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Battletoads and Battletoads & Double Dragon Review
In light of my recent completions of Battletoads and Battletoads & Double Dragon on my Twitch account, I have decided to give all who didn’t see a nice review, because no one saw. Battletoads, you know this game with a legacy for being child’s play, as it could be one of the easiest games of all time. If you couldn’t tell I was joking or if that was sarcasm you obviously don’t know Battletoads.
Platform: NES, SNES, SEGA GENESIS /Genre: Beat’em Up
Developer: Rare / Publisher: Nintendo, SEGA
Odd Game or Old Game remember of the month: Chameleon Twist
That’s right Chameleon Twist….you all remember for the Nintendo 64…?
Well…probably not considering the game’s odd, low-profile nature. Chameleon Twist a game created Sunsoft and released in 1997, was a 3D platform game, where you controlled Chameleon’s venturing through six different worlds (Jungle Land, Ant Land, Bomb Land, Desert Castle, Kids Land, and Ghost Castle). The story is pretty simple as you follow a rabbit, who oddly looks like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, into some type of magic portal, which makes you a real-normal lizard (or chameleon) into some sort of chameleon with arms and legs and a super tongue. There are four different Chameleon’s in which you can play as (Green, Blue, Pink, Orange) but the Blue Chameleon, named Davy, is the main chameleon.
What makes the game unique is its gameplay and the main feature of the Chameleon’s, their tongue. The tongue can be controlled in any direction, yes even in a full 360 motion and out (think you can make a figure eight). The tongue can be used to swallow enemies and spit them back out, to hurt other enemies, in addition you can swallow more than one enemy, thus giving you more “ammo” in a sense. Or, you can use your tongue to get to different places by using it like a pole to get to higher ledges, or as some type of lasso to swing your self across column’s. After the tongue feature, the game is just a simple 3D platformer where you must solve puzzles, jump across areas, and defeat bosses.
The last feature of Chameleon Twist, was its free-for-all/battle royal multiplayer or Time Trial mode. Battle Royal has you trying to be the last chameleon left standing on a floating platform, while Time Trial rewards the chameleon that stays on the platform the longest. In the latter event, the chameleon that has fallen off the fewest number of times is considered the winner.
Now, due to this game’s cult following, a sequel was announced and released the next year (1998) with the game called “Chameleon Twist 2″. Chameleon Twist 2 changed a few things to the game and character releases (well drastically in the US). First off, they got rid of the multiplayer feature and next they changed the design of all the characters to resemble more “real-like” chameleon’s. However, in Japan the design of the chameleon’s stayed true to the original. Next, Davy had changed from the blue to the green chameleon in CT2 (once again stayed Blue in Japan). A fun fact about this game is the Super Mario team did lend a hand in production to clean out the gameplay.
The story of your transformation is different now as the White Rabbit from the first game falls from the sky and transforms you into your “super chameleon” state, in which you now must adventure for 6 carrots from another 6 different worlds. Most of the gameplay stayed intact, except a few upgrades to movement, tongue length, and well brighter/vibrant stages. New moves added to the game were you were now allowed to pole vault/swing yourself vertically as well (aside from the only horizontal jump from last game). You were given a parachute for slowing your decent after jumps, in addition to allowing you to use your tongue mid-air, because of the tongue’s new “stick” feature. The stick feature let you reach areas that are too far for normal jumping, and brings you automatically to that landing spot; so by sticking your tongue out and hitting a floating platform you would “drag” to that area. Last but not least, the worlds were longer than its predecssor.
So that is basically chameleon twist in a nutshell. For my own opinion on the game, which I own both, I have to say the game is fun and was really a surprise. Expecting nothing from a game, may hinder my viewpoint on the game, but Chameleon Twist take on 3D platforming was a very cool concept back then; especially coming off fresh the Super Mario 64 addiciton. Personally, I found Chameleon Twist 1 more fun than the sequel, but maybe I’ll give 2 another shot and compare them again.
So has anyone else played this game or at least heard of it?
