NecroPhile's game clears and mindless musings

[NecroPhile]

Clear #57 - Beyond Shadowgate



As good as Loom is, Beyond Shadowgate has it beat.  For point-n-click games, you'd be hard pressed to find a better one.

The Good: colorful, detailed, hand-painted looking backgrounds of well varied locations; very nicely animated sprites of strange and sundry creatures; fantastic, atmospheric tunes and pretty good voice acting; non-linear game play with several puzzles to figure out, most with more than one solution; multiple endings for replayability; and dying has never been more fun, with dozens of humorous and unexpected ways to meet your demise (save often).

The Bad: no mouse support; though the bats are pretty awesome ("I'm a bat! I'm a bat!"), the backgrounds are mostly static; the battles are pretty tedius; and there's no real 'the end' screen.

The Ugly: NA

[NecroPhile]

Clear #58 - Star Parodier



The Good: fantastically cute, colorful, and well varied set of enemies and scenery; three different ships with their own sets of armaments, making for good replay value; charming intermission screens; and a nice and jaunty soundtrack.

The Bad: it's almost too cute, making me feel sorry for beating up on some of the enemies; it hands out extra lives like candy on halloween, making a not terribly difficult shewty downright easy (at least on 'normal'); and most of the voices sound shrill and crackly.

The Ugly: NA

[Mathius]

You forgot a "Good"...A copy of Super Star Soldier in the PC Engine craft's huey slot.

[jtucci31]

You forgot a "Good"...A copy of Super Star Soldier in the PC Engine craft's huey slot.

Whaaaaaat? When do they show that? I need to replay this game, it's great! I love the music in this game, adds to the cutsey-vibe

[Mathius]

You forgot a "Good"...A copy of Super Star Soldier in the PC Engine craft's huey slot.

Whaaaaaat? When do they show that? I need to replay this game, it's great! I love the music in this game, adds to the cutsey-vibe

Watch the intro.

[jtucci31]

You forgot a "Good"...A copy of Super Star Soldier in the PC Engine craft's huey slot.

Whaaaaaat? When do they show that? I need to replay this game, it's great! I love the music in this game, adds to the cutsey-vibe

Watch the intro.

Just popped it back in, I saw it. Just plain text, but still pretty cool nonetheless

[NecroPhile]

You forgot a "Good"...A copy of Super Star Soldier in the PC Engine craft's huey slot.

Indeed.  There's a lot of nice references in the game, like the huey weapon upgrade icons and pce shuttle and sgx motherships in the ending. 

[CrackTiger]

Lots of great special effects and parallax as well.

I don't like the chip tunes for boss battles. If they were going to switch from redbook in stages to chip tunes for bosses, then the chip tunes should have been both great compositions and featured good use of sound.

[Mathius]

You forgot a "Good"...A copy of Super Star Soldier in the PC Engine craft's huey slot.

Indeed.  There's a lot of nice references in the game, like the huey weapon upgrade icons and pce shuttle and sgx motherships in the ending. 

I was gonna mention those but wasn't sure if I wanted to spoil it for teh newcomers. The SGX ship was my favorite!

[NecroPhile]

Clear #59 - Mine Sweeper



It's just Mine Sweeper, but it's a surprisingly good port considering it's from Pack-In-Video.  It goes well beyond what you'll find in the Windows game (play and edit modes are analogous to the original), including both The Voyage and Cook's Quest modes for more depth.  The former is 210 maps spread over 10 progressively larger and more treacherous maps at each of 7 battle sites and 3 centuries; the latter is a much shorter adventure where you lead cute little Cook through a trap laden cave, looking for eggs to make an omelette.

The Good: the above mentioned play style variety; decent and well varied muzak (see below); nicely done static intermission screens showing naval scenes; and quick and easy controls.

The Bad: no mouse support; 210 stages for The Voyage is overkill; and while the tunes are pleasant, there's only one song for each century of The Voyage, meaning you'll listen to one song for hours (not including the short little map success and failure tunes).

