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Last Topic's Ratings:
Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean - BGAAAAAAA - 50% (9)
College Slam - ABAA - 38% (4)
Denpa Shounenteki Game - BBB - 0% (3)
Hebereke's Popoitto - GABB - 38% {4}
Loaded - AGBB - 38% {4}
Primal Rage - GGBBBB - 33% (6)
This was another pretty rough one, but at least there were no shortage of G votes here.
Games for this topic:
Capcom Generation 3
Chaos Seed
Clockwerx
Hokuto no Ken
In the Hunt
PGA Tour 97
Chaos Seed was one of my favourite finds from the SNES GAB, and apparently the Saturn version has updates, so I'm looking forward to trying that out. In the Hunt also looks kind of neat.
Capcom Generation 3 - A
ReplyDeleteChaos Seed - G
Clockwerx - A
Hokuto no Ken - A
In the Hunt - G
PGA Tour 97 - B
Capcom Generation 3 is easily the most eclectic of the Capcom Generations series. Unlike most of the others, which bundle up a series of related games, this one is more of a grab bag of old titles that didn't really fit anywhere else. As with all of the other entries in this collection, the presentation remains super solid, with a lot of artwork, promotional material, and secrets available for the game. The only problem is that I just don't feel this collection of games is that strong. I think most of the fault lies with Vulgus and Exed Exes, which are super basic ancient shmups that just aren't very fun anymore. Saturn's options for shmups are very strong and Capcom Generation 1 already includes 1943, which is a much better game, so this kind of feels redundant. I think it would have been a lot better if they had included Trojan and Chiki Chiki Boys instead and made this more of a platformer collection, or instead used better shmups like Forgotten Worlds or UN Squadron. They at least could have tossed in the NES version of Pirate Ship Higemaru, which adds a lot of stuff to the arcade version. Still not a terrible part of the overall collection but the weakest of the set by some margin IMO.
Chaos Seed was one of my favourite finds from the SNES GAB. It's an extremely unique RPG that focusing on dungeon building, with a ton of unique systems surrounding room placement and minion summoning that are far too numerous to discuss here. The Saturn version takes what was great about the SNES version and enhances it with a number of improvements, like improved graphics and sound, reduced slowdown, buffed up minions, and additional story content, and it does this with virtually no load time or other downgrades. The only issue is that so far, only the SNES version of the game has been translated, and this is a very highly complex game that is pretty tough to play without being able to read the text, even if you already know how the game works and consult a guide. Unless you can read Japanese fluently, you'll probably have to stick with the SNES version for now, but I really hope this version gets translated eventually, because it's clearly the definitive edition of an already fantastic game.
Clockwerx is okay. The concept of the game is actually pretty unique, you have to traverse each path by spinning around the little circles to reach the goal, while avoiding tons of hazards on the way. The problem is that it's just way, way too hard, even right from the beginning. I think a lot of the problem has to do with the controls. One button grabs the next node in the same direction you're currently rotating, one grabs it in the opposite direction, and the other just turns around. This forces you to keep track of your current direction at all times, which is an unnecessary distraction with how much else is going on. If there was simply a button to grab clockwise and a button to grab counterclockwise the game would be a thousand times easier to play, I can't count the number of times that grabbing the wrong direction has gotten me killed near the end of a stage. At least the game has a save feature and edit mode but you'll need a ton of patience to make it far in this one.
DeleteHokuto no Ken is all right. It's another one of those fighting games where you just pick commands and then you watch anime scenes of the characters fighting, similar to some of the Yu-Yu Hakushou games we saw in the past. Thankfully, this game's system is not quite as complicated as those ones so it's not hard to figure out if you're playing in Japanese. The basic gameplay is essentially the same as Megaton Punch from Kirby Super Star, you have a meter that gradually fills up and you use it to select various attacks. Depending on how full the meter is, you can select from Red, Orange, or Blue actions. Red actions are your super moves and do a lot of damage, but require the guage to be almost totally full. Orange guards, which reduces incoming damage from attacks, and blue are standard attacks that do little damage. Each player can buffer up to five actions before attacking, which requires you to mash square. Red attacks beat Blue attacks, so a Red will completely nullify a blue, but guarding against Reds reduces damage a lot. Guarding also reduces damage from Blues, but not by a lot, and attempting to guard against a lot of blues can get your worn down. You can also mix Blue vs Blue, which causes you to trade hits back and forth. I'm not exactly sure what determines who wins when two blues clash, but I've never seen any one person consistently win blue vs blue battles, they usually trade damage. This gives a little bit of strategy to battles, as selecting Reds consistently is hard and also takes longer than selecting a bunch of blues. If I choose something like Red Orange Orange, and the opponent chooses Orange Blue Blue Blue Blue, my Red does little damage, then I basically just get punched a lot and lose a bunch of health, so you have to consider what kind of moves your opponent is using. It's still very simple and doesn't really have a lot of depth, but it sort of does its job. The main appeal of the game is story mode, which is full of cutscenes which are rendered in-engine using sprites, and they look pretty decent. I don't know much about Fist of the North Star's story but I imagine fans of the series would enjoy it. I still wish it had more of a proper fighting system (compare, say, Kamen Rider), but it's not terrible.
In the Hunt is pretty cool. It's a shmup of sorts, but one that differs a lot from most of the genre. For starters, you control a sub, so you face the limitation of not being able to go above the water line, which has different heights on different stages. Enemies often come at you from the air, forcing you to come to the surface to attack them (unless you have a specific weapon), and you also sometimes have to attack enemies below you as well with your depth charges. Another unique mechanic is that unlike 99% of shmups, the screen doesn't scroll automatically, you have full control over your forward movement, and knowing when to move slow and attack the enemies from range vs when to move fast and blow past slower enemies is key. The game also looks and sounds really good, I wasn't surprised to find it was made by the same team that later made Metal Slug, as the animations remind me quite a bit of that game. It's a pretty hard game, but it also feels pretty unique and fun, I feel like this one is a bit of a hidden gem.
DeleteI'm always slagging the Mortal Kombat games, but the PGA Tour series might actually be even worse. This is yet another one of those Golf games that isn't actually 3D, instead showing prebaked 3D images with no camera control. This makes the main golf display useless as you cannot view the course and must rely on the overhead view, functionally making the gameplay identical to NES Open Tournament Golf. The swing meter is okay I guess, I've seen worse, but the putting camera is atrocious, it has the same kind of green grid system that Mario Golf has, but it's too subtle and in no way accurately allows you to judge the slope of the green. The game also only has two courses, which seems like very few for a game from this era. I really can't fathom why anyone would have bothered playing this then or now. I know I say this a ton, but it's actually ridiculous how much of a step forward Mario Golf was for the Golf genre, it was like going straight from Pitfall to Super Mario World.