Last Retro Game You Finished And Your Thoughts

I think the reviews of the time said the same. This was the game that killed younger Balla's interest in the bear for good, which in the long run was probably a good thing.

#GNamerCulturalReference

I only bloody finished


Disclaimer 1: All Amstrad disk files that work under Windows are the cracked ones that sort out copy protection, and nearly all have an initial menu with options to turn on e.g. infinite lives. The Monty On The Run image has this turned on by default and so I was forced to play with 255 lives. I know, them's the breaks. I only used about 30 in all fairness
Disclaimer 2: I also looked up which 5 items I was supposed to choose at the start of the game out of the 21, in order to not get stuck - as opposed to try (goes on maths website) 20349 combinations

But it's another old-school cultural phenomenon done! A bit unusual to play as a cartoon mole who is also a criminal who's escaped from prison (although I still don't really know if he's a left wing or right wing hero... the 80s were bad, kids, he just wanted to keep his family warm). But it was jolly enough - although thankfully no-one's making retro games like this any more (the "hope you started jumping at the right time because 6 seconds later you're going to land on a bad guy" genre). And of course the music's excellent. But realistically, I'd like the character to come back, but not the games in their existing form.

Although a video game character making a political statement might not be a bad idea in the newspeak hell-scape we live in now

3/7

It'd be released and then the developer would say there's no political messaging, it's just a fun game about a mole breaking out of jail to keep his family warm.

Anyway, well done! That can't have been easy to struggle through. Hopefully the tune made it slightly easier.

Jimbob wrote:

play with 255 lives.

Lol, you beta male soyboy cuck.

Quote :

newspeak hell-scape we live in

. . . sorry.

I've been playing Monty on the Run on Antstream! Maybe I'll do a follow-up review someday, but early impressions are that your chat is spot-on.

~



I found this old NGC Magazine GBA Companion guide book that rates the top 50 Game Boy Advance games. The likes of Advance Wars, Super Mario Advance 2 and Mario Kart Super Circuit are all rated highly, and deservedly so. Yet curiously, Spider-Man: Mysterio’s Menace is right up there too. Next to the aforementioned classics, that stood out to me a bit. In their mini-review, the writer rates Mysterio’s Menace at 81%, saying that “there’s more than enough for everybody to enjoy” before calling it “terrific fun”. That sounds like a ringing endorsement of a game I’d never tried and completely missed out on - it seemed worth a go.

After finishing it over a couple of playthroughs, I can say that I don’t know what anybody ever saw in this. I felt that Mysterio’s Menace was a dull and uninspired platformer with little substance and even less creativity. Apart from running around in a gimp suit and being able to stick to ceilings and web-sling your way across the levels, this could be just about any licensed 2D platformer you could imagine. Actually, that’s maybe a bit unfair, as there’s some familiar Spider-Man villains kicking about and there’s nice comic book artwork that appears as still cutscenes between each level too. But as for the gameplay itself, it’s really ordinary stuff. The combat just has you punching your enemies in the face (or, if you’re crouching, in the baws), and the platforming isn’t much more interesting. It’s actually better not to bother with it - when I could, I tried to just cling on to a roof and waddle my way to the end of the level. I just couldn’t be arsed with Mysterio’s Menace’s on-the-ground boringness.

81% from NGC Magazine seems in keeping with the consensus from the game’s release, as it permanently sits at an almighty 84 on Metacritic. Again though, I don’t understand it, and I don’t think I would have understood it twenty years ago either. As you can tell, I didn’t really get much entertainment from Spider-Man: Mysterio’s Menace at all. 4/10.

Balladeer wrote:

It'd be released and then the developer would say there's no political messaging, it's just a fun game about a mole breaking out of jail to keep his family warm.

Sadly true. Unless GNamer makes it and we pause the game every 30 seconds to argue whether we hate fossil fuels or Thatcher more

Buskalilly wrote:

Jimbob wrote:

play with 255 lives.

Lol, you beta male soyboy cuck.

See above

Balladeer wrote:

Anyway, well done!  That can't have been easy to struggle through.  Hopefully the tune made it slightly easier.

It really did! Like, legit, I wasn't sick of it at any time.

Buskalilly wrote:

Quote :

newspeak hell-scape we live in

. . . sorry.

We're all sorry.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I've been playing Monty on the Run on Antstream! Maybe I'll do a follow-up review someday, but early impressions are that your chat is spot-on.

Well, I wish you luck, especially if you're playing it properly.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

After finishing it over a couple of playthroughs, I can say that I don’t know what anybody ever saw in this. I felt that Mysterio’s Menace was a dull and uninspired platformer with little substance and even less creativity.