The Ugly: Accidentally hitting both Run and Select when you haven't been writing down the passwords. 

[Mathius]

^^Why do some games that really really need to use the backup RAM that's right there in the CD-ROM2 attachment refuse to do so? With hundreds of levels the devs should've known better.

[esteban]

^^Why do some games that really really need to use the backup RAM that's right there in the CD-ROM2 attachment refuse to do so? With hundreds of levels the devs should've known better.

When Cook makes an omelette, he was bound to break some eggs. 

[Mathius]

^^Why do some games that really really need to use the backup RAM that's right there in the CD-ROM2 attachment refuse to do so? With hundreds of levels the devs should've known better.

When Cook makes an omelette, he was bound to break some eggs.

Nice one!

[NecroPhile]

Clear #60 - Boxy Boy



A fun puzzler with a weird stage layout, where you must beat the first 100 levels to 'win' and unlock the second set, which you must then beat to unlock the final 50 levels.

The Good: it automatically saves progress and uses real words for passwords (good if you can't save); lots and lots o' puzzles, which get quite tricksy as the game progresses; handy 'rewind' button for when you make a mistake; no time limit; and the tunes are quite nice.

The Bad: The scenery isn't exactly bad, but it's very bland and changes little between countries; I'm not a fan of the fake endings, preferring that they just offered a difficulty selector from the title screen; and there's no reward for beating the complete game, instead showing you the same ending three times.

The Ugly: NA

[esteban]

I assume this has been posted in that other thread, too

[grolt]

Never really reading the manuals growing up, I always used to play the game without even knowing about the rewind function.  Passed the time, I guess!  The puzzles definitely are challenging, and the further you make it the more handy that rewind function becomes.  There are many games today that actively feature a rewind feature (I can think of Forza Horizon 2 and Rare Replay for recent games I've played), but it certainly was forward thinking back then.  Can anyone think of any games that predated this that used such a feature?  BOXYBOY was one of the first games I had growing up so I have a soft spot for it, but I've never finished it, let alone slogged through the other two endings.  You are more man than I, Necro.

[NecroPhile]

I assume this has been posted in that other thread, too

If you mean Bardo's clear 'em all thread, no.  I started playing B.B. nearly a month ago, so this clear doesn't qualify.

[esteban]

I assume this has been posted in that other thread, too

If you mean Bardo's clear 'em all thread, no.  I started playing B.B. nearly a month ago, so this clear doesn't qualify.

Aha! That means if I start playing Boxyboy tonight...

[NecroPhile]

Clear #61 - Alzadick: Summer Carnival '92



Easiest clear evah? 

The Good: multiple gameplay options (more than just the regular 2 and 5 minute modes anyway), good tunes, nice parallax areas in the background, and a well varied group of enemies.

The Bad: the backgrounds are mostly blandly colored and repetitive, limited weapon system, and the story mode is so short on actual story that it's almost embarrassing.

The Ugly: the bland one page intro and success pages of story mode.  It would've been so much better had they made it one story with two 'stages' and added a couple little cut scenes and credit roll.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #62 - Super Air Zonk



A cute shewty that's pretty good in its own right, but it pales in comparison to its predecessor in most every way.

The Good: colorful backgrounds that don't suffer from repeat like those in Air Zonk, cool and different music (the game over tune is great), a well varied mix of baddies and zany bosses to blast, a neat stage select screen (sadly only for the first four stages), and you get more control options for how your rescued friend helps out.

The Bad: very little parallax, not much weapon variation, slow pacing, and you can't pick which helper you get.

The Ugly: NA

[Jason_dicarlo85]

Aww man... Super air zonk is a fantastic game ... Fun with the kids around as well

[Mathius]

I waited too long in acquiring this SAZ. Too much dough now though I haven't looked into the import version for a long time. One day.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #63 - Prince of Persia



The Good: extremely well animated sprites, a good mix of baddies with varied fighting styles, great tunes from T's Music, simple but pleasant looking environments, and the Princess's cute lil mouse.

