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Last Topic's Ratings:
Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu 2 - AA - 50% (2)
Darkstone - BAGBAA - 42% (6)
Expendable - BG - 50% (2)
Raiden DX - BGAG - 63% {4}
Soul Blade - GGGGGGAGGGG - 95% (11) (4 SR)
VR Baseball 99 - BAB - 33% (3)
It's nice to see Soul Blade drawing out more SRs, we don't get to see those used around here all that often.
Games for this topic:
Carnage Heart
Cu-On-Pa
Heiwa Otenki Studio, The
Mike Tyson Boxing
Rhythm 'n' Face
Submarine Commander
I think my brain has finally adequately recovered from playing Cu-On-Pa on SNES all those years ago to go through it again on PS1. Rhythm 'n' Face also looks like an interesting title.
Carnage Heart - A
ReplyDeleteCu-On-Pa - G
Heiwa Otenki Studio, The - B
Mike Tyson Boxing - G
Rhythm 'n' Face - A
Submarine Commander - B
Carnage Heart feels like a fascinating tech demo that does a lot of cool things but also has some major issues. The basic idea behind the game is it's a turn-based strategy game involving mechs, but unlike Front Mission, you command squadrons of mechs rather than piloting them individually. The basic game flow involves designing mechs out of various parts, spending money to produce them, then sending them out to capture bases and attack enemy mechs. Over the course of a single mission, you'll obtain blueprints for better parts, allowing you to produce superior mechs and get the upper hand on the enemy, but all the while you have to watch your funding. It's an interesting idea and when you can construct a new design and crush your enemies with it it feels rewarding, but it's also fairly slow-paced and clunky at times. The first thing we have to talk about is designing new mechs. Selecting parts for them works fairly well. Depending on your torso and engine you have a certain weight limit that you must consider when choosing parts, and each part you choose also influences the cost of the mech when it comes time to build it. It would be nice if the interface showed the influence of each part on the weight of the machine in a slightly more obvious way but for the most part this is fine. After you choose your parts you can now program the mech. See, when mechs get into fights, they act autonomously according to their programming, which you have complete control over. You can use if and then logic along with actions to determine every step of what they do, for example, you could have something like "if an enemy is far away, then move forward. If they are close then shoot. If you don't see an enemy then turn, then repeat from start". The problem is, the system for designing this is hellishly clunky. It's drawn out on a grid with each instruction being a space and it results in an extremely busy screen that is almost visually unreadable. It would be way easier if they just used words for this, but thankfully you can have the AI automatically fill this part out for you. Their designs are not great but the system is so cumbersome that even if you know what's wrong with their design fixing it is almost impossible and I suspect no one other than absolute diehards will ever interact with this part of the game. With this done we can finally build our mechs. We do this by ordering a factory at one of our bases to build them, but it takes several days to build each one. This is another area where the system falters, many actions in this game take several days to complete and you'll have many of them going on at once, but the game doesn't alert you when any of them finish, so you just have to constantly check back on things which is annoying. There are a couple other things that also would have improved the game, for example there aren't many parts available at the beginning so you can't make many different mechs, it would be nice to start with at least a couple more choices, and very few parts can be exchanged between mechs with different body types, so being able to make a new one takes ages since you have to get a full new set of parts. In any case, the game clearly shows a lot of potential and there are moments where you can see that this idea could be really cool, but it's not quite there yet. This game does have a few sequels though and apparently the interface is improved so I'm curious to see what those are like.
It turns out that Cu-On-Pa is actually a direct port of the SNES game, albeit with significantly enhanced visuals. Since it's been a long time, I'll recap the basics. Cu-On-Pa is a game about rolling a cube across a grid. Each side of the cube is a different colour, and the goal is to roll the cube so that the colour on the top of the cube matches flashing panels on the grid. There are many techniques to maneuver the cube to get the face you want in the position you need, and it's satisfying once you start to get the hang of it and can quickly move the cube all over the grid and snag tiles with no downtime. You'll have to get good at it too, because other non flashing tiles will start to crop up that block your progress unless you eliminate them in the same way, though doing so leaves behind a thunder tile that you can set off by matching a corresponding flashing tile to make a combo (this is sometimes needed to hit some flashing tiles that can be out of reach). There's not too much more to say about it, the basics are simple but it's fun and satisfying in the way that good puzzle games are. As noted, this version of the game is largely the same as the SNES version, it has all the same puzzle maps, though the game does run quite a bit faster, which is appreciated as it helps you stay in the zone. There's also a new multiplayer mode which isn't too bad, though you can only play it against another human and not the computer. Still, it helps round out what's already a pretty complete package and with the various upgrades this version is definitely the one to get if you have the option.