It looks really boring - I don't think I've ever seen it in action until you mentioned it here and I looked up a video. And I'll play a lot of boring uninspired platformers! Surely that was a 7/10 in those days at most?

I loved Mysterio's Menace as a kid, used to play that badboy on repeat. What is there not to love, you get to play as a man with the powers of a Spider...

A surprisingly challenging, addictive and interesting game, Hot Potato! on the GBA deserves a second look. I’ve had this in my collection for years and years, but I couldn’t get into it whenever I tried. It just seemed a bit complex, and I didn’t really like it’s low-budget Klasky-Csupo animation and sound effects. But once I sat down with it, took the time to learn it’s mechanics and committed myself to finishing it, I now feel like Hot Potato! was a game worthwhile of my time all along.

Hot Potato! tries something different and it’s quite fun and goofy for it, but it instantly feels familiar at the same time. In it, you drive a bus with six multicoloured alien potatoes, and you clear streets blocked by invading potatoes by arranging and firing your passenger potatoes to match them up with ones of the same colour. The roads begin to pile up as you go further with your journey, and failing to clear the way and make passages for your bus to pass through causes you to crash. It’s a little bit like Bust-A-Move, but with a speed limit.

With seven different mission types as well as time attacks and hi-score chases there’s a decent amount to do here, and I think most of the modes are pretty good. If there’s anything that lets it down, it’s that Hop Potato! doesn’t explain its rules. There’s not a lot of info online about it either, suggesting that most gamers haven’t bothered with it in these last twenty years – or, more likely, that they just didn’t get to grips with it when they tried. Yet millions of people must have Hot Potato! already, as it was always in pre-owned bargain bins throughout the 2000s. I’m sure I got my own copy for something like 50p in GAME. And yet it’s value is certainly higher than that: it’s a pretty good little action-puzzler. 7/10.

I actually remember this being reviewed in NGC!  I believe it got 4/5 and a relatively glowing reception, as any game which can be described as 'you drive a bus with six multicoloured alien potatoes' should.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

they just didn’t get to grips with it when they tried.

I see your hot potato joke

As someone that likes to try and learn something new each day, finding out a game called Hot Potato! on the GameBoy Advance is actually good may not be pub quiz material, but it brings a smile to my face more than it probably should.

This sounds like a neat idea for a puzzle game - I'll admit I'd not heard of it before this. That box art probably isn't helping anyone mind!

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Finished this off last night. It was fun to have more Galaxy to play. The feeling of a level pack without the story and sense of place makes it feel like a diminished package. There are some really smart moments, but also a lot of very linear levels. My biggest issues were the excessive number of 2D levels - they do some interesting stuff but it doesn't control like one of the real 2D marios and also it isn't what I play 3D Mario for.

Still, more Super Mario Galaxy, innit.
11/10

We've gone over this a bit in the requisite thread, and I think we can both agree that it's a damn fine game.

What else can be said about Super Mario Galaxy 2? It's a modern classic.

~


I’ve always been weirdly curious about the 3D console games that were demade and ported to the Game Boy Advance. I played through Super Monkey Ball a few months back and shared my thoughts about that, and I own others like SSX Tricky, ISS and 007 Nightfire. They vary in quality as individual games, but by and large they’re decently valiant attempts at replicating the home experience on humbly limited hardware. Smuggler’s Run, on the other hand…

Maybe you’ll remember Smuggler’s Run from the PS2’s launch? In it, you control a rookie smuggler in a gang and race about these massive rural environments to deliver contraband while evading the police and border patrol. The premise was just ‘there’ – it was really a showcase for the PS2’s graphics, and the game’s own speed, physics and especially for the scale of levels. Yet the actual gameplay itself was never all that remarkable. It was perfect for a weekend rental at the time, but apart from going from Point A to Point B and then to Point C in either a forest, a desert or a tundra, there was desperately little variety. Also, looking back, those rural environments had pretty much nothing to see or to explore. It was a really empty and barren game, especially when compared to something like Grand Theft Auto III.

Now, take that aforementioned gameplay but rob it of it’s graphics, speed and physics…but keep in the huge, empty and dull rural environments, and stretch the game out for 29 identical missions. What you get is Smuggler’s Run on Game Boy Advance.

Not only is this a pale imitation of Smuggler’s Run on the PS2, but it’s one of the ugliest, sloppiest and most tedious games I’ve ever played. 2/10.

Last GBA write-up for a long time. If you’ve never bothered your arse with Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, you should. There’s been plenty of gimmicky spin-off nonsense flung at us from the Pokemon franchise and it’s oftentimes hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, but this is a genuine highlight.

