Mega Man 4

In case you were wondering: yes, playing these games is repetitive. But it’s my goal to check out and attempt to complete all of them.

The fourth iteration of Mega man somehow still pushed the graphical limits of the NES. The charging “mega buster” was the latest innovation, and in today’s political climate, some might be happy to know the Russians were to blame with this plot, as Dr. Wily is supposedly dead!

I enjoyed this, but MM2 and MM3 are still the defining games. MM4 was a little less difficult, at least until the stages following beating the robot bosses. (Which, BTW, featured one of the LAMEST robots in all of the series: Toad Man!)

Another one bites the dust… onward to MM5!

Contra Force

I have no idea what Konami was thinking when they released this game. My initial thought is that they developed a game that sucked and had to slap the word “Contra” on the box to get some sales.

Contra Force has zero ties to the first two Contra titles released on the NES.

And I do mean zero.

It feels like your typical side-scrolling action game and nothing like the other Contra titles, with exception of the overhead style levels which are closer to what was seen in Super C, but even those feel more like akin to a game like Commando with the side-scrolling ones in the vein of Double Dragon when it comes to the size of your playable character and the enemies on-screen. (With bosses being absolutely huge and annoying to defeat.)

The graphic direction is different. Entirely different. Gameplay is too, where different guns are instead replaced by upgrades given when finding briefcases. Like the others you lose those upgrades when you die, which is far too often.

Your weapons are instead dictated by choosing which character you want to take into battle. There’s a submenu to change characters or even use a computer-controlled partner, assigning a strategy of how they operate. You can get around the three lives limitation by switching within this menu, though unlimited continues help.

The worst part of this game, aside from the cheap kills familiar to NES players, are several areas with nearly impossible jumps. I spent a great deal of time in one area attempting a single jump: I couldn’t imagine doing so without the benefit of save states.

Therefore, this game gets a thumb down. I completed it. It was cheesy. It was buggy. It was gimmicky. And most importantly, it was not Contra. It was a slow-paced game borrowing a popular title. It’s playable but it’s not that much fun. The only appeal is being able to say you’ve played another “Contra” game.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

The definitive versions of the MK series came in a few forms with the next-gen consoles. First, the 32X version of MK2 was a near perfect arcade translation. PlayStation and N64 both saw a release of MK Trilogy, which included every character, board, etc. from the four 2D fighters: each of those versions varied with strengths and weaknesses of their own.

The biggest takeaway from the two Trilogy games is a hidden ninja fighter called Chameleon or Khameleon. Depending on which console you are playing, it is a male or female ninja. The characters would “flicker” in and out of all of the playable male/female characters during battle, allowing you to use whichever moves of the characters displayed. (Which is both cool and annoying.)

If you read my review on MK3, I didn’t think that game was all that great. UMK3 improved on that, but still had limitations. (Such as removing Sheeva as a playable character in the SNES version due to cartridge space.)

Trilogy combined all of the things those two sequels should’ve had and is a great wrap-up for anyone who hasn’t played the series and wants to “do it all”. In fact, you can even swap versions of characters between the different titles, such as using the MK1 or MK2 versions of Rayden. Every single version of the “Pit” levels is included, almost to a degree where you may play three or four of them in a row!

The N64 version was a bit funky with the “trident” controller, so the PSX version is the one you might want to play if you’re a control freak. However, Sony’s version is hampered by disc loading times between rounds which may damper your enjoyment over the (much) faster loading cartridge from Nintendo.

This felt like an overload of Mortal Kombat which kept the 2D fighter as a money maker well into the next-generation of consoles.

Mega Man 3

I have to admit a few things about the sequel to Mega Man 2:

It had some equally crappy portion of the game that were near impossible to beat, but far less of those and a tad easier in difficulty than MM2
The bosses (and their corresponding upgrade weapons) were incredibly lame creations (Snake Man???)
The easter eggs and storyline were really darn cool
The ability to slide added to the game
Graphically it raised the bar so high, the remaining games nearly like identical

I’ve played through all six NES Mega Man games now, and if I had to choose, MM2 and MM3 are the “must play” games (in that order too, for reasons mentioned above).

More Mega Man coming soon… because there’s a ton of these games!

Contra III: The Alien Wars

Like most SNES titles, Contra 3 is a worthy upgrade and successor to the original series. Upgraded features, graphics, sound, the whole she-bang.

I usually have a lot of things to say about a game, but other than this being frustratingly difficult at times, what is there to say? It’s a bigger/badder Contra and a must-play for anyone who enjoyed the original NES title.

PS – The dreaded top-down view levels, using the shoulder triggers to spin left/right are a pain in the butt! I know that’s a spin on the ol’ forward view of the previous games, but dang… what poor execution in my opinion!

TimeSplitters 2

It took me awhile to beat this one, but I finally came back around to the TimeSplitters series, with the game I felt was their best effort: TimeSplitters 2.

As with the original, much of the development team was carried over from former Rare employees who worked on Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark for the N64. Unlike the original, this game kicks down the door with sharper graphics (especially improved menus that don’t look generic like the launch title did) as well as playable characters, graphics, and much more.

Multiplayer on this was also great, and of course, one of the groundbreaking features (for a console) was the ability to create your own maps.

