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Post by windfisch on Jan 3, 2023 10:36:07 GMT -5
Holy belated Batmas!
Batman Returns
The movie is a favourite of my youth: It’s gloomy, mysterious, grotesque, bombastic, darkly funny and a bit tragic. It’s got a captivating style, easily overshadowing the overload of half-baked subplots and somewhat underdeveloped characters. Curiously, one the most intriguing of those characters, the philanthropist and secret main villain Max Shreck, is absent from almost all game adaptations, including the SNES one. Apparently he was too true to real life to make for an enticing game figure. Aside from that, Konami’s team did succeed at capturing the movies feel and aesthetic. Graphics look great, featuring large characters, beautiful scenery and eye-catching effects like heat distortion and shadows cast by window panes. In-game assets are used to recreate scenes from the movie, accompanies by little digitized movie stills. Out of all games based on the second Burtman only this and the DOS game use Danny Elfman’s score as a basis. It sounds a bit muffled here, but the original’s brilliance still shines through and the compositions fit the action well. Combat feels good, for the most part, offering some nice move variety. Agreeing with excelsior and spanky , attacks feel satisfyingly weighty and brutal. Smashing two foes together is a direct reference to the equally violent film, but it also feels like a callback to Technos’ Comatribes. In fact, most of film’s henchmen and henchwomen are perfect fits for brawler stereotypes: There are fat clowns, strongmen, motorbike riders, torch jugglers and machine gun bosses - just like in your typical Double Fights of Rage. And these foes can be quite ruthless. Getting up after being knocked down isn't always easy. Unlike in other brawlers, you’re not granted the mercy of brief invincibility or ceasefire. At least it’s possible to let the bazooka guys do some dirty work for you. And if you hit a bomb clowns with a Batarang before he tosses the explosive away, it’ll blow up in his faces, taking him out instantly. Cute. The single plane segments aren’t as good, however. Despite featuring the same look, both, controls and enemy behaviour, change, screwing with your muscle memory. While the big sprites are perfect for a brawler, they’re simply too big for platforming, running and gunning. This leaves you neither much time nor space to avoid obstacles and attacks. Like many here, my biggest gripe is with the sudden spike of difficulty introduced by the Catwoman fight. Her attacks do tons of damage, making inexperienced players loose one life after the other. And almost immediately afterwards you fight her again, which is a bit lame. It’s the kind of design mentality you’d expect from an arcade game, but this is a home exclusive. Granted, with practice the bosses can be dealt with. But toning down the punishment just a little bit would’ve resulted in a more balanced feel overall. I give it a B. Similar to the movie its style outweighs its rougher edges. Luckily, Konami would learn from their mistakes and develop an even better SNES Batman later on. Now this would be where I’d talk about the Game Boy version. Batman Returns made appearances on almost every system under the sun: Amiga, DOS, Game Gear, Sega CD, even the Lynx, for crying out loud. But on one of the most successful platforms in history? No, thanks, we’re good. It’s a shame, really. At least Konami made a pretty good NES game based on the property. And speaking of 8 bit platforms, Sega’s Game Gear version might be my favourite of the bunch. Nowhere as dazzling as the SNES game, naturally, it makes great use of the hardware nonetheless and is an altogether solidly designed platformer. It’s not too long and fairly easy, making for a nice half hour playthrough. And if I want my ass kicked, the Master System version offers redesigned stages and a much higher challenge. |
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Post by windfisch on Jan 3, 2023 11:47:03 GMT -5
My main multiplayer experience with Bomberman is Atomic Bomberman by Interplay for Windows so I've only played the SNES games single player. I don't find them particularly fun in that mode, and they're all very samey across them all. I'd go with a blanket C for Super series. Atomic Bomberman may be the ugliest the series ever looked. I had the demo back then, which played alright, I suppose. And the option for network matches seems like a point in its favour. It still felt like a massive downgrade having spent many hours with the lovely Dynablaster for DOS, a port of the first PC Engine game. Two players on one keyboard and the third on a gamepad made for a rather intimate experience for sure - especially when one of the players lost his temper. Good times! |
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Post by excelsior on Jan 4, 2023 8:23:47 GMT -5
Atomic Bomberman may be the ugliest the series ever looked. I see your Atomic Bomberman and raise you an Act Zero  |
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Post by spanky on Jan 4, 2023 9:05:30 GMT -5
If you go by cut content, Atomic Bomberman is undoubtedly the ugliest the series has ever sounded as well. |
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Post by windfisch on Jan 4, 2023 9:10:35 GMT -5
Atomic Bomberman may be the ugliest the series ever looked. I see your Atomic Bomberman and raise you an Act Zero Sure, the artstyle looks completely out of place, I give you that. Butt!