The Bad: some garish colors used in the mostly static cut scenes, and a few cheaply located enemies that almost guarantee you'll take a hit before you can defend yourself.

The Ugly: the non-responsive and laggy controls almost ruin the game, forcing you to replay the level over and over just to try again at a particularly difficult jump.

[MNKyDeth]

I played and beat Prince of Persia on the Sega CD back in the 90's. I don't own it for the TG16. But I remember the very sluggish controls.

It's worth playing through once but because of the controls even if I ever did get it for the TG16 I am not sure I could play through it again just because of my memories of this games controls.

[NecroPhile]

Indeed.  The controls are quite frustrating, so I wouldn't blame anyone if they skipped trying to beat it and just played the first few levels, where there's no particularly tricky jumps.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #64 - Double Dungeons



"Sense something strange?"

The Good: lots of cool looking different enemies to slice and dice (i.e. - Mr. Pumpkinhead, Lamia, and a snowman), decent tunes, fast pacing, fluid animation of the walls (unless there's a door in view), the password is available whenever you want (except in battle), you can easily walk away from fights when you find yourself outclassed, and a two player mode.

The Bad: 3/4 of the screen is HUD in single player mode, no save file option, there's no cut scenes and almost no story (what little is there is filled with engrish and typos), the latter dungeons are too damn big, and the enemy sprites are static and the scenery bland and unchanging.

The Ugly: NA

[Mathius]

I've tried many times to get into DD. Maybe I have zero taste lol

[esteban]

I've tried many times to get into DD. Maybe I have zero taste lol

Unless you are a big D&D fan, it's not surprising.

It is not for everyone.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #65 - Lords of Thunder



Easily one of the best shewties ever made.  If you don't have a copy and love it, there's something wrong with you. 

The Good: well varied, detailed, and beautiful environments, with a few environmental interactions tossed in for good measure; nice cutscenes and more story than you find in many shewties; tons of different, awesome looking enemies, ranging from small fry to giant monstrosities; kickass, rockin' tunes; and you get some good replay value experimenting with the four different suits of armor and the order in which you play the levels.

The Bad: Not much, other than the shop owner is mute in the US version and the cut scenes would be better if there was a voice over.

The Ugly: NA

[seieienbu]

I didn't know the shop keeper said anything in Winds.  I'm going to youtube that just to hear what she sounds like lol

[CrackTiger]

I didn't know the shop keeper said anything in Winds.  I'm going to youtube that just to hear what she sounds like lol

The Sega-CD version has English shop keeper samples and narrated cinemas. I believe that Tom's bi-compatible Sega-CD/Super CD Lords of Thunder has the Sega-CD's cinema narration during PC Engine mode.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #66 - Bonk's Adventure



One of the best platformers on the Turbob.  It never gets old or feels frustrating, making it a perfect game to revisit every once and a while for a quick play and to make me smile.

The Good: cute, cartoony characters; jaunty tunes; numerous hidden areas and flowers to find; fun little bonus stages; and perfect controls for easy platforming, swimming, and head butting and enemy juggling.

The Bad: none of it is particularly bad looking, but the backgrounds are often repetitive and occasionally bland.

The Ugly: NA

[CrackTiger]

The more time goes on, even as I rarely play the Bonk games anymore, the more my opinion shifts further towards Adventure>Revenge>Big Adventure.

You nailed the best part about Adventure: that it never feels dated or poorly designed. Even though it was reportedly made in a couple weeks, it really feels like it was playtested and adjusted till it was free of cheap difficulty, yet challenging enough to remain engaging and most important of all, always fun the whole way through.

[EmperorIng]

I'm curious to hear your thought as to where Revenge stumbles, even if it's only recollection.

