Archives
February 2008

The theme of this week is shooters, coming in two classic forms: traditional Galaga-esque spaceship action and platformer meets shooter run ‘n gun mayhem.  Psychosis represents yet another additional to the TG-16s nearly infinite lineup of shoot ‘em ups.  Unfortunately, it’s pretty mediocre and you should work your way through the R-Type and Thunder series of games before even considering it.  In stark contrast, for the SNES we’re treated to Super Turrican, a sequel to the legendary game created in 1990 by Manfred Trenz for the Commodore 64.  Gone is the lightning whip, replaced by a fully 360 degree-firing freeze beam.  Levels still have that large multi-path feel from the original, and overall this is an excellent and inspired sequel that retains the feel of the classic upon which it’s based.  If you prefer a little more strategy and exploration in your run ‘n guns, then Supper Turrican can even edge out Gunstar Heroes.

The Japanese score four new titles, including one that represents the debut of a new system for the Virtual Console.  We’ll start of with the fresh and new, namely: Hokuto no Ken for the Sega Master System (or Mark III as it’s known in Japan), based on the Fist of the North Star manga and anime and known as Black Belt outside of Japan.  Basically, it’s Kung Fu clone with better graphics but no advances in gameplay, so I can’t recommend it.  Next up is Power Eleven for the TurboGrafx-16, an overhead soccer game that is representative of most sports titles for this console: crappy.  Moving right along, the SNES offers Do Re Mi Fantasy: Milon's Quest, a cutesy platformer with mediocre music and graphics as well as uninspired and boring level design.  Stick with Mario.  But fear not, the underappreciated TurboGrafx-16 CD saves the day with Neo Nectaris, the sequel to Nectaris (a.k.a. Military Madness).  Better music, better graphics, and the same brilliant strategic gameplay that emphasizes the importance of terrain is what we have here.  If you like strategy games or are open to trying one for the first time, this is an awesome place to start.

Unless you’re a huge platformer or Kirby fan, you should probably save your money this week.  There is already an incredible (and relatively expensive) retro collection of N64 games available on the VC.  Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is one of the few that is merely good but not great.  Of course, considering the Kirby installments on the NES and SNES, this title had perhaps impossible standards to live up to.  The second new game, Psychosis for the TurboGrafx-16 is a very underwhelming shoot ‘em up that never begins to compete its plethora of competitors that are already available.  Stick with R-Type games and the Thunder duo, rather than boring yourself with this lame offering from Naxat Soft.

Sometimes you look at the list of new Japanese games, and you have no clue what any of them are.  This was one of those times, and even finding info for them online wasn’t easy.  For starters there’s Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Yokohamakou Renzoku Satsujin Jiken, which has to be the longest name ever for a NES game.  It’s an old-school graphic adventure game with gameplay similar to Snatcher.  The graphics and sound seemed pretty good, but I have no idea what all the Japanese text meant.  I figured that being quite familiar with the TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine, I’d be able to make sense out of the next game: The Atlas: Renaissance Voyager.  Wrong!  I’ve never hard of it in my life.  And you can barely find anything about it online.  All I really know is that it meshes the RPG and simulation genres, and the original was compatible with the PC-Engine mouse.  The final game is Custom Robo V2 for the Nintendo 64.  I’m going to put my money on this one, because Nintendo has maintained a very high standard for N64 releases, the Virtual console is in need of a deeper fighting game library, and battling with robots is just cool.

Hot on the heels of last Friday’s update, Phantasy Star II arrives on the North American Virtual Console.  Basically, this Genesis RPG gets a very strong “yes” rating, unless you own a PlayStation 2, in which case PSII is a “no.”  In the latter case, rather than shelling out $8 for a virtual game, you should be buying the unfrickin’-believably good Sega Genesis Collection, which includes PSII, PSIII, and PSIV, along with 20-some other classic games.  Changing the pace up, we’ve got Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, the final installment for the series on the NES.  On the good side, you receive cutting edge 8-bit graphics and sound, and the previous two games were no slouches in those categories either.  Unfortunately, there isn’t much in the form of new innovations, the difficulty is—hard as this may be to believe—even more insanely over-the-top and the plot trades some of its former edginess for silliness.  It’s still a great game, just not as fine-tuned as I would have liked.

