Sunday, May 24, 2020

TurboGrafx 16 Mini Part 2

J.J. & Jeff

I don't know what to make of this game. It's a very bizarre platformer where you're supposed to be detectives solving some kind of case. The action involves - and if you never heard of this game I am not making this up - kicking street lights to get fruit out of them, getting crapped on by birds, finding actual crap in breakable walls, meeting strangers in bathrooms to resume health, kicking your partner's ass whose always hiding out in a costume for whatever reason, and I'm sure a shitload of crazier stuff in the later levels. I don't care for the controls, nor the gameplay in general. It's a shame, because it has such a goofy aesthetic, but it's clearly a product of late 80s platforming that should remain in the bygone era.

Lords of Thunder

I really want to like this game. It has great graphics, action, music, gameplay. You can choose whatever stage you want and you can select from four different armors: Water, Earth, Wind, and Fire. Each armor has its own offensive style. The problem with the game for me, though, is that its one life and three continues. It means I don't have the patience for it. If I ever feel like playing this game, I'm going to have to save state the hell out of it. Also, I don't like the fact that you basically have to die to spend your collected gems in order to buy shields and bombs instead of gathering them out in the field like most shooters do. Maybe if the game was a little more forgiving and had a better system of progressing, it could hold my attention but nowadays, I don't have time for games like these anymore.

Note: This is the first Super CD Rom game I came across, and the animation was different this time, still showing a cart being inserted, but then showed a CD drive spinning up. I really like the little touches.

Military Madness

Fans of Advance Wars would probably like this game. It's a turn-based strategy game where you pit units together and they enter into a little animation as they battle each other. It has all the other elements of strategy games such as terrain advantages, capturing bases. etc. It's a bit too primitive for my taste these days, but if I had the time for it, I'd definitely play more of it. It also had some weird math I didn't quite get as I had the clear advantage in terms of offensive attack, defense, and terrain advantage and yet still lost more tanks than the enemy did when it attacked me. Oh well.

Moto Roader

Dear god, what a bad game. So, this is a top down racer like Micro Machines and RC Pro Am, but nowhere near as good as either. There's some depth to be had in this game for sure, but the thing is, there's this really annoying mechanic where if you're lagging behind the pack, you're slingshotted forward in order to catch up to them, but very frequently at your detriment. You're also put at a severe disadvantage early on by not having enough money to afford decent car parts, so the competition is already ahead of you right out of the gate. This means you're ostensibly behind and always being flung forward. I didn't even bother to try to select any other modes. That's how done I am with this game.

Neutopia

This is unabashedly a Legend of Zelda clone. And well, it's not really a good one, either. My issue is the combat. You can only thrust forward and you have to line yourself up very carefully or you'll miss and get hit, and the game's very chintzy with health power ups and gold. A health potion costs two hundred gold, and I barely had more than that when I finished the first dungeon. As Zelda clones go, I guess it's not entirely bad. I just have to get used to the combat, but it also has an annoying alarm when you get down to low life that I really can't stand.  I'm curious to see what the other dungeons look like, although I wasn't impressed with the first one at all. I'll probably return to this game if I play my Mini again.

Neutopia II

This one's a little more playable. The graphics and animation are improved, as should be for a sequel, plus I can move diagonally and attack diagonally, but there's still no swipe of the sword, just the forward thrust like in the first game. The formula of the game starts out the same as well. Check caves to talk to people. Waste bombs to break open caves to talk to people who tell you things you already know. Find the hidden room where the girl heals you before the dungeon. Head to the first dungeon, find the crystal ball, the key, the bronze armor, kill the boss and get the relic. Also, it has a low life alarm as well, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as the first game. I think the first dungeon was better designed, and it had a better boss as well. I'd probably return to this game to finish if I ever get around to finishing the first.

New Adventure Island

The only Adventure Island I played was Super Adventure Island, and from my memory, it's far superior to this game. The thing about SAI that stood out to me was just how great the music was. I was hoping the music would at least be as catchy as SAI, but it's not. Still, it's one of the better platformers I've played on the T-16 Mini so far. It's fast and has somewhat decent controls, but it's also pretty damn hard. Maybe it's not that hard, and my old school gaming skills simply aren't existent anymore, but yeah, I save stated the hell out of this. I'm enjoying it, so I'm going to add it to my list of games to beat.

Ninja Spirit

So far, this is my favorite game on the Mini. As someone who loves Shinobi, I really do appreciate a good ninja game, and what makes this game so damn fun is the spirits you get to help you out. Think of support drones in a space shooter. It's a combination of a side-scrolling hack 'n' slash and shoot 'em up and the three levels I've been through so far have been great. The bosses themselves are really cool as well. Man, I just love jumping, which he can do really high, and have my spirits attacking where I used to be filling the screen with projectiles. The only thing about the game, though, is that performance starts suffering once you got too much going on. But us old schoolers appreciate frame rate dropping in shoot 'em ups as a blessing. I'm definitely going to return to this game to finish it!

More to come. As always, thanks for reading!



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