The game is played with a basic red and white Pokeball in a conventional pinball format. Racking up massive high scores is one of the aims of the game, and various bonuses, power-ups, multipliers and Pokeball upgrades make getting those high scores easier. However, more than simply being typical pinball game with a Pokemon license plastered on top, Pokemon Pinball shares the same philosophy as the RPGS: you’ve “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” and complete your Pokedex. The types of Pokemon you can catch depend on the table you’re playing on and the in-game area you’re in. A small picture in the middle of the pinball table shows the current and changeable type of terrain, and the Pokemon that appear here are just the same as they are in the RPG (for example, Magikarp in the water, Machop in the cave, Torchic in the volcano, that sort of thing). Random Pokemon appear after you hit bumpers three times, and then you’ve got to hit that Pokemon while it’s moving around the field another three times before you capture it. On top of this, items can be collected to evolve Pokemon, and there’s this strange Egg Mode that lets you catch some baby Pokemon too. Bonus stages help you improve your score and capture legendries, as well as adding further variety.

In execution, it’s a simple, accessible and mechanically sound game that stays surprisingly interesting. On the whole, it’s a genuinely smart take on both the pinball genre and the Pokemon formula. 8/10.

Nice little write-ups.

Pokemon Pinball has always fascinated me, as the collecting mechanics is an inspired spin on the pinball format. Definitely see why it's well-regarded. I'm just not arsed about Pokemon.

Smuggler's Run sounds like pish. I did play the PS2 original at the time and recall it being impressive but I reckon revisiting it will reveal its tech-demo nature, as you mention. The fact they put it on a GBA is weird, especially with that "Only for GBA" when it's clearly already been on PS2.

I played the GBC Pokemon Pinball to death but I've never played Ruby and Sapphire. You're not the only person to sing its praises, so if I see a copy I'll be sure to have a go.

gjones wrote:

"Only for GBA" when it's clearly already been on PS2.

I think they just put that so mums wouldn't buy games and expect them to work on a game boy or game boy color?

I don't know as having look at GBA games, some multiformat games have them and some don't, even Cappa's picture of Pokémon Pinball an exclusive doesn't have it (USA version does) so who knows.

Think on the back of the box though, had like ticks and crosses on what compatible with for mums.

I played Pokémon Pinball R&S for a long time!  I can't remember whether I actually completed the Pokédex, but I think I got bloody close.  I certainly remember Rayquaza chucking lightning bolts at me and Dusclops wandering around the bonus stage. Good fun at the time, until I was closing in on completion and getting the last few beasties began to feel like work.

Back with my Evercade chat for the next few weeks. Here’s my thoughts on The Oliver Twins Collection:



That video and box art should give you a very clear idea of what’s to come. There’s eleven games in total here, and eight of them have a connection to the Dizzy series.

Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantastic Dizzy and Dizzy: Prince of Yolkfolk all came out at retail during the NES’s heyday. Treasure Island Dizzy and Fantastic Dizzy were the only two I completed when I got this Evercade collection and even then I had to use a walkthrough, basically right from the start. They’re all obtuse games that would have needed your time, patience, note-taking and memorisation without the help of the internet. I don’t know if scribbling things down on paper and drawing maps was just the way of gaming in the ‘80s, but I definitely remember not keen on doing that when I borrowed the Mega Drive version of Fantastic Dizzy off a mate in the ‘90s. These days, I’m even less keen.  

The story goes that the one of the Oliver Twins rummaged about their loft about five years ago and found some old code for two of the other mainline games, which they called Wonderland Dizzy and Mystery World Dizzy. It’s pretty cool that two authentic, long-lost NES games have seen the light of day thirty years after they were finished. And yet it’s just more Dizzy, not doing anything gameplay-wise to stand out from the ones that had already been kicking about. I didn’t spend much time with these, and I didn’t feel I needed to.  

There’s three other Dizzy spin-offs here as well. Firstly is Panic! Dizzy, which contains five different block-matching puzzle games in one. I think they’re all rubbish however, either being too confusing or just lacking an interesting hook. Is ‘unaddictive’ a word?  

Dreamworld Pogie is the seventh Dizzy tie-in here, it’s a nice and simple 2D platformer starring Dizzy’s pet monster that only wound up being released a few years ago. It was good while it lasted, but with roughly thirty minutes playtime it’s just as well that it never came out when it was originally developed. Imagine slapping £40 on this in 1991 – that’s like the equivalent of buying Chester Lampwick’s solid gold house and rocket car these days.  

Just one last Dizzy game here, and that’s Go Dizzy Go. It’s a maze puzzler that’s a little bit like Pac Man and a little bit like Bomberman. It’s definitely not as good as either of those, but it was a passable enough way to spend a lockdown evening last winter.  