[NecroPhile]

It's never bothered me any, but the most common complaint I hear about Bonk's Revenge is how they changed the spin mechanics.

[CrackTiger]

The biggest problem with Revenge is that I only rented Adventure once while it was current and bought Revenge when it came out. Playing Revenge to death kept it my favorite for years, but it's made it harder to enjoy now in recent years.

[esteban]

I'm curious to hear your thought as to where Revenge stumbles, even if it's only recollection.

We have a few threads over the years that explores this topic.

I played Adventure to death when it was released. I considered it a decent game, but nothing groundbreaking. It was enjoyable, but countless NES games gave it a run for the money, IMHO. Many NES games were superior.

When Revenge was released, I felt it was SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER than Adventure.  Lots of fun, even though the spinning mechanics were slightly different.

At that time, I would have said: "Revenge is superior in every way, except perhaps for the music (Adventure had nice tunes that held up well)."

Now, my mind got stuck on "Revenge is superior." For years.

But as I revisited these games many times over the past 20+ years, I realized I had been overly harsh on the original game—for example, I kept going back to Adventure to replay (Revenge seems a bit of a chore to play through...Adventure less so).

I wish both games were more challenging. I felt this way when they were released. I feel the same now. 

Also, I have not found the SNES Bonk games to be as strong as the PCE titles.

---------

OVERALL: I have come to a similar conclusion as Black Tiger.

But, to expand on things, I have realized that I was really harsh, back in the late 80's/early 90's, in judging all the games I played. I just assumed that "better games" existed ...and it would only be a matter of time before I eventually played them. However, as I played tons of arcade/Genesis/SNES/NES/SMS I slowly came to the realization that many of the games I had heavily criticized were actually pretty good, relative to all the other games.

Later, when I was able to play "import" games on Japanese 8-bit/16-bit consoles...it was clear that a lot of mediocre games (which I still enjoy) were released. This shattered my naive expectations (that an unlimited number of AAA titles I had been eluding me for my entire life).

[NecroPhile]

Clear #67 - Bonk's Revenge



Almost everything good from Bonk's Adventure made even better. 

The Good: the graphics are much improved, with better variety, more detail, and more vibrant coloring throughout; it's less linear and has more stage exploration; lots of fun bonus rounds; a cool bonus elevator / train ride between stages; and crab Bonk!

The Bad: the tunes are good, but many of 'em are recycled from Bonk's Adventure; spinning is slower and you can't juggle enemies for points any more; and the bonus train forces you to skip a level if you collect too many smileys.

The Ugly: NA

[CrackTiger]

I really don't like the in-game use of the Turbo marketing Bonk artwork. Really stuck out bitd.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #68 - Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure



All the goodness of Bonk's Revenge and a bit more!

The Good:  colorful, cartoony backgrounds and enemies; all new jaunty tunes; eatin' candy to grow/shrink; two player mode; larger levels and hidden passages for more exploring; getting eaten and pooped out of a giant lipped fish thingy; and they brought back enemy juggling and fixed the spin jumping.

The Bad:  certainly the easiest of the three Bonks, especially the bosses; the candy isn't used to great effect; and the two player mode can get tedious when the other player can't keep up on tricky jumps.

The Ugly:  NA


Clear #68.5 - Bonk 3 CD



There's very little different between the two versions.  All of the huey's comments apply, so these are specific to the CD:

The Good:  nice redbook tunes and an added vs. mode in each stage for short, simple battles between two players.

The Bad:  a few animation frames were dropped to fit the confines of Super CD ram.

The Ugly:  a couple stages have overly loud, repetitive environmental sounds overlaying the otherwise lovely redbook tunes.

[Mathius]

I just can't get excited about Bonk III though I've tried many many times. For me the magic ended with Revenge. And for sheer atmosphere Adventure is tops.

