NecroPhile's game clears and mindless musings

[esteban]

I regret never playing this game....

Ugghhh....

I judged you unfairly, Basted! I listened to GUTS, when I should have listened to my HEART...

...Ugghhh...what is that white light?

...pfshhhhh...

[Mathius]

Yeah I'll have Jodi make me a booty.

[seieienbu]

I'm curious about something.  To the best of my knowledge there are 140 official releases including the 2 system cards.  After that you have:

3 girl-y games,
Implode,
Meteor Blaster,
Insanity X,
Pyramid Plunder,
Atlantean,
Mysterious Song

It looks like there are 6 games I don't know about?  Mind filling me in on the rest?

[HailingTheThings]

Revival Chase & Hypernova Blast*?

*just remembered I never picked it up and the site is down. Shite.

[CrackTiger]

I'm curious about something.  To the best of my knowledge there are 140 official releases including the 2 system cards.  After that you have:

3 girl-y games,
Implode,
Meteor Blaster,
Insanity X,
Pyramid Plunder,
Atlantean,
Mysterious Song

It looks like there are 6 games I don't know about?  Mind filling me in on the rest?

There are only 2 girly pic galleries, but they are not games.

[NecroPhile]

There's three: Bikini Girls, Hawaiian Island Girls, and Local Girls of Hawaii.

My personal collectard reasoning starts with the 147 titles listed on PCE Daisakusen!!, subtracts the LoT and GoT demo discs since they were never sold at retail, then adds Champions Forever Boxing (huey variant), Ys pack-in version, Meteor Blaster DX Signature Edition, Meteor Blaster DX pressed version, Mysterious Song, Mysterious Song reprint, Hypernova Blast, J.B. Harold - Manhattan Requiem, Quiz Econosaurus, and Vajra.  I don't include Aetherbyte's goodies, however, as they are branded as PCE games.

[CrackTiger]

Lol, I guess I was thinking that they wouldn't have put out two hawaiin releases.

Atlantean has a huge TurboGrafx-16 logo on the cover and you get to choose the region.

Necro, I'm pretty sure that I have one or two Turbo games that you don't, but I don't count nearly as many titles and variants as you do. Even Mysterious Song, which (like Meteor Blaster DX) I count as a single game.

[NecroPhile]

Atlantean has a huge TurboGrafx-16 logo on the cover and you get to choose the region.

Yarr, Atlantean is branded as both.  I guess I could (should) include it.

Necro, I'm pretty sure that I have one or two Turbo games that you don't, but I don't count nearly as many titles and variants as you do. Even Mysterious Song, which (like Meteor Blaster DX) I count as a single game.

Like I said, it's collectard reasoning for me and me alone.  If others want to omit LA games as a separate system, ignore the five variants, or include even more variants based on box/manual differences instead of just the ones that have code changes, that's their business.

[seieienbu]

Thanks for the answers guys.  If I ever get around to posting my collectard percentage I'd likely leave out variants but I'm glad to know what the total list you've been referring to is.

[TheClash603]

What a bunch of collectards.

Now I will go back to playing with my complete set of Sega Saturn demo discs.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #70 - Bubblegum Crash



Knight Fabers?!?

If ya ever wanted to dip your toes in the digi-comic pool, this is the place to start.  It's straightforward, cute, easy to finish, and translated!

The Good:  Cute gals; touches of humor and perverseness; and nekkid Linna butt!

The Bad:  The tunes are forgettable and the scenery mostly static and bland; it's rather short; and the end battles seem to require more luck than strategy, as one time you'll get your ass beat bad and the next you'll win easily doing the same attacks.

The Ugly:  The enemy encounter rate gets frustrating in the warehouse at the end, a warehouse that is mostly empty and a rather boring.

[CrackTiger]

Knight Fabery!

[NecroPhile]

Ha!  I assume that was scrawled by Nene when she was trying to peek at Linna in the shower.

[OldTurboBastard]

I've never seriously tried to play Ys, but I can't imagine I will like the "bump into things" combat.

