other than a few new graphics the game is mostly just a copy of the original game but with one major difference.

This game’s difficulty was increased.

Now most of the time, it’s not too hard that it’s impossible, some levels just feel like harder levels of Super Mario Bros, but there are some of those levels with stupidly hard requirements to beat it, like in 2-2 where you have to find a hidden block to be able to jump the gap, but good luck not pushing the screen too far that you have enough running speed to jump up to the block.

I had to kill myself several times 

By Level 4, the game starts putting in perfect jumps and needing enough speed just to jump over certain pits. I pretty much started save stating every moment, which really feels like a detriment. Especially now that I have to run everywhere. If I have to run  everywhere, that means I really don’t get to enjoy the game, instead I’m more focused on beating it.

In terms of new elements the most notable one is the Poison Mushroom that counts as a hit if you touch it. Some of the springs take you high into the air and now there’s wind that’ll push you forward.

The biggest one is the lack of a 2 player mode you have a choice between Mario and Luigi and Luigi gains his high jump and slippery shoes in this game which he regains in the American Mario 2

Honestly if you want to play Japanese Mario 2, play it on emulator or the Super Mario All-Stars version that saves your progress. If there’s one sort of nice thing is that you have continues that starts you at the beginning of a world, but in All-Stars you begin the level you died in.

But Super Mario Bros 2, isn’t really worth it. There are some nice levels that do feel like a traditional Mario game, but at the end of the day this feels more like a rom hack.

6/10

Nintendo EAD/Nintendo - Famicom Disk System

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Super Mario Maker (2015)

After 30 years of Mario, Nintendo EAD finally decided to let the fans decide how the games are made. By making a Mario level editor. Things used long ago to make Mario levels like Super Mario Flash are now relics, because this is absolutely wonderful.

Because Mario went through countless adventures, four play styles are adapted, the original Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros 3. Super Mario World. And Super Mario Bros U.

Mario 3′s advantage is the P-meter that lets Mario fly and the Super Leaf power up, Super Mario World has Mario with his spin jump abitity and the Feather Cape and Super Mario Bros U has Mario with his spin jump and wall jump ability with the Propeller Mushroom.

But what about Super Mario Bros? Well, it was given the Mystery Mushroom, a mushroom that let’s Mario change into a costume of mostly Nintendo characters. You can gain these costumes through Amiibo support or another way which I’ll get into. Or sometimes it can be a Weird Mushroom, a strange skinny mushroom that turns Mario skinny and makes him jump and move like Luigi. Of course, making Mario Bros levels are my favorites.

Nintendo gave a lot to work and play with, even adding stuff that wasn’t in the original game like Chain Chomps in Super Mario Bros and Wigglers in Super Mario Bros 3. Now to unlock all the elements to make a level, you mostly have to waste time in the edit mode. It won’t take a while, but it feels really stupid that you need to unlock these. But afterwards you won’t care cause you have everything to work with. One of my favorite elements to edit with is the sound effects like making an enemy scream when they die.

Now that you can edit your level you can now show the world your level. Most new or popular levels can be found in Course World where you can also look up levels yourself, but most interestingly is the 100 Mario Challenge where you traverse through a few randomly selected levels and try to survive till the end. Easy and Normal mode are incredibly easy but I have yet to beat Expert mode even trying my hardest and sampling out the levels designed to waste your lives. And you need to beat it to unlock Super Expert mode.

For beating The 100 Mario Challenges, you gain a new Mystery Mushroom, these can be either from Amiibo support or ones you can only unlock through Mario Challenge.

Now the levels as you would expect vary. Some are real easy obviously made by children and some are so hard, you wonder how they even do it. But sometimes you get those good levels that feel like right from a Mario level or do something creative or interesting. The most interesting I think, are the levels that actually recreate music using music blocks! Hats off to the ones that make it.

Super Mario Maker is one of the best gifts you could get for being a Mario fan. Could this be the last 2D Mario game? If it is, Nintendo sure went out with a bang. Hats off.

10/10

Nintendo EAD/Nintendo - Wii U

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Super Mario Bros 2 (USA) (1988)

It’s a story that has been told time and time again. In Japan, Nintendo made a sequel to Super Mario Bros called Super Mario Bros 2. Nothing much is different from the previous except that the difficulty has been increased times 10.

Nintendo of America felt this would be too difficult for western gamers, so Nintendo of Japan took an old title developed for a TV event called Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic, edited with Mario characters and sent for America.

Anyways, unlike the original Mario Bros, Mario 2 has more to do with picking up objects and throwing them to kill enemies and less to do with a singular patch of level, Mario and the gang feel more like they traverse all over this strange land with multiple sections of a level.

Now compared to Super Mario Bros, it’s not as good, but honestly, this stands out a lot. The challenge, the interesting levels that diverse more from Super Mario Bros original levels and the fact you can choose four different characters with different attributes. Nintendo EAD still shows their quality.

Super Mario Bros 2 did get a remake on the Game Boy Advance and added a lot more elements to make it feel more like a Mario title, but the screen crunch made the game kind of lackluster, I defiantly perfer The NES original.

Super Mario Bros 2, could have stayed as Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic and never leave Japan, but thanks to Nintendo of America we can appreciate this absolute classic.

9/10

Nintendo EAD/Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System

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Super Mario Bros (1985)

The first game that I ever played. If it wasn’t for this I probably wouldn’t be writing on this blog today. It’s also one of the most influential games of all time. Platformers won’t be what they would today if Super Mario Bros didn’t show us Mario can move and run so smoothly.

As I replay it I have a hard time thinking of things I don’t like. I guess the only thing I don’t like are the Hammer Brothers? They can be annoying but they can be dodged. But that’s it.

Super Mario Bros stands out as the most playable game of this time. I’m sure there’s other but the great controls, gameplay and power ups and secrets. Super Mario Bros is still one of the best

10/10

Nintendo EAD/Nintendo-Nintendo Entertainment System

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Mount Your Friends (2013)

This is probably the first time I review a game pretty much made for the sole reason of Lets Plays. A game about a bunch of muscle bound dude with their junks twirling in the breeze as you climb on top of each other, sometimes making grunting noises. The jokes write themselves.

The game does have it’s merit and challenge. You control each limb of the guy to get to the top of each other and it can rewarding when you make a successful climb after sorting thing around among your limbs and eventually reaching the top.

But this game doesn’t have much to keep it interesting past “ha ha guys dicks”. There are some bonus game modes and some multiplayer to extend game time but it’s nothing too interesting. There’s also an online mode which I couldn’t find a server to try it out.

I got this game on sale for 2 bucks and I guess I got my money’s worth. It’s normally 5 bucks. So if this looks like a game you could get 5 dollars worth out of, give it a try or wait for a sale if you just want a fun little experience to laugh at for a little bit.

6/10

Stegosaurus Games - Steam