[seieienbu]

I didn't have 3 as a kid.  The first time I played the game all the way through was after getting the Tobias repro so I'm looking at the game without quite as much nostalgia.  I thought it was pretty enjoyable but it didn't have the same magic to me that the first two had but that's probably due to my not playing it as a kid.

[NightWolve]

I just can't get excited about Bonk III though I've tried many many times. For me the magic ended with Revenge. And for sheer atmosphere Adventure is tops.

Yeah, I found it boring (Bonk III: Bonk's Big Boring Adventure), mainly due to the music... Bonk super-sprited to take up most of the screen was cool though akin to China Warrior, and it allowed for 2 simultaneous players.

[ParanoiaDragon]

The soundtrack has a few decent tunes, but I always hated that it was a different sound engine.  I've always wondered how it would sound with the original sound engine used in the first 2.  I've probably mentioned it before, but I have thought about redoing the tunes(for CD) to have a more Bonk 1 & 2 style.  I've already done other Bonk tunes, & I feel like they really capture the sound of the first 2 games, while being updated redbook style. I did about 8 songs thus far of my other Bonk project, I'll get back to it one of these days, THIS, I COMMAND!

[esteban]

The soundtrack has a few decent tunes, but I always hated that it was a different sound engine.  I've always wondered how it would sound with the original sound engine used in the first 2.  I've probably mentioned it before, but I have thought about redoing the tunes(for CD) to have a more Bonk 1 & 2 style.  I've already done other Bonk tunes, & I feel like they really capture the sound of the first 2 games, while being updated redbook style. I did about 8 songs thus far of my other Bonk project, I'll get back to it one of these days, THIS, I COMMAND!

You will drop all other projects and finish the Bonk remakes.

THIS, I COMMAND!

[NightWolve]

I've probably mentioned it before, but I have thought about redoing the tunes(for CD) to have a more Bonk 1 & 2 style.

Ah, that's true, it'd be easy to produce an alternative soundtrack for the CD version, rip the game to ISO/WAV/CUE, swap wave files around, and if needed, use TOC Fixer if the LBA offsets of audio tracks are hardcoded. Some games like Ys IV dynamically fetch the starting LBA of audio tracks from the TOC, so replacement is as easy as copying a new wave file, but games like Dracula X will require you to use my TOC Fixer app or they'll crash. But yeah, a good soundtrack would improve the experience for that game by quite a lot!

[NecroPhile]

I forgot to mention one of my favorite aspects of the CD version: it uses Godzilla roars and battle music for the final showdown with King Drool. 

How're the atmospheric shit sounds done?  I assume they're ADPCM played over the redbook tunes, as they'll sometimes keep playing at stage end even though the music has stopped.  I'd be okay with the tunes as is, if those noises could be made to play way less often or even deleted entirely.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #69 - Basted



I wasn't expecting much based on reviews, so I ended up being pleasantly surprised that it's not as short and empty as they make it sound.  It's light on action and long on cut scenes and story, making it more of an action based digi-comic than a full fledged action rpg like Ys or Magicoal, but I had fun playing it..... and it seemed fitting for clear #69. 

The Good:  two cute characters to choose between; good tunes; an interesting battle system with quite a few attack options unique to each character; charming overworld/town sprites, almost like those common in Falcom games; 'tis quite humorous at times, though I'm sure it'd be even better if I understood what they were saying; tons of full screen, colorful, and detailed cut scenes; and tittehs!

The Bad:  simple, repetitive scenery; no two player option; annoying engrish yells for fully charged attacks; and the cut scenes are mostly static, often showing nothing but moving mouths.

The Ugly:  a couple blinky, seizure inducing cut scenes.

[Mathius]

I've always been curious about Basted. Wish I had a copy but eBay killed that idea.

[NecroPhile]

Yeah, it's kinda spendy for a somewhat mediocre title.  It's not a game often talked about or recommended as a must have, so I assume its price is due to it being a later game presumably produced in relatively small quantities.

But it's worth a quick play through.  Burn it, man!