Sorry to respond so late to your post, but if you are still around, as a classic gamer Y's vI and II is a must play. Fondest memories of my video gaming youth come from this game - it's just amazing.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #71 - Chiki Chiki Boys



The Good:  Bright, cute, and colorful graphics that match up well with the arcade original (see below); a well varied cast of baddies to beat down and different worlds to visit; neat touches like the swimming mask and dracula's shorts; two player simultaneous play; saving cute Amazon girlies; and two (maybe more?) endings for replayability, where you gotta find the key to open the final treasure chest, free the dragon, and get the 'good' ending.

The Bad:  The backgrounds look good but are missing all of the parallax of the original, even though a few spots could've easily handled sprite based parallax or simple line scrolls; a couple bosses get recycled; and few of the enemies give much of a fight, with only the final boss (fought twice) being much of a challenge.

The Ugly:  The flickering mess that is the end credits; the bottom two shots shown above aren't really that dark on screen, but that's how the screen capture thingy interprets the flicker.  It's like they wanted to punish you with seizures for having the gall to beat the game.

[EmperorIng]

If you haven't had the chance, the Genesis port of Chiki Chiki Boys is really swell. It looks/sounds nicer (for one!), and the added souped-up shop system (think Forgotten Worlds) adds a lot of replayability to the game.

It's fine Capcom platforming; there's something novel about a diminuitive fat clown being the ultimate evil final boss.

[Medic_wheat]

If you haven't had the chance, the Genesis port of Chiki Chiki Boys is really swell. It looks/sounds nicer (for one!), and the added souped-up shop system (think Forgotten Worlds) adds a lot of replayability to the game.

It's fine Capcom platforming; there's something novel about a diminuitive fat clown being the ultimate evil final boss.

It's gotten kind of pricy as of late.

[NecroPhile]

I ain't no FEKA agent! 

They did a nice job porting it and keeping it colorful without making it all brown, but other than the parallax it isn't nearly as faithful to the original, omitting too much detail and variety.  And where's the girlies and two-player option?  I won't say one sounds better than the other, though, as all the music is pretty meh (even the arcade), but at least the PCE version has the various enemy samples intact (roaring dragons, clanking tank treads, etc.).  'Tis still a good game, of course, but I can't say it's the better game.

[SavagePencil]

If you haven't had the chance, the Genesis port of Chiki Chiki Boys is really swell. It looks/sounds nicer (for one!), and the added souped-up shop system (think Forgotten Worlds) adds a lot of replayability to the game.

It's fine Capcom platforming; there's something novel about a diminuitive fat clown being the ultimate evil final boss.

There's also the emulation of the arcade version done on the Capcom Classics Collection 2 for Xbox and PS2.  I need to go back and do a comparison of the two, as Chiki Chiki always felt like an updated Wonder Boy in Monster Land infused with Capcom-style platforming.

[Gentlegamer]

I've never seriously tried to play Ys, but I can't imagine I will like the "bump into things" combat.

Sorry to respond so late to your post, but if you are still around, as a classic gamer Ys vI and II is a must play. Fondest memories of my video gaming youth come from this game - it's just amazing.

I'm going to try it, but my expected misgivings about bump combat remain.

[CrackTiger]

Only the short Ys one is mostly a bump'n action game. Ys II is mostly an overhead 4-way shooter. Ys IV even more so.

[SavagePencil]

I ain't no FEKA agent! 

They did a nice job porting it and keeping it colorful without making it all brown, but other than the parallax it isn't nearly as faithful to the original, omitting too much detail and variety.  And where's the girlies and two-player option?  I won't say one sounds better than the other, though, as all the music is pretty meh (even the arcade), but at least the PCE version has the various enemy samples intact (roaring dragons, clanking tank treads, etc.).  'Tis still a good game, of course, but I can't say it's the better game.

In watching an arcade longplay, I noted that there was a charge meter that appears in the HUD at screen bottom.  I'll have to check when I get home, but is this meter built up by holding a button, or is it a Legendary Axe/Magic Sword (also 1990)-style charge meter that builds while you don't attack?  It almost feels like Chiki Chiki has a little bit of a wink and a nod at Magic Sword and Black Tiger.

