What’s Next?

With so many titles from then and now, what do I play next?

Hey there gaming fans! I just finished my A to Z NES series last Saturday (well, I have one blog post to go) and I’m ready to start a new project! My new series will be called “In Medias Res” which, from Latin, translates to “into the middle of things.” I studied English (Creative Writing) for my undergrad and for me this referred to a story that would toss you right into the action while filling in bits and pieces of the story along the way. My series will be somewhat similar: I’ll take a game from my library and start from my last save, starting right in the middle of things. I’ll take my time to get my bearings and continue on with the game, with the end goal of completing the chosen title. I have quite a few titles in mind, and my current Twitter poll I put out got locked in a 3-way tie between Cyberpunk, Dead Space and We Happy Few. I’m thinking of alternating games every other Saturday to mix it up a bit. I probably will focus on Dead Space since I really would like to finish that title and then move onto Cyberpunk with We Happy Few on the side. I’ll finish up the series with one of the Elder Scrolls titles I have, either Oblivion or Skyrim. It’s going to be an exciting road coming up ahead so keep it locked in for more in the coming weeks!

NES A to Z – Y: Yoshi

Yoshi was a puzzler in the same vein as Tetris and Dr. Mario. It wasn’t as good as either of those games though.

This game’s title was a bit misleading: there was hardly any Yoshi in the game! This game was a puzzle game where you sandwich various SMB enemies in between two halves of a Yoshi egg. You can also match three to make them disappear. Mario rotates plates at the bottom of the screen as the enemies drop from the top. This game wasn’t really my cup of tea. I like puzzle games but this one just didn’t do it right for me. I’d much rather sit down with a game like Tetris or Dr. Mario than Yoshi. It’s not terrible or unplayable by any means, it just didn’t have strong enough gameplay to keep me hooked. This game hasn’t aged well by the looks of it and with that being said I would put it in the lower tier of puzzlers for the NES. It just didn’t scratch that puzzler itch for me.

NES A to Z – X: Xexyz

Xexyz was a great blend of platformer and side scrolling shooter. Guess how to pronounce it.

Wow, another solid title, and one that’s hard to pronounce no less! This game was a combination of an action platformer and a side scrolling shoot em up. It was pretty fun and the gameplay was solid. The graphics and sound were on point as well. The platformer stages had many doors to enter. Some had stores, some had treasure boxes, some had minibosses to defeat to advance to the next area. There was also a simple puzzle I had to solve during my gaming session to advance to the next stage. The nice part was that an in game hint tipped me off on how to progress. While the platformer section was fun by itself, I was really impressed when the game  transitioned to the side scrolling shoot em up. Your character hops into a flying mech suit and you blast enemies side scrolling shmup style for a bit! It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it during my session. Overall I thought this game was an exciting blend of the two genres and is another one of those games I think would make a great retro reboot.

NES A to Z – W: Willow

This game is what I needed. Willow made for an enjoyable gaming session.

This game was one of those titles I remember hearing/reading that was good but just never really thought much about playing it. I was a little excited to see what the game had in store since I remember the movie (which I haven’t watched in years now) being enjoyable. This game was just as enjoyable as I remember the movie being. It was an adventure game in the same style as the Zelda games for the NES. The graphics, sound, and gameplay were all solid during my hour-long session and the game controls were intuitive. Some of the visual effects, like the wind blowing the trees/foliage during the battle sequences, I thought looked pretty impressive for the NES. When my hour came up, I really didn’t want to switch games, but it was time. This is definitely a game I will be revisiting in the future. It’s a title I would definitely recommend to play.

NES A to Z – W, X, Y and Z!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Willow, Xexyz, Yoshi, and Zoda’s Revenge closed out my A to Z series. Pretty good closing game session with the exception of Yoshi.

Hey everyone and welcome back! It’s been cold in my neck of the woods but that made it perfect to just stay inside and play a few games! Saturday was a great day to finish my A to Z series and to think about getting some new projects started! What’s in store next? I’m not sure, but I’ve got some ideas that I’ve been tossing around for a new project. Stay tuned for more on that.

Anyways, back to the A to Z! These last four games with the exception of Y, were pretty solid titles. Here’s what I played:

W- Willow

X- Xexyz

Y- Yoshi

Z- Zoda’s Revenge: Star Tropics II

I’ll be writing up individual posts on these games throughout the week while I work on ideas for a new Saturday project! I’ve also been revisiting This War of Mine and have been doing Friday Night Fights, a streaming series where I visit different fighting/boxing/martial arts games from different eras. I have currently been focusing on two boxing titles from the 16 bit era – Greatest Heavyweights (Genesis/MegaDrive) and Super Punch Out!! (SNES). I’ll be working on that and lots of new things in the coming weeks so stay tuned!