DeleteThe Heiwa Otenki Studio is another really dull Pachinko game. It has 5 tables, but it seems like they're really all variants of the same table, as they all have very similar branding and the animations they play are the same, which makes this feel like it has even less content than usual. This game is also very light on sound effects, there are no noises for the balls bouncing around in the machine, only when they're launched and for the slot machine itself, which also makes it feel somewhat overly dry. There's not too much else to say here, there's a million games of this type and basically none of them do anything interesting, and this one doesn't either.
Colour me surprised, but Mike Tyson Boxing is actually really good. As boxing games go, it actually plays quite differently from most. Rather than just standing in place and throwing punches, this game is really all about movement. You can move forward, back, and to the side quite quickly in this game, and while moving you can also charge punches, which are then thrown when you release the button, so the basic idea is to being charging a punch, then dip into the perfect range and let it go to score a big hit. It's not quite as simple as that, though, you can also lean to one side or the other, which will generally avoid punches from one side but leave you open to punches from the other side. You have to be careful about throwing too many punches, too. The meter in the middle shows how well each boxer is doing, and while you lose a big chunk of it for being hit hard, you also lose a little bit every time you miss a punch, so throwing a lot of punches that aren't hitting is almost as bad as being socked in the face. It creates a nice back and forth which feels intuitive and satisfying, and once you get an opponent into a bad spot it's satisfying to hit them with a flurry of punches to score a knockdown (you get slower as you get tired, potentially leaving you open to combos). It's easily one of the best core boxing engines I've seen in a game, and having the core boxing action be fun is crucial for this type of game to do well. Beyond this, the game actually has a pretty impressive wealth of modes. There's an arcade mode, where you can take each of the boxers through a sequence of bouts. This ends with a battle against their most famous rival, who you can unlock by defeating them. There's also a career mode where you can make your own boxer, and gradually work your way up the ranks. Like many games of this type, this requires you to specify their training schedule, but unlike many other games it's quite simple and intuitive. You just increase or decrease some sliders governing how much of each type of training you want to do for the week, and the game will give you some advice if it thinks you're pushing yourself too hard or not enough as you try to get in shape for your next bout. Like the main game, it's fast-paced and works well. If you were going to have one complaint about the game, it might be that the various boxers play kind of similarly (they vary in terms of things like speed and power but it doesn't have too much impact), but then again, it is a boxing game, there's not really too much they can do by way of movesets, and the core gameplay is fun enough that it doesn't really matter. Definitely one of the best games of this type.
DeleteI know I say this a lot, but Rhythm 'n' Face is an incredibly weird game. It's essentially a cross between a rhythm game and an art program, you have to follow onscreen instructions to create an image, but it also has to be done in time to the music. The way this works is that you have to place shapes in specific positions on a grid, but you often have to size them. It took me a long time to realize that the way to make a big circle is to first make a circle with the circle button, then press the R buttons to make it big and move it into the right spot, but once you have this down it's mostly doable. The AI constantly "trolls" with their moves by making things they don't need and just swapping them to what you do need at the last minute, and if you do well the pace of the song speeds up and it starts moving your cursor to strange locations, which is very annoying. It's kind of functional and the music is not bad but I feel like it would have benefitted a lot from slightly streamlining the process and not trying to trick you because it's already complex enough.
DeleteSubmarine Commander is a pretty atrocious game with one of the worst localizations I've ever seen. The gist of the game is actually very simple, despite its complex interface. Your goal on each mission is to find an enemy sub, scan it with sonar, then unload on it with torpedos. There's a lot of steps you have to take to do anything, requiring you to load multiple tubes for your torpedos and everything, though this is totally pointless as there's basically no reason to not ever load and fire all available tubes. The game looks and sounds ok, but its localization is absolutely horrid, with the game constantly telling you to press the wrong buttons (they seemingly updated the dialogue but forgot to actually change the controls) and just generally not making much sense, which is problematic as this game is actually quite story heavy. As you progress through the game you can get some upgraded parts and new torpedos, but the game is so simplistic that it never really matters and it quickly gets very repetitive.