[NecroPhile]

In watching an arcade longplay, I noted that there was a charge meter that appears in the HUD at screen bottom.  I'll have to check when I get home, but is this meter built up by holding a button, or is it a Legendary Axe/Magic Sword (also 1990)-style charge meter that builds while you don't attack?

It builds when you're not attacking in the PCE game, but you can't see the meter until after you've used up your magic attacks (they're in the same spot on the HUD).

[NecroPhile]

Clear #72 - Gate of Thunder



An essentially flawless shewty.  Own it, play it, love it..... or go fuck yourself. 

The Good:  fast pacing with practically zero load times; rockin' tunes and clear voice samples, except I'm not sure what it's saying when you pick up the pair of options ('tusks'?); colorful, detailed backgrounds with lots of parallax; decent opening and closing cut scenes; and oodles of different enemies with big, cool looking bosses and mid-bosses to destroy.

The Bad:  ummm.....  pretty much everything is good.  The only thing it's missing is a proper 'The End" screen, though there's aforementioned ending cut scene and proper credit roll.

The Ugly:  NA

[jtucci31]

Yeah it does miss a cool end screen, but the song that plays during the credits is amazing! Worth a playthrough of the game each time just to hear that track

[CrackTiger]

Gate of Thunder is the first game I tested my TurboDuo with after having it refurbished by Keith Courage. I was shocked by how not only were the load times faster than when I got the system brand new bitd, they really were no longer than most cart games and shorter than so many others.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #73 - Xak I & II



If you liked Ys I & II, you'll enjoy this action rpg.  There's many similarities, including the bump battle system, the simple equipment and inventory screens, how it plays as a single game, and even a few familiar looking locations that feel next door to Ys sites (i.e. - burn land and the cleria mines).

The Good:  the unnecessary umlaut in Cöntinue; great redbook music, some tracks using horns and whatnot to sound a bit Ys-like; cool and sometimes humorous cut scenes (Fray gets mad!); neat (if jerky moving) background scenery seen through the castle windows; lots of different environments to explore; loads of different enemies to whack, some quite large and cool looking; and cute touches not seen often in other arpgs, like shrinking to go mousehole spelunking and the Dragon Spirit-esque vertical shewty bits.

The Bad:  bosses are mostly chumps, easily destroyed with little to no effort; the loading gets annoying in spots; and the post jumping section is just plain crap, with safe landing spots that don't match up with the visuals.

The Ugly:  NA

[geise]

Only the short Ys one is mostly a bump'n action game. Ys II is mostly an overhead 4-way shooter. Ys IV even more so.

Yeah.  Once you get that magic...

[NecroPhile]

Another Ys similarity: Xak I & II also has magic but only in the second half.  It's not very well implemented though, as I played through quite a bit of part II before figuring out how to use it, even then only because it's the only way to damage some bosses.

[EmperorIng]

The bump system felt more to me the "pin enemies up against the wall" system, because that is the safest and most efficient way to handle the game's monsters.

The worst thing about this game is that it does not seem like you can hurt the water dragon boss (the second boss of the game) unless you are level 14. Which means a lot of grinding (I got there at level 9 in my normal play). By the time you are level 14, nothing in Xak 1 can even hurt you, including the final boss. They all die within 1 second of contact with your sword.

Actually, building off of that, the balance in Xak's PCE remake is very off, with the above being symptomatic of it. Either you are one level under what you should be, and everything kills you in one hit, or you are one level over, in which nothing can kill you. Most of my deaths were probably in the very beginning, and at the very poorly-designed platforming segments.

The dragon segment is cool but I don't know why they only give you horizontal control of your dragon's movement and lock you in the center of the screen. The only way to change your position is to get hit and have the natural knockback throw you down... where you still can only move left or right! It smells half-baked.

The magic is hilariously broken because it tries to do the Ys thing of "one fireball on-screen at a time." However, Falcom understood that to balance this meant that the fireball had to go through the enemy leaving you locked to that one fireball shot unless you were on the edge of the screen. In Xak it destroys on contact, resetting the limit. This means that if you get close to an enemy or a boss, you will rapid-fire them into oblivion. It's how I killed Badu in half a second at the end of Xak I, as well as Gospel in Xak II. I don't know what Telenet did, but I highly doubt the PC games were that wonky.