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Michael Troina writes features and reviews Nintendo games for Analog Addiciton. When he’s not writing or playing games or sports, he’s out at his job at the Daily Bugle taking pictures as the web-slinger we all have come to love…either that or he’s getting sandwich saving one world at a time. Find him anywhere with this flavors.me/michaeltroina
Street Fighter x Mega Man 25th anniversary Review
Whoa!? A new Mega Man game!! Well not exactly, alright at least Capcom released it….oh wait that’s not true either. WELL, at least we got a new Mega Man game for his 25th Anniversary all right!?
Street Fighter x Mega Man is a simple game paying homage to the 8-bit Mega Man using gameplay mainly consisting of Mega Man 4 (as you can charge and slide), with the occasional slips of other classic Mega Man elements. As in all Mega Man games you fight off on eight bosses, in which after you travel to fight three additional bosses, do a boss rush mode, and of course fight the final boss. Alas, it is different in this Mega Man game as Dr. Wily is no where to be found in this game, for the special is the Street Fighters have come out to play.
Story: As Mega Man is ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy his anniversary; Ryu and his fellow Street Fighters over here this as their anniversary is coming to an end and would like to do one last battle before they officially close the books on theirs. Now, Mega Man must take on the Street Fighters request and enjoy a friendly duel between Capcom icons….or is there more?
Gameplay: Well to compare to old Mega Man’s is a bit of stretch, as though it may look and sound like classic 8-bit Mega Man, gameplay wise it falls a bit short. First off, compared to recent Mega Man games (Mega Man 9 and 10) the difficulty is ridiculously easy, it took me an hour to beat the entire game. Secondly, there is hardly any Rush, just the beginning of one level where you use him as the Rush board. Third, the levels feel a lot shorter than classic Mega Man games and in addition there is no save function, so its playthrough or quit.
- HADOKEN
Other than that the game does adopt to any Gamepad put in the game, as long as you reconfigure it in the start menu, which I had no problems. Jumping and shooting, aka the premise of the game, flows smoothly, although occasionally sometimes when you want to jump with your controller/gamepad it will slide. All the powers added in the game, after you defeat each boss, are wonderful, from your Hadoken, to your…watermelons!? (Mega Man 8 soccer power homage). The visual is clear and crisp, the designs of each level are fantastic, it’s just missing the Mega Man “argh” factor.
Music: Fantastic. The music is mainly original but some of the tracks have some of the scores from the original games (like Dhalsim stage has the Snake Man intro).
Replay Value: Depends. Seriously its not very high but its not very low. You can try all the hidden easter eggs in the game or you can do a Mega-Buster challenge only and best of all you can try to get the secret boss!
Overall: 7.5/10- Good
While SF x MM isn’t the best Mega Man game I’ve played (obviously) nor is it the worst, but I respect the game for what it is. A fan-made homage to the Mega Man series with a unique twist. The addition of Street Fighter characters was an awesome element and I really had fun playing this game for about the 3rd time now. The game is free to download as well, so my money was well spent (in this actuality it was time).
Now Capcom we’re waiting for a real Mega Man release, because we all know this doesn’t cut it!
- BISON!!
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Michael Troina writes features and reviews Nintendo games for Analog Addiciton. When he’s not writing or playing games or sports, he’s out at his job at the Daily Bugle taking pictures as the web-slinger we all have come to love…either that or he’s getting sandwich saving one world at a time. Find him anywhere with this flavors.me/michaeltroina
escapeVektor Vita Review
Classic Gaming Comes to Vita
Nnooo is a local Australian games developer based in Sydney, the small developer has had great critical success with WiiWare, iPhone and DSiWare titles over the years. In September 2011 Nnooo released escapeVektor: Chapter 1 for WiiWare, it was extremely popular with its retro 8-bit style and its focus on challenging high score driven levels. Originally planned as a downloadable series of chapters, escapeVektor for PlayStation Vita is the definitive version, housing every chapter of the Vektor series. escapeVektor brings the old school gaming mentality of the 80′s-90′s to current day with great prowess, the game’s style complements the era nicely and feels like a homage to classic gaming. Sure it not without its faults, but those looking to step back in time for a challenging experience will feel like they made the right choice.
