SNES Game of the Week 118 - Clock Tower

[spanky]

personman If you like Goemon's Great Adventure, you'll like the second Super Famicom game. It plays very similarly with the focus being on platforming stages and the towns being (mostly) safe. It has a fan translation now too.

[excelsior]

• Publisher - Sun L
• Developer - Capcom
• Genre - Sports
• Initial Release - 25 March 1994

Dr. Wily will stop at nothing to control the world and who would have thought his next move would be to attack the world's most popular sport? Dr. Light is ready and he's preparing Mega Man for a new type of battle.

As the two best soccer teams in the nation took the field for the championship, suddenly the stadium was pelted with blasts of fire and the field was engulfed in smoke. The smoke cleared and some very familiar robots replaced the players on the field. Dr. Wily had sent his greatest robot creations like Skull Man, Cut Man, Wood Man, Needle Man and Pharaoh Man to rule the soccer world.

But Dr. Light was prepared for this new tactic. Almost instantly a reserve of Mega Man robots appeared to take on the evil forces in the strangest game of soccer ever seen. No matter where evil appears, Mega Man will be there to kick one past Dr. Wily and hist robot master.

  

  

[excelsior]

OK, so Mega Man Soccer could be seen as a bit of a troll, and admittedly it kind of is, but all in keeping with my own order when it comes to specific franchises/series. On a serious note though any and all requests are heard and I will absoultely take Mega Man and Forte into account as an interesting discussion point. The game isn't all bad, but it has a big problem with the pitch being oversized for the action which means there's a lot of time spent pushing the ball from one side to the other and too much space overall, meaning there's a lack of the dynamics that should be present in a game of football for it to be exciting. For that reason I'll give this a D. Kudos to Capcom however on trying something different and attempting to surprise fans.

On another note, I hope nobody minds too much if I take a bit of a break from doing this thread. I'm a bit overwhelmed as ever this time of year but this time around cranked upto eleven, since both my parents have basically reached the point of being unable to really do strenuous tasks for themselves at pretty much the same time. Anyway, it's got me not feeling particularly qualified for the tag of 'excelsior' at the moment when it comes to online posting. In the meantime if anybody did want to take the reins for a bit by introducing new weekly games I would be fully supportive of that.

Oh, and thank you all for your continued participation.

[Snake]

Dec 5, 2022 9:56:21 GMT -5 excelsior said:

OK, so Mega Man Soccer could be seen as a bit of a troll, and admittedly it kind of is, but all in keeping with my own order when it comes to specific franchises/series. On a serious note though any and all requests are heard and I will absoultely take Mega Man and Forte into account as an interesting discussion point. The game isn't all bad, but it has a big problem with the pitch being oversized for the action which means there's a lot of time spent pushing the ball from one side to the other and too much space overall, meaning there's a lack of the dynamics that should be present in a game of football for it to be exciting. For that reason I'll give this a D. Kudos to Capcom however on trying something different and attempting to surprise fans.

On another note, I hope nobody minds too much if I take a bit of a break from doing this thread. I'm a bit overwhelmed as ever this time of year but this time around cranked upto eleven, since both my parents have basically reached the point of being unable to really do strenuous tasks for themselves at pretty much the same time. Anyway, it's got me not feeling particularly qualified for the tag of 'excelsior' at the moment when it comes to online posting. In the meantime if anybody did want to take the reins for a bit by introducing new weekly games I would be fully supportive of that.

Oh, and thank you all for your continued participation.

Take a much needed break!  We can all pitch in! I don't mind posting a gaming with everyone else for next week.  

As for Mega Man Soccer:
Rank C

Shout out to Japan for beating... Germany and Spain in their group this World Cup!?!?!  It's like something out of Captain Tsubasa manga/anime.  
In any case, interesting novelty for a Mega Man game.  But I'm not much into sports games. But in a very Japanese vein, of course there would be super shoots based on everyone's power.  I'm thinking someone on the Mega Man development teams had a soccer fix, considering Mega Man 7 had the Mega Ball/Rock Ball.  I played the game for a few matches, but never stuck with it (and I could say the same for Mega Man/Rock Man Battle & Chase).

[dsparil]

Mega Man Soccer probably should get an F because it was released unfinished, but I'll be nice and bump it up to a D because it is a little fun. I vaguely remember there being a question if Soccer even got officially released in the US a long time ago. Nothing comes up now because this was literally decades ago, but maybe it was a retailer exclusive and not widely available?

Dec 5, 2022 12:07:04 GMT -5 Snake said:

I'm thinking someone on the Mega Man development teams had a soccer fix, considering Mega Man 7 had the Mega Ball/Rock Ball.

8 had the Mega Ball. I always wondered if that was a slight reference to Soccer.

[Snake]

Dec 5, 2022 12:17:52 GMT -5 dsparil said:

Dec 5, 2022 12:07:04 GMT -5 Snake said:

I'm thinking someone on the Mega Man development teams had a soccer fix, considering Mega Man 7 had the Mega Ball/Rock Ball.

