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Post by excelsior on May 11, 2024 0:10:32 GMT -5
In this series it's quickly established that adding 'of Mana' at the end of any noun equals lore. Also, the land of Mana is thoroughly, thoroughly green. I think we here on Earth could learn much from this game world. Other than that, this game stands out mostly for being one of the very few JRPG's released in Europe on SNES. Gameplay is some attempt to blend turn based concepts into an action game and it kind of works in that respect. There are problems with the combat itself, though. You become cornered at times and unable to fight. CPU's also get stuck behind walls. Generally, just not very polished here. The story and world are on the simple side, lacking in variety and detail. That combat uses action makes the repetition more bearable than were it turn-based, but that's not a real positive. Characters aren't really memorable, but hey, Father Christmas shows up for no reason, so that's urrr... something. So, yeah, afraid I don't have much positive to say about Secret of Mana. It's fine, but what I most liked about it was the nice green box and the enclosed printed map, since those are always inviting.
Ranking - C
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Post by dsparil on May 11, 2024 6:53:57 GMT -5
I'd go with a B for Secret of Mana. It has a lot of problems and buggy behavior, and the large number of balance and fix hacks attests to this. The English version also has the issue of the script having to get chopped to pieces in order to fit. I think the root of a lot of the problems are from what must of been a quick turnaround after the SNES-CD got canceled. I still think the final game is pretty fun and still the second best in the Mana series.
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Post by Snake on May 11, 2024 13:35:09 GMT -5
Ghost Sweeper Mikami
This game makes for a nice palate cleanser after watching playthroughs of Splatterhouse 1, 2, and 3. GS Mikami is a nice throwback to the 90's, around the time Sailor Moon and Marmalade Boy were its contemporaries, and a manga that was serialized for a good 8 years in Shonen Sunday which published Ranma 1/2, Detective Conan, Karakuri Circus, and the like. The game is short, but sweet. Lovely graphics, fun enemies and bosses. Its great how the stages get mixed up with cat riding and battling a vampire while flying a broom. This was a great rental game, which can be reasonably learned and beaten in my childhood within a few hours. Control scheme is easy to navigate and adapt to, as expected of Natsume.
Rank - B-
X-Men:Mutant Apocalypse
I was pretty damned hyped about this game when it came out. Graphics looked great, and mixed in with some Capcom fighting game move sensibility. Agreed, this game is a bit on the short side. Wolverine, Gambit, and Psylocke definitely rock as playable characters. And yet... the ending teases you with graphic still of Storm, Bishop, Rogue, and Jubilee! Overall, a decent, passable game over the Genesis X-Men. I still think Konami did it best with 6-Player Arcade X-Men.
Rank - B-
Secret of Mana
3-Player Simultaneous action!!!!!! I still have my copy, complete-in-box if relatively beat up from use. Had an absolute blast playing this game with my brother, and probably the last game I actually truly played in a cooperative way with him. Didn't have a multi-tap, so it was just the 2 of us on this grand adventure. Granted, the AI for your other characters are on the lame side. The magic elemental leveling up gets to be long and tedious... especially when gunning for the Level-9 screen stopping spells. Special technique weapon charges take waaay too long. I'm still not clear on how the Mana tree was your mom, and had time to grow into such an immense thing in a hidden holy land. But overall, it's still a fun, colorful adventure. Hiroki Kikuta's soundtrack is vibrantly timeless; I really went overboard with finding every iteration of arrangement and remixes for Secret of Mana. I actually teared up a bit on that final ending scene.
Rank - A
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Post by vnisanian2001 on May 11, 2024 19:42:37 GMT -5
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Post by spanky on May 11, 2024 19:56:36 GMT -5
Oh man, I can't even feign objectivity for Secret of Mana, one of my most beloved childhood games that colored my taste in gaming for years - it was more or less my RPG gateway drug. I had a mild interest in the game initially but Nintendo Power's awesome Days of Mana feature completely sold me and I knew I had to have the game. I was completely captivated by the plot and audiovisuals as well as the hybrid RPG and action hybrid. Not to mention multiplayer which I managed to alienate multiple friends over thanks to my obsession with the game. The music was the first time I remember a game soundtrack triggering emotions out of me. It's all kind of cliche but it was my first experience with a lot of Japanese RPG tropes - evil empires, "chosen one" heroes, ancient superweapons, melodrama out the wazoo...and I ate it up. So yeah, I love SoM. The combat, which most people seem to complain about, never bothered me. Part of me figures this is just a "nostalgia callus" but I really do like the pacing and it develops a rhythm eventually. YES, I know it's glitchy, YES I know they had to cut a lot of content (the entire Sage Joch wild goose chase is a low point, I'll admit), YES I know you can just chain spell most bosses to death. I wouldn't have it any other way! S. |
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Post by excelsior on May 12, 2024 2:45:47 GMT -5
I don't really think the ost is a problem in SoM. I like it. That remaster does gain a lot more power, though. |
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Post by personman on May 12, 2024 13:15:09 GMT -5
I'll be the upset here and say I never liked this game. I got dragged through it a couple times and perhaps its one of those cases where the people I played it with ruined it for me (that's happened a lot with my old friends) but both times I was either bored or frustrated by it. I usually got stuck with the main hero and from what I remember I'd just be chasing everything around trying to get to the damn fight while everyone else was nuking everything with magic and ranged weapons. Then the bosses themselves just stunk, like the only great strategy against them is to just spam magic over and over again. Woo. It does have its charm though I will admit. Many don't like the script being cut down in localization (though I've heard many accounts saying the plot wasn't too radically different from what we got or wasn't cut down at all and its just a popular myth) but for myself it gave it this feeling of kids playing around in the backyard, just real simple innocent adventure and stuff. Plus the soundtrack often is pretty neat and interesting, my fav being this dungeon theme. And of course its just colorful and charming in general, absolutely beautiful box art. I still don't like the game and think its grossly overrated but, I can see myself giving it a proper shake on my own some day and I understand it's importance to the genre. I've had bad experiences with it or it may just not be for me but I can recognize its an at least decent game, I just don't think its been so eclipsed by what came after it never really got put on a pillar in my head. Yeah I DID like Secret of Evermore more. So maybe I'm just the problem lol. Anyways, I'll give it a C. |
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on May 13, 2024 15:34:53 GMT -5
The game is a bit too much of a brawler and not the most interesting or tight one, with some pacing and depth/variety issues. I prefer both the prequel and Evermore (modded but still). I'm sure this game is better in coop but I've never met anyone that liked it enough to play through it with me. I'm gonna give some mods for it an honest chance at some point though, I remember waiting for one to get finished a few years ago. While the audiovisuals are more of an A, as a whole I think it's a C. |
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Post by retr0gamer on May 14, 2024 6:39:14 GMT -5
Always been enamoured by this game. Didn't own a SNES as a kid but saw pictures in magazines and the game looked gorgeous. The European press were also all over this game because it was the first squaresoft rpg we got on SNES, well maybe first good one.