Jet Grind Radio/Jet Set Radio HD review
“JET SET RADIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!” – Professor K, circa 2000
once again I apologize for the crappy gif, couldn’t find a 500 width video of Professor K
That’s right twelve years later a re-release of one of the classics from SEGA’s Dremacast, Jet Grind Radio, has reached XBLA and PSN players for only $10 or 800 Live Points. The game’s cel-shaded graphics, amazing soundtrack, and addicting gameplay are all redone in now HD graphics, so you can relive those memories of skating in Toyko-to…or well remember playing a game of skating in Toyko.
Story: The game begins with Professor K (above) telling the player about a “rudie” and how they live their life in Tokyo, skating and spraying, as means of expression of one’s self. Tokyo-to is split into three parts due to rivaling gangs, all based and drawn/mapped, off real Japan locations: Shibuya, Kogane, and Benten. You control the gang called the “GG’s”, where you you control/start off as Beat, a 17-year old skater who was denied from the other gangs and so created his own. Upon playing the first level and receiving more members, you start to take over the other gang’s turf, gain more members, and spraying the town, all while avoiding the police at the same time. Upon defeating rival gangs like Poison Jam, the Cyborgs, and the Love-shockers, you meet the true antagonist of the game Gouji, and his Yukuza style gang the Golden Rhinos who plan on taking over Tokyo.
Gameplay: Those who have played Tony Hawk games would get some of the concepts of control on Jet Grind Radio, but in its entirety it plays very different from THPS. First off, you are allowed to do tricks and grind on rails, as THPS, but the difference is that you don’t require a button-command to do so, jumping on a ramp at high speed ro a rail automatically does a grind for you. The difference is you touch which direction every time you grind to do a different trick. In addition, a key concept in Jet Set Radio is that of dashing, because with no speed you can’t grind very far or do air tricks (which are automatic based off speed and height).
- links to my blog
There are actually five locations in the game, Tokyo-to and Grind City (based of my hometown New York City), which you travel to do “missions”. Missions either require you to “tag” (graffiti) over other gang’s signs/tags, race against other members, or “eliminate” other gangs by spraying them ten times each (three members so thirty overall sprays). Graffiti/spraying/tagging is done in three forms, with small, large, and extra-large tags. Large and extra-large tags require you to move your analog stick, follow the pattern displaying on screen in order to spray, and maximize points. One last point to make about the levels, is each town has one segment per mission, until later on in the game, where you are allowed to explore the entire town freely.
Graphics: The cel-shaded graphics still hold up and the HD rendering really brings out the vibrancy in the towns and skaters. The only problem has to be with the usual buggy, wrong angled camera, and the fact some of the non-main characters look like Lego’s.
Music: Jet Set Radio HD has an amazing soundtrack. The music spans from 28 (2 songs were excluded) different songs includes an eclectic array of original and licensed songs combining the musical genres of J-pop, Hip-hop, funk, Electronic dance music, Rock, Acid Jazz, Trip hop, and even metal.
My favorite tracks are: Love Trap, 054, and the Monster of Kogane. You can listen to the entire OST here.
Replay-value: Moderate-high. Although the game only has “3 chapters” (each has more missions than the next so do not worry), there are still the trophies to unlock, which most likely you didn’t unlock on your first playthrough. Finding all the characters or all the graffiti souls is tough work. Unfortunately there is no multipalyer, so forget going to head-to-head with a pal.
Overall: 8.5/10
I really enjoyed replaying Jet Grind Radio, considering my copy for my Dreamcast doesn’t work anymore and I had to wait for a re-release. The game brings back great memories and still is a fantastic game to play even in this day. In addition, people who played The World Ends with you may find some similarities in style and music; as that game was based in Shibuya and Japanese culture/fashion as was JSR.