I rest my case.
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Post by windfisch on Jan 4, 2023 9:13:17 GMT -5
If you go by cut content, Atomic Bomberman is undoubtedly the ugliest the series has ever sounded as well. "Eat my dust and lick my crack."
Amazing.
edit: Guess this means Atomic Bomberman's got some ass, too? That complicates matters.
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Post by personman on Jan 5, 2023 13:33:59 GMT -5
Also belated Batmas!
I give Batman Returns a B. As I mentioned previously I just couldn't meet what it asked and thats not much fault of its own I just am really not good at these kinds of games lol. But I can still respect it, like Spanky mentioned Batman feels like a wrecking ball and I love how each hit you landed sounds like a rock slide. The gimmicks it tries to throw in though aren't too impressive and while they don't offend they do drag things down a bit. Wasn't fond of how they displayed boss health either since its just a solid color that doesn't actually show your progress against them till you get to the last layer; Its anxiety inducing lol. Otherwise it captures the feel of the source material really well, particularly the soundtrack and I can tell that even only seeing glimpses of the movie proper. It's a good example of a licensed game.
As for Bomberman, I actually got my start with the series on the 64 with Bomberman 64 (the western version that is) which was when the series finally made a real concentrated effort to switch up its single player and flesh it out proper rather than the tiny iterations the series did before. Due to that I've always had a hard time going back to the older games since they just seem so limited. I've only managed to complete the first Super Bomberman and while I wouldn't call it bad its just nothing to write home about. Even if the series didn't start out with it the series is mostly meant for multiplayer and that has never really been my thing. So if one takes that into account they are probably more deserving of an A but as a loner like myself I wouldn't give them more than a C.
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Post by excelsior on Jan 9, 2023 3:42:20 GMT -5
- Publisher - Taito
- Developer - Sting
- Genre - Platformer
- Initial Release - June 1994
Meet George Jetson! Welcome to the wacky 21st century. It's up to you to help George set things straight! - 9 stages of awesome action! - 8 megs of excellent cartoon quality graphics! - Based on the smash television show The Jetsons! - Over twenty goofy enemies to defeat!     ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates was later localised in Japan under the title Youkai Buster: Ruka no Daibouken. This version changes the playable character, replaces cutscenes and adds directional arrows to stages.
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Post by excelsior on Jan 9, 2023 3:58:58 GMT -5
OK, first question. Did anybody here already play this game? It would kind of surprise me. The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates was likely overlooked due to the license not being particularly popular at the time of release, though it's actually an interesting platformer for the SNES. You play as George who utilises a vacuum to create suction that pulls objects towards him and also enables him to stick to surfaces meaning he can move freely across stages. The mechanism does have some issues here and there, but overall feels well polished. The stages are maze-like and also include some puzzles which allows for exploration of the core suction-based gameplay. Boss battles found at the end of each world create unique opportunities to use your move set in different ways each time also. The sprites have a nice clean look, ensuring that actions onscreen can easily be read. There are a couple of issues. Most notably that it becomes unclear where to go in later stages - the Japanese versions addition of a directional marker helps here. Also bosses, whilst nicely creative, can require quite a bit of dexterity with the controls. Fortunately the game hands out lives fairly easily, but I'd imagine kids may have had some trouble. Rankingwise I think the issues present make it a borderline C/B, but due to the creativity involved, and the fact that I prefer this over the previously ranked Magical Quest, I'm going to go with a B. I certainly think the game is worth a try and one many will find some enjoyment in.