When I eventually sat down to play and finish it a few months ago I was very disappointed. The combat is really janky and the story is paper thin. There's some good stuff here, it looks incredible and the music is so good. It's very obviously rushed with no real sense of progression and how every boss gets reused at some point. I do like the inclusion of multiplayer even if it's a bit janky.
This would be a C for me but I feel it nails the atmosphere which just about bumps it up to a B.
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Post by excelsior on May 19, 2024 6:48:51 GMT -5
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Post by excelsior on May 19, 2024 7:12:44 GMT -5
Another David Perry game, although this one I actually quite like the stage design. It's aided by giving definitive goals for collectables, meaning they don't have that pointless feeling some of these more open platformers have. Also, I can actually discern what I'm supposed to be using for platforms here, which is a plus. On the negative side so many of those platforms are out of view when you jump, this version having a narrow view of the action. It's such a common complaint through the game, which is otherwise nice enough. Oh, and there's a good soundtrack.
Ranking - C
Week 100 next week! I'm hoping to surprise people with the choice of game. Anybody who correctly guesses it gets a cookie.
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Post by dsparil on May 19, 2024 11:37:06 GMT -5
Somehow I've never actually played Cool Spot for more than a few minutes despite spending more time with Spot Goes to Hollywood than I care to admit. All I really know about this game is that since the spot isn't 7Up's mascot in Europe, all the 7Up branding had to be changed. In that regard, it's kinda weird that it got a European release at all. I'll give it a play soon.
There's also some historical context here with 7Up being way past its peak in popularity having lost the youth market to Sprite. The Cool Spot games are such a transparent attempt to recapture it which didn't really work. The games certainly helped with brand recognition, but I didn't find it very palatable back then. This is actually tempting me to try 7Up one more time. I love Moxie and most people say it tastes like motor oil so who knows.
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Post by vnisanian2001 on May 19, 2024 18:45:20 GMT -5
A classic. A. I prefer the SNES version.
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Post by spanky on May 19, 2024 19:29:16 GMT -5
I actually received this game for my birthday the year it came out. I don't know what possessed me to ask for it over say, Super Mario All Stars or Star Fox, or Super Bomberman or whatever. Kids can be weird like that. But hey it's a pretty good game with some great graphics and sound. I also remember my cousins LOVED the game and asked to borrow it each time they visited.
It does have a lot of Dave Perry platformer design - you have to play very carefully else you will just crash into enemies and obstacles constantly. Fortunately you do have a fairly generous life meter to help control for that - it always just feels sort of imperscise to me. I do like the structure on the game. You start on a beach, battle your way across a dock, make your way through the walls of a toy store into the store itself, have a few levels in there, then you make your way back out through the wall, back through the docks and finally ending the game back on the beach. I think a B is pretty fair.
As far as 7UP goes, I enjoyed it as a kid and it was popular, but sometime in the 90s it seemed to get eclipsed by Sprite which had more effective marketing.. I don't know if this is true for anywhere else, but in America, parents used to get it to soothe the upset stomachs of sick kids, there's even a South Park joke about it.
Oh and and the mystery game for week 100? Uhhh...Cotton 100%?
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Post by retr0gamer on May 20, 2024 5:21:53 GMT -5
It's got some eurojank airplane hanger level design but it's not as bad as most games. It does get awful repetitive as the game goes on as there's pretty much no variety in gameplay and the levels never look as interesting as the opening beach stage.
Also 7up is a far superior drink to sprite which is just way too sweet and carbonated. It's pretty gross. Not really had a 7up in ages but I'd never touch a sprite since I could just have 7up. Funny thing to note is that in Ireland where I'm from if you are sick an old wives cure for everything is to drink 7up that's been let go flat.
Anyway back to cool spot, it's a C. It desperately needs some stage variety of even just bosses but it's not a bad game. Much prefer it on megadrive than SNES.
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