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Michael Troina writes features and reviews Nintendo games for Analog Addiciton. When he’s not writing or playing games or sports, he’s out at his job at the Daily Bugle taking pictures as the web-slinger we all have come to love…either that or he’s getting sandwich saving one world at a time. Find him anywhere with this flavors.me/michaeltroina
Earthbound/Mother 2 Review
Mother 2, Earthbound, a cult classic, a game I had only heard of but never gave it a chance. Earthbound is a 2D roleplaying game for the Super Nintendo and the only game of the series (there are three) to make it to the States. Released in the mid 1990′s, Earthbound was a type of parody on fellow RPG games such as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, because its theme set was in the 80′s-90′s. Instead of swords, distant lands and kingdoms, you had bats, yo-yo’s, frying bans, hotdogs, hamburgers etc. Other basic RPG elements though were involved such as leveling up, “magic” called PSI, and many more. Let’s break this down RPG style with Story, Over-wold gameplay, Battle Gameplay, Music, and Replayability.
Story: Earthbound tells the story of a young boy named Ness, who is one of the chosen four destined to stop an evil alien named Giygas. The game starts off with a meteorite crashing near Ness’ house who in turns investigates the scene. Upon meeting Buzz Buzz, who tells him the future and Earth is dominated by an evil force called Giygas, Ness runs into his neighbor and “friend” Porky who tells him his brother has gone missing. After learning he must visit eight sanctuaries and record their songs with a Sound Stone, Porky’s mom kills Buzz Buzz, mistaking him for a dung beetle. Now Ness is ready to begin his journey; along the way Ness travels to Onett, Twoson, Threed, and many other locations around the world, meeting various characters such as the Runaway Five, his three destined partner’s Paula, Jeff, and Poo, Apple Kid and the sanctuaries. Ness must fight hoards of zombies, Giygas’ army of Starmen, meet unique character’s called Mr. Saturn, and save the Earth from its predicted demise.
Overworld Gameplay: In Earthbound you control the main character Ness for about 90% (the other 10% is varied between Jeff and Poo). During most of the open-world you can either walk or bike ride, and later on you learn how to teleport from town to town. In each town there is a hospital, a hotel, a store, a hint-store, and random NPC’s that either give you hints or are just useless. Earthbound plays like the RPG of Chrono Trigger in its open-world; there are no random encounters. as you see the monsters at all times in the worlds. To get a preemptive strike you must approach the enemy from behind and the same goes for the enemy approaching yourself. Besides the open-world adventure, there are many unique towns within Earthbound, from cities to villages, to swamps and the desert. One additional fact has to be you are not safe from enemies anywhere, as bad guys lurk the towns as well, so always be on guard!
Battle Gameplay: Earthbound plays like many RPGs, but I feel it closely related to Pokemon. Each of the four characters you control (Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo) all have different charactersistics. Ness is the most balanced and powerful of the four, having the ability to do high damage, and PSI ranging from offensive, defensive, and support. Paula, is a PSI heavy character with the abilities of Fire, Ice, Thunder, like a Black Mage. Jeff is the character who specializes on item attacks and has no PSI powers at all. Poo, is similar to Ness’ character but is able to learn one different move than Ness. While battles are normal RPG command (per turn basis), during battle you may also become poisoned, crystallized, blind (crying), or possessed. Possibly my favorite thing about Earthbound is the AI encounters. If crystallized you are technically “dead” until you are un-crystallized, which you can’t self heal until way later in the game. As I told you before, monsters are in an open-world in this game, but more advanced than Chrono Trigger where it still has some random encounters. Earthbound’s “enemies” only rush you if you A) are weaker than them or B) haven’t cleared the “level” (aka collect the soundstone). Otherwise outside enemies actually run away from you because they know they will lose. In fact, if you are stronger than them by many, they automatically die when you touch them and you gain the experience and a possible random item. The only game I can think of comparsion to that is Xenoblade Chronicles, in which the enemies only ignore you, no automatic deaths; so Earthbound is very advanced in its open-battle world. The reason I compare this RPG to Pokemon is for a couple of reasons. First off, while battles may be turned basis, the main process goes by speed so your character’s attack in almost an unprecedented order, similar to that of Pokemon. another comparison is that when you are poisoned, if you do not heal it, you lose damage per step and when you are at the end of your health you are warned, like Pokemon that you are about to die and need medical attention. The last aspect has to be during battles, enemies sometimes do nothing, or more precisely do some type of useless action, like laughing, sneezing, etc. In Pokemon, some enemies you face may constantly do just a Tail Whip or Growl and that same AI repetitiveness is found in this game.