I enjoyed the game in a "this is kinda fun" sort of way.

[NightWolve]

Clear #73 - Xak I & II



If you liked Ys I & II, you'll enjoy this action rpg.  There's many similarities, including the bump battle system, the simple equipment and inventory screens, how it plays as a single game, and even a few familiar looking locations that feel next door to Ys sites (i.e. - burn land and the cleria mines).

The Good:  the unnecessary umlaut in Cöntinue; great redbook music, some tracks using horns and whatnot to sound a bit Ys-like; cool and sometimes humorous cut scenes (Fray gets mad!); neat (if jerky moving) background scenery seen through the castle windows; lots of different environments to explore; loads of different enemies to whack, some quite large and cool looking; and cute touches not seen often in other arpgs, like shrinking to go mousehole spelunking and the Dragon Spirit-esque vertical shewty bits.

Huh, gonna check out the soundtrack then. I bought it from EmperorIng not that long ago, but I haven't messed with it.

[EmperorIng]

Xak series music is excellent; moreso on the pc (which has has more tracks than what the PCE CD can allow). Even Fray CD! But the best Xak OST is Xak III, in my opinion.

[NecroPhile]

Agreed on the borked difficulty level.  You're weak and gotta carefully attack and rest (like Ys, you heal when standing still in the open) to get enough EXP to gain a level and/or enough money to buy the next gear, then you rape everything in your path, oft times not even needing to draw your sword.

Full OST -

[Mathius]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on Xak III as well.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #74 - Xak III



A nice sequel to Xak I & II where the bump battling has been changed to deliberate sword swings.  Make sure y'all play it with the lovely translation patch (thanks NW!), though it's just the menu and cut scene text and not the voice overs (no biggie).

The Good:  good tunes; better use of the platform jumping; a few funny cut scenes and interactions, particularly those between Fray and Pixie; lots of different characters (faeries, centaurs, snails, Mr. Pumpkinhead, etc.) to speak with and have join your party; a bit more blood and gore than usually seen in such games, though it's mostly confined to a couple short bits near the beginning and end; and another little Dragon Spirity shewty section.

The Bad:  magic is pretty much pointless and unnecessary, you can't even use it in the later part of the game; some of the scenery looks okay but most of it is undetailed, repetitive, and rendered in nothing but drab grays and browns; slow pacing, both in walking speed and the large towns and castles you wander around in for little payoff; a few glitchy areas where you jump and land in spots that you can't escape (save often!); most of the character interactions take place in small portrait text boxes instead of nicely animated and voiced cut scenes; and other than blind luck, I don't know how you're supposed to figure out how to pass through the area leading up to the final confrontation with the Necromancer.

The Ugly:  some annoying sprite flicker in a few spots, mostly in cut scenes or in background scenery where it could've been eliminated by modifying the art a bit.

[NightWolve]

Clear #74 - Xak III

A nice sequel to Xak I & II where the bump battling has been changed to deliberate sword swings.  Make sure y'all play it with the lovely translation patch (thanks NW!), though it's just the menu and cut scene text and not the voice overs (no biggie).

http://xak3.ysutopia.net/#downloads



How did the literal nature of the translation strike you BTW ?

I find it to be the most boring of any project I worked on (and I'm the least proud of the final result), but hey, better than Japanese! Paul wasn't as literal as Shimarisu at least.

[Mathius]

One thing I do remember with the brief time I spent with the translated version of Xak III was it's depressing atmosphere. I like dirt and grit in my games at times but this took it too far for me. I'll give it another chance though. If NecroPhile likes it there's no reason I should turn a blind eye.

[NecroPhile]

I don't know, mathius, I like just about every game.  Wanna play Hatris? 

As for the translation, it's not bad at all.  There's a few stretches that're a bit stilted, sure, but I've seen plenty of official regionalizations that're far worse.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #75 - Dragon Egg!



The Good:  Several cute yet creepy baddies to roast; neat clouds zipping by behind the trees / outside windows and wavy reflective water; nicely animated sprites, especially for the protagonist and her growing dragon; boldly colored and nicely varied locales; and it has a pretty good intro scene for a huey.