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Post by spanky on Jan 9, 2023 9:44:52 GMT -5
I never played this as a kid, though I certainly would have were it available at one of the rental stores in my town. It did get coverage in a Nintendo Power issue which was usually enough to pique my interest in a game. I have played it recently via emulation and it's somewhat fun but flawed. The entire game is built around your vacuum device and it sort of reminds me of Bionic Commando in a weird way. It is sort of fun using it to scale walls but it never felt as natural to me as it should have. Using it to climb across ceilings is very tricky and it probably could have been improved if your falling speed was lowered a bit or your vacuum was more powerful. The Taito Hanna Barbera games as a whole aren't bad. The other Jetsons games are decent as are the Flintstones games. This one is probably the most creative out of the lot. It looks very nice and I actually quite enjoy the bouncy music. C feels likely a slightly harsh score to me but in the grand scheme of SNES games, that's where I think it ranks. The Japan localized version looks fun, with your vacuum being replaced with a decapitated ogre head. |
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Post by dsparil on Jan 9, 2023 11:45:48 GMT -5
Once again, what spanky said. It's kinda fun, but there's a few too many rough edges. The ceiling traversal is the worst part. If there's a better way than moving a pixel at a time, I'd definitely like to know. It's also a fairly terrible use of the license to the point that it's surprising that Yōkai Buster was derived from the Jetsons game and not the other way around. YB is the better of the two because of that since it is so much weirder.
I'd go with a C for the Jetsons version, and a B- for the YB version.
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Post by windfisch on Jan 9, 2023 12:18:24 GMT -5
I have checked out the the rom briefly a while ago. Seemed decent enough, so I might give it another try.
The Taito Hanna Barbera games as a whole aren't bad. The other Jetsons games are decent as are the Flintstones games. Agreed. Flintsones (MD) is almost a great game even. As for Jetsons games, I've mostly played the GB version, which was fairly enjoyable. Seems like a Magical Hat/Decap Attack situation. Only this time Japan got the horror-themed reskin. Nintendid, sort of. |
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Post by excelsior on Jan 16, 2023 2:42:12 GMT -5
- Publisher - Interplay
- Developer - Silicon & Synapse
- Genre - Puzzle-Action
- Initial Release - April 1993
It's just another cool day of Nordic seafaring and pillaging when Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce and Olaf the Stout are suddenly sucked into an alien spaceship. And only you can help them find their way home. But each mysterious door you help them through throws them into different eras in time - and smack into new enemies! Will Baleog conquer Elmo the Dinosaur in Prehistoria? Will Olaf shield himself from the berserker mummies in the Great Pyramids of Egypt? And can Erik outrun the maniacal ripsaw in the Great Factory? Hurry! Only you can get these vanished Vikes out of the grasp of their alien captors and home through the chaotic arcade action!
 
 
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Post by excelsior on Jan 16, 2023 2:52:47 GMT -5
This game came up previously as one people wanted to talk about and so happy to oblige there. Unfortunately I'm going to have to start on a sour note, because I really have a strong dislike for The Lost Vikings.
So I'm as a rule not a fan of this character switching idea going on here. It always seems to me that I have a puzzle solved in my head quickly and then I have to go through the finnicky part of getting the characters to respond the way I want them to. My brain is just far ahead of the action in a way that feels unsatisfactory. It seems to get harder through being unforgiving on the interactive front rather than in coming up with compelling puzzles, with interactions not having very interesting feedback or anything either and therefore having a kind of flat feeling. Environments are kind of rudimentary in how they are drawn and the Vikings may be intentionally out of place but that doesn't keep it from feeling jarring. It would be nice if the character sprites were at least charming but to me they are quite unappealing. I think that's a good word that describes this game as a whole to me. Just unappealing to a great extent.
Ranking - F
Sorry guys
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Post by spanky on Jan 16, 2023 13:33:07 GMT -5
Say it ain't so excelsior ! I like The Lost Vikings and played (rented it several times during the summer of 1993) it quite a bit. I think it's very fun to play, the dialogue is amusing and the music is great! I'll admit that most of the puzzles aren't mind benders - most of the game is "Take a viking as far as they can go, then switch to the next one to find your way around the obstacle." But that's OK! I would much rather play this over something like Lemmings. Getting a viking killed towards the end of a level is pretty frustrating and makes you with the game had some checkpoints in each level, but that feels like a very modern complaint - passwords for each level are fine. It's a high B for me. |
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