Music: Earthbound has a pretty good soundtrack, fitting its fun undertone. When the game gets dark or serious, the music is more of a type of “lack” of music, with a somewhat scary motif. Music is somewhat of a big aspect towards the game, because you must collect the song of the sanctuaries to move on with your Soundstone, but hey I think it’s just good not great.
Replayability: Earthbound has around an intermediate replayability level. Many people may be inclined to replay the game, to re-experience the story, or to get items they missed before (like all of Poo’s rare equipment). While there aren’t that many sidequests, compared to most RPG’s, there are still plenty of ways to prolong the experience that is Earthbound.
Overall: 9.4/10 Earthbound is a fantastic game and I am so glad I finally got a chance to play it. The last “RPG” I played was Pokemon White and I needed a refresher with something good and this fit bill. The game with its great battle system, good amount of difficulty (not really the hardest but a real pain, like a more difficult Pokemon), funny one-liners in the script, and of course epic boss battles will make anyone enjoy this game. Also shout out to TardisofHyrule and Mrteagle for watching every stream and helping me out in some parts!
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Michael Troina writes features and reviews Nintendo games for Analog Addiciton. When he’s not writing or playing games or sports, he’s out at his job at the Daily Bugle taking pictures as the web-slinger we all have come to love…either that or he’s getting sandwich saving one world at a time. Find him anywhere with this flavors.me/michaeltroina
Has 3D killed true platformers?
Lately, I realized all my stream games have been platformers (except for Eathbound)…which is great. I love platformers, I grew up with them and I seriously think they are like the root of all games. From Super Mario Bros to World, to Sonic the Hedgehog, to Mega Man and X, Crash Bandicoot, etc etc I can go all day, they are fantastic games. However, it feels since the beginning of 3D-worlds (1996- Super Mario 64), 2D platformers are regarded less by the gaming community and are now a rarity to find. Look at Rayman Origins, one of the few good 2D platformers in a while not named LBP (sorry Kirby Return to Dreamland, and NSMB2). Because of how good the game was, it in a sense “reintroduced us to platforming”; unfortunately, this was not in a major way. The best example of “moving us” was that of the LittleBigPlanet series, a new type of 3D-2D platforming, that took creativity to the maximum in games. While the game implements its gameplay on that of 2D platforming in 3D worlds, the true point of LBP was that of creation, exploration, and multiplayer.
A true platformer, in my opinion, is a game that brings a challenge to every level, one where one levels are beautifully designed and offers either similar or different challenge from previous levels, only to get harder. The game gives false pretenses like “that world/level was easy”, only soon to find yourself going…COME ON! after dying for the 10th time on the same part of the same level. In addition, timing is the key element in this game. Looking at Sonic games, speed makes the game go, but it’s not like you can just hold forward and do nothing and boom the level is over. Take any Mario game, while his jumping “gravity” is better than Sonic’s, going to far ahead may mean your death, because, for example in Super Mario Bros 3 World 5, a few of the sky levels require you to wait for floating platforms while the screen advances on you (meaning death); thus pointlessly running ahead and not having a real strategy leads to your death. Rayman Origins had a few of my favorite platform levels, the game was just amazing. All the Skull Teeth levels and the last level, The Valley of the Livid Dead, were my absolute favorites because of the speed, skill, timing, and difficulty the levels required. Sometimes wall jumping was the key element, other times it was using your floating ability correctly. I don’t look at Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a platformer at all, I look at it as an adventure game, because you go to different worlds and have the freedom of choice of getting to point B. It has platform elements, but it is not a “true” platformer.
But still, I haven’t even got to the point.