The Bad:  Other than the aforementioned clouds and water, the background is static, and there's not much detail, variety, or heavy color use either; it's short and overly easy, especially once you've fully powered up your dragon (hard mode helps); and the skull 'bomb' thing is pretty much useless, as I'd always accidentally trigger it when it wasn't needed.

The Ugly:  NA

[esteban]

Clear #75 - Dragon Egg!

...Other than the aforementioned clouds and water, the background is static, and there's not much detail, variety, or heavy color use either; it's short and overly easy, especially once you've fully powered up your dragon (hard mode helps); and the skull 'bomb' thing is pretty much useless, as I'd always accidentally trigger it when it wasn't needed.

You had me at "static"

[Mathius]

I had this game for a while before I traded it off. It had the same effect on me that MAKAI PRINCE DORABOCCHAN had with their colorful yet flat backgrounds and simple gameplay. Those themselves aren't detrimental to any game, but with these two I couldn't stay engaged.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #76 - Override



The Good:  Hectic action with lots of speedy foes zooming at you; neat parallax in stage three; nice weapon system with a powerful charged shot and multiple weapons from which to chose (though only the super powerful green and homing red are really useful); and the difficulty level is nicely offset by the plethora of ship upgrades and extra lives given.

The Bad:  At only five stages, it's pretty short; the last stage and its boss rush is nearly half the game; and while they're not exactly bad, the tunes and backgrounds are pretty meh.

The Ugly:  The green thingys that surround you in the last level.  Seriously, fuck those guys.

[jtucci31]

Yeah fuck that last stage. But I think given its shortness, it would be a cool game to rack up a high score with continuous playthroughs one after another.

[NecroPhile]

Clear #77 - Night Creatures



Night Creatures is a thoroughly frustrating game that has a lot of good things going for it, but it's entirely let down by shoddy controls and shit hit detection.  Think of it as Shape Shifter lite, where there's a lot of similarities but it's worse in every way.

The Good:  Good parallax; though few and rather short and repetitive, the tunes are decent; dark, sinister, and nicely detailed backgrounds; and lots of different creepy crawlies to battle, including some cool bosses like Mr. Pumpkin Head, some broad that rips her own guts out and uses 'em as weapons, and a 50 shades of obey dominatrix that comes at you with a flail.

The Bad:  Dumb ending; it's short if you know where to go, with a mere 15 minutes of play time if you never die, yet it's easy to run out of time (a timer punishes exploration), run into a dead end, or die repeatedly; and it feels unfinished with a bear transformation that's never needed, areas you need never explore (Swamp?  What swamp?), and a lengthy boss rush at the end that surely has a couple bosses that were meant to head levels that were never completed.

The Ugly:  Cheap difficultly level due to piss poor hit detection and unresponsive controls, particularly when trying to fly the owl transformation.

Full Disclosure - I usually only count a 1CC as a clear, but I can't imagine trying to beat this one in one run (you can only save after dying).

[esteban]

^ I have never made it far in Night Creatures. I have tried, but I die. Die. Die.

[NecroPhile]

I died dozens of times.  Dozens!

[NecroPhile]

Clear #78 - Energy



With cabbage's fine translation patch, which also fixes the slow text and scrolling, this game is actually kinda fun.  It's flawed, sure, but it's definitely worth a look.

The Good:  sweet tunes, a bit of humor in the dialog, cute Yukiko dance, and the faces in the walls are kinda neat.

The Bad:  flat and primitive backgrounds, goofy looking and not very well animated sprites, you spend too much time retracing your steps (especially if you're not following a guide and don't know where to go), a short and bland ending without a proper credit roll, and the many enemy spawn points that force you to take cheap, unavoidable damage.

The Ugly:  without cabby's patch, the slow text boxes, screen transitions, and unskippable opening cutscene will drive you to drink.

[NightWolve]

That's pretty good hacking talent that the PCE library rarely receives if he also fixed flaws like that.

[esteban]

That's pretty good hacking talent that the PCE library rarely receives if he also fixed flaws like that.

I officially ordered a 2GB microSD card for TED...it only took me ___ years...

[Mathius]

Looks like I need to feed TED a new ROM.