8 had the Mega Ball. I always wondered if that was a slight reference to Soccer.

Yes! It was 8!

[windfisch]

Haha, well played, madame!

I'm surprised to read actual rankings on this already. Sure, the game combines one of the most popular sports in the world with one of Capcom's biggest franchises. Despite all that it's not exactly a game that comes up often, if ever.

Anyway, the concept certainly does appeal to me. In my youth I used to played a bit of socc... actually I never played that kinda nonsense. What I did play was Fussball (or football, I'll allow that). And while I didn't play many sports video games, I used to prefer more fantastical ones, like Speedball 2. So theoretically, Millionen Mann Fussball should be right up my alley. But what I played of it years ago didn't hold my attention for long. And looking at video footage, I can already tell that the yoyo-like dribbling animation is going to drive me crazy - I don't expect much realism from a game featuring cartoon robots, but is it too much to ask for a semblance of plausible ball physics?

I might give it a go this week, if my schedule allows for it.

edit: I wouldn't mind hosting a week of this thread. Maybe we can hit new lows with the likes of Ballz 3D or Timecop?

[spanky]

Take a break excelsior, you deserve it. If we are going to keep this going in the meantime, I'd be willing to participate one week.

Mega Man Soccer is one of those "broke my heart" style games. Mario Kart really proved you could take characters and elements from an action/platformer and apply it to a sports game and have it really work. I saw previews in magazines and my imagination overflowed with ideas from the Mega Man games that you could apply to a soccer game.

The end result ended up being a bit disappointing! It really fails to utilize elements from the Mega Man games. Dust Man can't blow around the ball with his vacuum, Mega Man can't summon Rush to steal the ball, Bubble Man can't temporarily flood the field. Nothing like that! It's all very disappointing! The only real special element is that each character has a super shot. But they're all activated the same way and have similar effects (Though the animations are different). There's a decent variety of fields but they all play the same.

If you remove the special moves and Mega Man characters and setting, it's a below average, arcadey soccer game with some ugly graphics and unmemorable music. It's kind of boring to play - there's one spot on the field where you'll get a goal every time you shoot from there. You'll rack up a ton of points once you discover it. Not that you'd want to play for that long but it is sort of boring. On the plus side? There's a lot of modes and the main story mode let's you steal players from enemy teams when you beat them. It has one of the most insane passwords I've ever seen and the ending was dummied out for some reason.

I could fool myself into enjoying this as a kid but I can't really say much positive about it now. It's a D.

[spanky]

Good morning all. Since no one volunteered for this week in excelsior's stead I figured I'd show a little initiative. I'm low on time (I should be working right now) so I didn't pull any screenshots but I did manage to transcribe the back of the box! I figured with the holiday season in full swing I figured a "big Christmas game" was appropriate, and was there a bigger Christmas game for the SNES than this? I'll have my review later today.

#30 Donkey Kong Country



Publisher - Nintendo
Developer - Rare
Genre - Platformer
Initial Release - 18 November 1994

Donkey Kong is back with a new sidekick, Diddy Kong in a crazy island adventure! Challenged by the crazed tribe of reptilian Kremlings, they endeavor to get back their stolen banana horde! Armed with lightning-quick moves, chest pounding muscle, and awesome aerial acrobatics, our due is ready to face their cunning adversaries. With the help of Donkey Kong's quirky family and his wild animal mounts, they squabble and scamper their way through unending monkey mayhem!

-The most amazing 3-D graphics and incredible sound ever!
-The biggest Nintendo adventure yet at an incredible 32 megs!
-Starring Donkey Kong and introducing his sidekick, Diddy Kong!
-Battery-backed memory saves your progress!
-Over 100 levels, including tons of secrets and bonus areas!

[dsparil]

Such a classic although it's a little too BS for my taste sometimes. I probably spent more time on 90s fan games made in Klik 'n Play and its successors than any of the originals. The ripped graphics looked so good with smaller pixels. Playing it today, the game is one that needs some kind of CRT emulating filter to get the same effect it had on people back then. All the schoolyard arguments about DKC being 3D vs. it only being prerendered. It'd be amazing if Nintendo would do something like the SaGa Frontier remaster and put out a version that was just the original CG at HD resolution.

A

[spanky]

excelsior Thanks for updating the thread title!

I really got caught up in the hype train for this. Initial screenshots failed to impress me, the spritework and shading kind of reminded me of Claymates. It looked sort of cheap and artificial to my eyes. This all changed when I received the Donkey Kong Country: Exposed tape in the mail and watched it with my Sega fanboy friend that lived across the street. I was completely blown away once I saw the game in motion. I remember grinning at my friend as the ending sizzle reel played ("NOT on 32x! NOT on CD-ROM! NOT on Sega!"), I knew the "war" had shifted in favor of the mighty SNES. The tape is amazing by the way and offers a rare glimpse into the NOA of the era. Being able to visit mid 80's through the mid 90's NOA or NOJ would have been my equivalent of visiting the Wonka factory.