After a long hiatus on new additions to the Genesis library, this update delivers two solid titles.  Phantasy Star II is one of the best RPGs available for the Genesis—not as good as the fourth game in the franchise, and struggling to compete with the amazing RPGs that exist for the Super Nintendo, but a very good title, nonetheless.  The science fiction atmosphere of the game and a very memorable plot twist at the end are especially remarkable.  If fist-pounding action is your deal instead of turn-based RPGs, then you might consider Eternal Champions if you’ve already had your fill of Street Fighter II.  Back in the 90s everyone was jumping on the fighting game bandwagon and this was Sega’s console-only foray into the genre.  The controls feel a little loose, and most of the characters are based don historical stereotypes, but the combat system is pretty deep including a unique special move engine and even defensive maneuvers.

Just two titles today, but in terms of the quantity and quality we’ve seen so far this year, Virtual Console fans should be very happy.  An unsurprising follow-up to last Friday’s update is Lords of Thunder, originally released as a Turbo Grafx-16 CD back in 1993.  While shoot ‘em ups do appeal to a pretty particular audience, I can tell you first-hand—having played the game extensively, and beaten in back in the day—that this is a fabulous example of the genre.  Even among the already copious offerings on the VC, this title stands out.  But it’s Harvest Moon for the SNES that gets the official recommendation this week.  It’s part simulation and part RPG, but the two mesh together very well, so what you end up with is a title unlike any other that’s currently available through Nintendo’s download service.  More importantly, the game is pretty awesome, and getting it for a mere $8 is a hell of a bargain, since a used cartridge of Harvest Moon sells $75 to $95 on eBay.  Despite only consisting of two new games, this is easily the best update so far of 2008—no matter where you are in the world.  Thank you, Nintendo, and keep the quality games coming!

Unless my sources are mistaken, this is yet another one-game update.  And it’s another shoot ‘em up.  Never fear, though, Lords of Thunder happens to be one of the best shooters of the entire era, and it was recognized for its excellence on the TurboGrafx-16, a console known for its tremendous variety of shooters.  I may sound like a sequel to Gate of Thunder, but it actually takes the original in an entirely different direction, trading science fiction setting for a fantasy one.  The graphics are even better than the original, the music is heavy metal bliss, and there’s more variety to the gameplay, too, since you can choose the order you tackle the first six levels in, select one of four unique armors (weapons) at the beginning of each level, and even purchase power-ups at the store.  If you are even remotely interested in this genre, stop reading this and get downloading!

Save your money this week.  What you face are a weak sequel to Sega’s “answer” to Tetris, and a light gun game that can’t actually be used with a light gun.  Nintendo, you’re crushing the next-gen competition so far, and you’re making tons of money—how about putting some of it towards raising the bar for VC games?  Columns III: Revenge of Columns is a redundant title.  There are a few tweaks to the gameplay, but the single-player somehow manages to be worse than that of the original.  The only significant improvement is that there’s now a pretty sweet multi-player mode that can support up to 5 players.  If you want 5-player fun, download Bomberman ’93 instead.  Then we have Operation Wolf.  It was an awesome and memorable arcade game, complete with a replica uzi machine gun mounted on the arcade cabinet that provided feedback with the shots.  However, the NES port was surprisingly ugly in graphics and clumsy in animation, but the lowest of low points is the lack of music and horrible sound effects.  Save your money this week and protest Nintendo’s crap VC update.

Maybe February will bring more plentiful and greater things to this region’s Virtual Console offerings…Or maybe NOT!  I’m all for underappreciated games and genres making an appearance on the VC, but Adventure of Lolo 2 (NES), as solid a sequel as it may be, simply doesn’t have the power or impact to represent an entire week’s worth of updates.  To put it bluntly, this is a great games for fans of the puzzle genre to explore, but it’s not nearly in the league of must-download (à la Zelda: Ocarina of Time) games, which makes the absence of other offerings this week all the more obvious.