Looking at the gaming market today, there are a fair share of RPGs and Shooters (3PS,FPS) and of course adventure, action, and “platform”. Platform today is considered the 3D world games we play such as Super Mario Galaxy and many of the 2D platforms have been relegated to that of handheld games. Even at that though, there are still very few platformers that are released as console games. If you don’t believe me, walk to your local game shop or even check out this link from Metacritic listing platformers http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/genre/date/platformer/all?view=detailed . Notice many of the games are PSN, iOS/Android, releases except for the few (forget scores because a lot of new age gamers don’t’ appreciate platformers). Why is that? Have they been phased out? Or has 3D world adventures completely pushed platformers to become obsolete? While full 3D-worlds are fantastic in so many aspects, occasionally going back to the roots isn’t necessarily a bad thing (unless you are New Super Mario Bros Wii). The same does get stale and the mass has become very critical in this day and age, so trying new things is a risk, while staying exactly the same as a former game is open cooking for criticism.
A great example to look at is New Super Mario Bros series, a level under the original Super Mario Bros Series. New Super Mario Bros DS, was a fresh-relook-new take on Mario and the platform genre when it came out for the DS. Mario used to be a rarity to come out every year, not as much as Legend of Zelda, but still it was pain to wait for Mario games…but now that only applies to consoles. Now, Nintendo is pulling an AC, Call of Duty, etc. type ploy and releasing one almost every year (Super Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros 2, New Super Mario Bros Wii U) and to the worst part of the extent, is the game really has no changes from it’s “predecessor”. At the same time, I feel the NSMB series has no challenge, and is missing the key aspect of allure and challenge meshed together to make it a memorable series, heck Super Mario Bros 2 is way more favored on my list, than the horrible New Super Mario Bros Wii. The thing is as a business you need to make money and that is what Mario and his name brings to the table; but right now you are pushing his credentials. I still, along with millions of others,and always will buy a Mario game because of what the past has offered me, and I do believe the NSMB is a good “handheld series” but at the same time dumbing down the game for others to enjoy is something I never condone.
But that last paragraph really had nothing to do with the 3D debate of killing platforms either. See, 3D gaming is almost a necessity and most “hardcore gamers” or basically new gamers have rarely played 2D side-scrolling games. Heck, they didn’t even play 2D-3D world games. The benefit of 3D worlds is that of discovery, which isn’t to say 2D side-scrollers don’t have that but not to the extent of 3D worlds. In addition, as I mentioned before for the NSMB getting easier than elder Mario games, difficulty in today’s games are much easier than they were back then. Thus, the level of patience has deteriorated (which I also mentioned in my last blog) because people can’t stand a real challenge. In addition, I would have to say 2D platformers have a greater aspect of “speed” in a game, (not time or movement) but the way the game is handled and must be played. While it is possible to play a Sonic or Mario game “slow” and time your jumps, at the same time that strategy may not always work. E.G. In Super Mario Bros Lost Levels, the camera takes away the “back” element, so the further you move up the less screen you have to your left. In World 1-2 right in the beginning, not running and playing patient trying to cross that huge gap in the middle is impossible, because you need the speed to move over it.
Platformers though are not truly dead in true gaming communities. People talk about old games all the time and really looking at the NES and SNES, platformers were king. Debates over Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World still exist to this day, because that is what platformers are, a timeless classic. Hopefully we get more 2D platformers in the future, not some cheap crappy iOS game I would never buy, or some downloadable game which no one cares about. Mega Man 9 and 10 were praised for bringing back the “old”; platformers are the greatest risk reward out there because everyone loves a good platformer.
Basically the main point is why aren’t big name retailer companies producing 2D platformers anymore? Are they scared? Are graphics too much of a factor? Edit: A big thing I have noticed from people (on my other blog as well) is how many platformers come out for the iOS or bring up Kirby and Mario. Unfortunately, the point I am referring to is good platformers, released on console systems, like that of Rayman Origins. Kirby and DKCR or New Super Mario bros are 2.5D platforming side-scrollers, not 3D platformers like that of Super Mario Galaxy. The problem I have with iOS is, you can make a million games of a gaming-genre: platforming but that doesn’t mean the series is alive, you need to have masterpieces.
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Michael Troina writes features and reviews Nintendo games for Analog Addiciton. When he’s not writing or playing games or sports, he’s out at his job at the Daily Bugle taking pictures as the web-slinger we all have come to love…either that or he’s getting sandwich saving one world at a time. Find him anywhere with this flavors.me/michaeltroina
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