I received DKC for Christmas that year and it completely absorbed the rest of my winter break. The graphics are sort of agreed to be smoke and mirrors nowadays, and as dsparil said, they kind of need to be viewed on a CRT for the full effect. At the time though? It really did look next-gen and just as good as a lot of the stuff on the Jag and 3DO. I agree that pre-rendered graphics are ugly in most cases but the DKC series really makes them look nice. Aside from the 3D stuff, the game makes very good use of lighting in some levels and lends the game quite a bit of atmosphere. The HUD only being visible when you collect items is pretty forward thinking as well. The platforming is solid and not over-gimmicked and trying to find the secrets will take weeks. And of course, the music.

Under a more critical eye, you could argue that there's less to do in this game than in Super Mario world, which was almost 4 years old at this point. The Kong family is underutilized -Cranky in particular has a ton of level specific hints that were dummied out for some unknown reason. There's way too many caves and mine levels, and while there are many secrets, they don't serve a whole lot of purpose aside from giving you more lives and bananas. All these problems would be resolved in the sequel, however!

Donkey Kong Country isn't the greatest SNES game but in the context of the SNES and the 16-bit war (at least in the west) it's one of the more important ones. 1994 really felt like a year that developers were hitting "the next level" with the SNES. There were cool new games coming out weekly. Stuff like Super Metroid, Final Fantasy III and a far superior port of Mortal Kombat II really showed off what the SNES could do. By the time DKC came around, it just felt like the system was showing off and it showed the hardware still had a lot of gas in it. You could make an argument that the high sales and hype behind the game kept developers interested making games for the SNES. Would we have gotten a lot of those great late-era SNES games had DKC not been a huge hit? Maybe.

It's immediate sequel is a better game but this one is probably my favorite. A.

[vnisanian2001]

The DKC trilogy were games that I felt got better with each installment. I think DKC3 was when it was perfect.

[Snake]

Rank - A

Solid action platformer.  I was really amazed at the level of rendered graphics and animation on this one when it came out.  I have to agree, a traditional CRT TV with the appropriate resolution really brings out the visuals on this one.  I liked that the format was very easy and straight forward, with Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong having their unique operating properties.  I was lucky that a high school classmate lent me his copy, and I played the crap out of it to completion.  Compared to other SNES platformers, it does sway more to the accessible, easy side.  Some of the bosses are a bit on the weird side... (a toxic barrel that spits out 2 enemies at you  at a time?).  Fun for its time, but I don't have a real itch to replay it, the way I would for a Castlevania IV or Mega Man X.  But I will say, this is one of my top 3 Rare games that I really enjoyed, aside from Wizards and Warriors on NES and Killer Instinct, arcade.

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

This might be my favorite SNES game. It's hard to decide whether this or DKC Returns is my favorite of the series.

I feel like this was so popular that there's been kind of a pushback against it (to the point where it was a commonly believed rumor that Miyamoto didn't like the game). But no, it really is a deserved SNES classic. Unlike DKC2 and 3, the stages are relatively more Mario-esque, in that you can run through them rather quickly oftentimes, and they usually don't have a very strong central mechanic. There are exeptions to this of course. Stop & Go station comes to mind, as does the one where you have to grab fuel (that latter one not in a good sense). I love the stages where you have to catapult yourself from barrel cannon to barrel cannon, and the minecart levels are iconic as well, though not as fun. Overall, this feels a lot more fluent and fun to play than DKC2 and 3. The environments are a bit basic in comparison to the sequels, but I love the atmosphere of them, and on a CRT the pre-rendered graphics hold up incredibly well. The music really helps with the atmosphere too, and it might be the most classic OST on the system.

There are some things that the sequels did better, such as the bosses, the details and themes of the backgrounds, and keeping track of secrets/collectibles. The save system is also the dumbest thing ever. But this game's level design is so good that it still outranks both of them IMO.

Btw, it's very funny that they had such a groundbreaking game on their hands but they still felt the need to lie about the amount of levels included.

Rating: an easy S.

P.S.: I wish I had something to say about Mega Man Soccer since it seems like I brought that upon this thread (shouldn't we have gotten Mario Paint before Kart though if this is the rule?). But I have absolutely no thoughts or comments on it, or recollections of the one time I emulated it for 5 minutes.

[excelsior]

This has the go ape CD (which I can't believe hasn't been mentioned). It's an S..../10. Great work on the opening spankables, thanks!

Dec 12, 2022 17:03:37 GMT -5 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 said:

P.S.: I wish I had something to say about Mega Man Soccer since it seems like I brought that upon this thread (shouldn't we have gotten Mario Paint before Kart though if this is the rule?). But I have absolutely no thoughts or comments on it, or recollections of the one time I emulated it for 5 minutes.

We should have, but I was still finding my feet when I did Super Mario Kart and though had already decided upon doing 'numbered' series in order at that point I hadn't considered how to play things with spin offs.