Elsewhere, what’s BMX Simulator all about? I understood it to be some sort of British gaming institution from the ‘80s, and a classic from the day. I think I was clearly mistaken – this is hot boiled JOBBY. It’s a top-down BMX game with odd controls, sloppy steering and punishing track design that should have been left behind in the ‘80s alongside shoulder pads, mullets and The Conservative Party.  

Super Robin Hood is a fairly entertaining 2D platformer that I didn’t play much, but I wouldn’t have even reached the point I did without save states. It’s sound and layout are distinctive among the dozens upon dozens of other NES platformers, making it seem like decent stuff.  

The unexpected highlight of this collection was Firehawk. It’s a top-down helicopter shooter where you can move freely throughout the levels, and splits itself between that third-person view and a first-person minigame where you’re saving other soldiers. It’s fast, exciting, and one of the best NES games I’ve played in years – get this on Switch Online pronto.  

It’s top class that all profits from this cartridge are going straight to The National Videogame Museum charity, fair play there. I’ve read that this is the most popular non-bundled Evercade cart yet, raising more than £10,000 for that charity. It helps that there’s a few really decent games in here. I’m just not so into Dizzy that I need eight of those games in an eleven-game collection though. Personally, I think you’d have to be pretty dedicated to Dizzy to want to play any more than just one or two of them. 6/10.

Fair play for getting through that lot. And good to see nostalgia turning into charitable donations.

The Dizzy and Spectrum era just doesn't interest me, personally. A bit like how I love watching old films, just not the old old stuff (ie. silent movies). From a historical perspective, this type of thing is brilliant but from an entertainment perspective? I'm good.

I think The Oliver Twins are determined to make Dizzy ‘a thing’ again, but there’s clearly too small an audience that’s as interested as they are. Remember that Kickstarter they did about ten years ago that only raised about 10% of it’s funding? I think they’ve sussed out that re-releasing and remaking their old games for Evercade/Antstream/FUZER etc is the way to go.

The American-isation of popular retro gaming on YouTube doesn’t really help Dizzy either.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

The American-isation of popular retro gaming on YouTube doesn’t really help Dizzy either.

That's a great point. The Master System, Spectrum and the Amiga - these don't get the coverage they deserve compared to the NES. I remember seeing Master Systems for sale in Argos as late as 1998. Multiple friends at primary school had Amigas. I have some fond memories of the Amiga so this mini console interests me, but not at £120.

Yes - this is sad that there's not enough nostalgia for the stuff on this side of the Atlantic at that time.

However, I've help the belief that we hadn't completely got the hang of actually making the games "fun". Dizzy as a character and a series does have some merit to come back, but it needs to really re-invent itself to catch up with the last 30 years.

Balladeer wrote:

[center]The Secret of Monkey Island TM

Balladeer wrote:

Whether it's really fair to say we 'played' this, though, is up for debate.  There were very few bits where we weren't referring to a walkthrough, or The Lady's childhood memories, for puzzle solutions: the very opening, most of the pirate ship, and the insult swordfighting perhaps.  It wasn't for lack of trying, not originally - but LucasArts' obscure solutions, the often large environments, Guybrush's slow pace, and bad memories of spending ages wandering the locales of Grim Fandango forced our hands.  What we have, then, isn't much of a game at all, and what 'game' there is is pretty bad.  There's one bit where it obviously thinks it's being ingenious, pulling an interface screw, that had my putting my head in my hands.

Balladeer wrote:

The rest of the game still really shines though.  The graphics aren't all that in this day and age, but the music's still eminently hummable, and the writing is still top-notch.  I can absolutely see why certain bits became iconic, especially the swordfighting.  I laughed out loud a good few times.

Balladeer wrote:

Back in the day I have no doubt that this was top-of-the-range stuff.  Now it's too annoying a game, or too ungamelike an experience (depending on your approach), to be that.

I finally got round to this; I sort-of-hoped, as a big point-and-click fan, that your review was too scathing Balla. Unfortunately, you are largely correct. I played the Remastered version, and if anything that's aged worse, relatively at least; the HD graphics are actually a bit slapdash - especially compared with the remakes of Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle, albeit their cartoon-cel like animation suited the HD upgrade a bit more. Also the interface in this has been replaced with 2 menus you have to press a key to be able to see, or a very slow deliberate scroll-wheel between 9 different verbs (as opposed to the DoubleFine games' modern radial design). It's also probably been ruined by the best bits being featured on every Top 10 Something-or-other list of the last 30 years. But I still liked it a bit.

Now on to Sam and Max Hit the Road. In my head this was better than the new ones made 10 years ago. Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please