Dungeon Explorer
Out of curiosity, I decided to boot this game up to see if this was somehow a different version of the English Dungeon Explorer, but nope. It's still Dungeon Explorer, just in Japanese. I wonder why they had to do this.
Fantasy Zone
This is obviously the predecessor to Super Fantasy Zone, which I have on the Sega Genesis. If you're unfamiliar with the game, it's a light-hearted shooter where you can move to the left and right. Gameplay involves you shooting eight target pods where a boss fight ensues immediately after. After each stage, a shop floats around where you can meet up with it and buy power ups. Super Fantasy Zone's formula is almost exactly the same, but I think they have more options in the store. The one thing that bothers me about the Fantasy Zone games, though, are that the power ups are finite. I don't like it when I run out of lasers or beam spreads before I get to the boss. Since I already played Super Fantasy Zone, I only played this game for a quick couple of levels.
Galaga '88
I thought, "It's Galaga. What's there to talk about?" Apparently, a lot. This isn't just Galaga. It's a reworked and updated Galaga. It starts out in typical Galaga formation by having the enemies flying around in patterns while having you shoot them as quickly as possible, but then it starts changing up the formula. It starts to become a more modern top-down shooter with objects such as meteors, background graphics, and even bosses at the end of what I'm assuming is every 10 levels. The graphics have been overhauled as well with lots of new special effects when things blow up. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this rendition of an arcade classic and look forward to playing more in the future.
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire
Wow... what a mouthful. No wonder most people just call it Sapphire. So, this is a Super CD-ROM2 game, and it shows. The intro is narrated in Japanese, and I wish there was an English version so I know what he was saying, but what I can make out from the cutscene is that there's a scientist making some kind of time machine thing and a group of people have gone back in time to hunt dinosaurs and now a team of girls have to board their fighter ships to stop this evil force from further ruining history? Of course I could be completely wrong. But as I start to play the game and see that I'm traveling to different times in a ship that says "POLICE" in the cockpit, I'm pretty sure I'm right. This game is the prettiest shooter in the Mini so far making great use of 16-bit pixels and polygonal enemies. The gameplay is pretty good, too, with drone support and you know me and my drone support! But, I think the game's too difficult. There's at times too much going on, and that makes the game frustrating too quickly. I also think the ship's movement could be a bit quicker as well. Still, I want to see what else the game has to offer, so I'll stick with it.
Gradius
Gradius is just as popular as R-Type when it comes to kings of the shoot 'em up genre. And now I finally remembered what I've been calling drones are supposed to be called. OPTIONS! Yes, options. Love those things. Gradius' system lets you get up to four options, but you got to earn them. Instead of just picking up power ups, you stockpile them and cash them in when your power up option bar on the bottom is highlighted to what you want. When you cash something in, the bar resets, so you really need to plan your power up route. I of course went straight to the options. As for the rest of the game, it's still tough as nails hard, and I played through three levels, and they all seem to have the same boss fight, but the approach right before the fight is always different. I don't think I've ever beaten a Gradius game, and now thanks to save states, I may give this one a shot.
Gradius II - Gofer no Yabō -
The sequel to Gradius is also a Super CD-ROM2 game, although I don't know why it needed to be on CD, as the only thing I can think of is the voice before you fight the bosses, but it's poor quality. This game lets you pick your own power up bar, each one featuring different shots, lasers, missiles and bombs. One power up common to all bars is the Speed Up and you know, there is such a thing as going TOO fast! I maxed out my speed and it made dodging things too hard actually, as I was always going too far up or down, smashing into things. And I'm pretty sure I played this game on the Super Nintendo in some form, because I remember that damned ice obstacle level. That was a real bitch! Also, every boss is different, unlike the first, so that I appreciate. But one thing I didn't appreciate was somehow, I lose all my options during the third boss fight. Now I'll have to start gathering options all over again...
Necromancer
Ok, I'm going to flat out say that it was a BAD choice to include RPGs that are entirely in Japanese on an English system. I mean, you can get away with playing a shooter or a hack and slash in Japanese, because dialogue is almost a non-issue. But Necromancer is unplayable for me. I don't know what I'm selecting. Some menu options when I talk to people or go into houses bring up more lines of Japanese. It's also one of those RPGs that won't let you leave unless you talk to an NPC and accept a quest, so I'm unable to even leave the town to go outside and see what combat/dungeon exploring is like. I mean, it's a novel idea to include Japanese versions of games on the Mini, but I really wish they would have gone the extra mile and made a half-assed attempt to translate it.
Nectaris, Neuotopia and Neutopia II
Nectaris is Military Madness in Japanese, and Neutopia I and II are the Japanese versions of the same games. No need to play these.
Ninja Ryūkenden
Translated, this is Ninja Gaiden. It's weird, but I think the version on the NES plays better. I don't know, there's something off about this game. Anyway, Ninja Gaiden reminds me of why we ever thought games like these were OK. Cheap death after cheap death after cheap death just to prolong the length of the game. I mean, seriously you can get caught up in a loop of being hit back and forth by enemies, or being knocked into the pit while being caught with a projectile in the air with nowhere to go. I know I'm being unfair, but I personally can't stand these types of games anymore. Even with constantly save stating, I got too annoyed to care about the game anymore after beating a couple of levels. I never once beat a Ninja Gaiden game, not even the reboot for the Xbox, and even with save states, I may never care enough to try again here.
PC Genjin
For whatever reason, Japan had to get all Japanese with this translation, which is just Bonk's Adventure. Also, this really should have been the English version. I know it exists in English, because I've played a lot of it. Anyway, I just spent enough time here to get through the first level, and it's pretty much exactly what I remember. I think it plays a lot better than Bonk's Revenge, which gave me a fit trying to figure out the timing on those stupid flowers. That's not the case here. They are pretty responsive. Now, the question is, when I was playing the game at a friend's house, did I ever beat it? Regardless, I'm going to add this one to my list of games to beat on the Mini. PC Genjin, though? Really?
Salamander
I knew this game looked familiar! I played this game on SNES when it was called Lifeforce. Clearly patterned after Gradius, it works a little differently in that your power ups and options are granted to you the moment you pick them up. I believe the game switches from side scrolling to top down every other level, which I love. But just like Gradius, it's also hard as nails. The bosses themselves were really annoying as well. Both of them involved me having to continuously move around them in circles while also avoiding their bullets. I can't remember if I beat Lifeforce, so I'm going to make it a point to beat this one on the Mini. I may need to take a break for a while, because I'm really starting to get tired of shooters right now.
Sorry this one was a little longer. Because of several PC Engine games just being Japanese counterparts of TurboGrafx 16 games, I decided to make this one longer so I wrap up the rest in a longer blog tomorrow. As always, thanks for reading!
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