NES A to Z – V: Vegas Dream

The random events were probably the best part of Vegas Dream. I got married!

Vegas Dream was a casino game I remember playing at a friend’s house way back in the day. I remember drinking Mountain Dew and eating Doritos all night, spamming the A button for the slots, passing out in between wins, trying to stay awake. In short, I remembered it being good fun. That wasn’t so when I revisited the game over the weekend.. There were only four casino games plus some random events that would happen every so often. It was fun at first but then got slowly repetitive and boring. Not bad, but not the greatest casino game I’ve played. More casino games like poker would have helped bring up the gameplay value though. Otherwise it was kind of a snore.

NES A to Z – U: Uninvited

Oh jeez, guess I got her attention! Uninvited (NES)

Uninvited was a point-and-click adventure game. I’m a big fan of these games, Shadowgate and Deja Vu come to mind as a couple of point and click adventures I have enjoyed. Add another good one to that list with Uninvited. The music has to be the best part of the game. There were quite a few scenes that drove my heart rate up quite a bit when the music got intense! Yeah, the graphics were simple and the controller was a bit awkward to use for this type of game, but all that aside I thought Uninvited was fun during my session. It’s definitely a title I’ll need to come back to!

NES A to Z – T: Top Gun

Another game based on a film, Top Gun for the NES wasn’t too bad. Landing your plane was a different story though.

Another game based on a film, this game wasn’t too bad, plus it had a pretty sweet chiptune rendition of the Top Gun Anthem. It was a flight sim game in the same vein as After Burner. You fly an F-16 fighter and engage enemy jets in the air and ships in the water. The graphics were very basic and there was a lot of blue in the background due to the sky/water horizon. The gameplay was pretty straightforward but  I did have some difficulty during the landing sequence. I also understand there is a refueling sequence but I never made it that far during my session. Overall the gameplay wasn’t too bad and this was probably one of the better flight sims on the NES. If you like flight sims give this one a shot, it’s not a bad game. I really only wish I had a joystick to play this game, it would’ve added much more to the experience than playing with a regular gamepad.

NES A to Z – S: Solbrain

Lost in a world of platformers, Solbrain proves itself a solid action platformer for the NES.

Another solid action platformer, this one is based on a Japanese television series called Super Rescue Solbrain. As such, the US release of this game, Shatterhand, is slightly different as it changes a few details of the game, most notably the intro and the main character sprite are different. Other than that and the carnival level being changed to a nuclear sub level in the US version, the two games are basically the same. I thought it was a pretty good, solid action platformer with decent controls,  gameplay, graphics, and music. The robot drone offered some depth – every combination of three Greek letters obtained offered a different style of drone weapon. The challenge is up there, but it seemed well balanced and the game offered unlimited continues. The NES’s library is chock full of action platformers, but I feel like this was one of those overlooked titles that deserved more credit.

NES A to Z – R: RoboCop 2

While it wasn’t terrible, RoboCop 2 suffered from some wonky controls. Still not as bad as Predator though.

Welcome back! For the letter R we have another game based on a movie: RoboCop 2! Will this game stack up to Quantum Fighter’s level of goodness? Let’s take a look:

Robocop 2 was an action platformer that wasn’t  terrible but it did suffer from some tricky controls. Making precision jumps was tough and when you moved, RoboCop would build up momentum and slide as if you were on ice. You could also ‘feel’ the weight of RoboCop as you moved around and jumped. While these flaws didn’t make the game unplayable, they did unbalance the challenge a bit and made the game slightly frustrating at some points. Overall it wasn’t bad and I was able to progress a few stages into the game. As for the graphics and sound, they were on par for the NES. The visuals all looked good and the music wasn’t annoying or repetitive. It’s always a good thing when the game music doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.  

Okay, so this game wasn’t Quantum Fighter level good but I still did have some fun playing it. The controls may not have been the greatest, but with a little compensation I made them work. I can’t fully recommend this game but I would say it would be a great “weekend rental” for anyone who enjoys games of this genre. 

Saturday I plan on doing another ‘lightning round’ of four games with the blog posts to follow during the next week. We’re almost done with the alphabet so be sure to follow along for your weekly dose of NES action!