In all, I forgot how solid of a title this game was. I’m glad I revisited it and if you’re a retro gamer looking for a good FPS with that old Goldeneye feel, you’d be hardpressed to find one better than TimeSplitters 2.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Months following the fiasco that was Mortal Kombat 3, which stripped out many popular characters from the previous two MK titles, Midway answered their fans with UMK3.

Essentially borrowing everything from MK3, the “ultimate” remake corrected many of the complaints with the standard MK3 title. Scorpion, Reptile and Kitana are playable off the bat, as well as green palette swap female ninja Jade (who was previously a hidden unplayable character in MK2).

UMK3 on SNES also added two console-exclusive playable characters in more male palette swap ninjas Rain and Noob Saibot (who is a silhouette). Yet more palette swapped characters are available. Among them are the “classic” Sub-Zero and Ermac (male ninjas) and the returning Mileena.

The cyborg version of Smoke, an unlockable character in MK3 is now playable by default with his human form also unlockable: making for a total of 7 different colors of the same male ninja! The female ninja template is used three times as is the cyborg, which actually added to the cheese factor that, like it or not, was ingrained as part of MK’s Kung Fu movie-like theme. (Come on, that’s a fair statement! Did we take fatalities all that seriously either?)

To make room for all of the changes, MK3’s Sheeva, who does appear in the arcade version of UMK3, was removed from the SNES version. Some of her data can still be found via a bug in the options menus, allowing you to play with an “invisible” character and utilizing some of her moves. (A bug which I am proud to say I found long before cheats and the like were available via the Internet.)

The SNES version didn’t include the MK3 stages and instead, as part of cartridge limitations, only included the five new arcade levels. Animalities were removed with Brutalities added. Several finishers were altered or changed, particularly with the two console-exclusive ninjas.

In all, you can tell Midway got their act together. This was the definitive 16-bit MK title as it included the most playable characters and features of all those released. The arcade release coincided with MK3’s release on home consoles, so if you were paying attention at the time, you could’ve avoided the regular MK3 and waited for the ultimate (and better) edition to be released!

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! is without a doubt one of the greatest games of all time. Few games come instantly to mind when you mention “button mashing” but this one does. It also offers quite a bit of strategy, comedy relief, and anxiety.

This is a timeless classic, and the first game I can remember with a celebrity/athlete tie-in as a kid. There were others, including games based on movies, but most of those were terrible.

I had forgotten how hard this game could be until giving it another run-through. Mike Tyson is especially impossible, and even with a massive amount of cheats and save states (after giving it a legit “go” that lasted maybe a few seconds) I think it took nearly twenty minutes to topple “Iron Mike”.

That’s a heck of a boss and some major bragging rights back when games were still evolving. Other sports games were rather lame, but Punch-Out! fit the boxing genre to a “T”. It’s highly recommended if you’re into retro gaming.

Punch-Out!! (Featuring Mr. Dream)

One of the more odd games of its time, this version of Punch-Out! is exactly the same as Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! minus one thing…

Mike Tyson.

Punch-Out! Featuring Mr. Dream came out after the Mike Tyson version but wasn’t a sequel. Instead, it was a way for Nintendo to continue publishing the same game but without the title character. From what I’ve researched on the game, Nintendo had a three-year contract with the boxer, and following the expiration of the deal, the gaming company decided to replace the prizefighter with a fictitious one of their own.

Some people believed this was due to Tyson’s rape allegations, but that occurred later. By the end of the contract he had lost his title to Buster Douglas, but they were working on a sequel of Punch-Out, which ended up being a different game altogether when Tyson was later sent to prison. (I’ll post that game in the comments – it sucks!)

Therefore, the only difference between the two games is the “Dream Fight” which occurs after your fighter “Little Mac” wins the championship bout. The replacement boxer is called “Mr. Dream”, a boxer whose record and resemblance are close to that of the real-life Rocky Marciano.

Game-wise, Dream is fundamentally different than Tyson was to play against. You can land punches on Dream (unlike Tyson) but he’ll quickly regain his strength by beating the crap out of you. This made him harder to bring down and nearly impossible to beat within the time limit. Even with cheats, I found Dream to be a harder foe than Tyson! (And we all know how hard it was to beat “Iron Mike”.)

Alas, fighting Mr. Dream is the only reason to play this version of the game. The lead-up to this fight is identical in every way to the Tyson version and no different of an experience. (See the screenshots from both games for comparison.)

Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3

A reissue of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island for the GBA, SMBA3 (love these acronyms) makes some slight adjustments for the small screen while also cleaning the game up.

One of the most notable changes is playing with shoulder buttons, as the GBA handheld only had two face buttons (B & A). This is actually not a big change and seems “right”.
The Yoshi sprite has also been updated from SMW2 and looks cleaner. Animations don’t stutter like the previous Super Nintendo version, which really (REALLY) pushed the limits of that console.

Another update is a real clock, for when you lose baby Mario (the SNES version counted half seconds while this update uses full second increments). That helps for a less frantic but still challenging game.

Everything else is still here, but in true “Super Mario Advance” fashion Nintendo added additional stages which are only available in this title. Six “special” levels are unlocked after beating the game, and they are unique and challenging, which is a welcome addition to a title which has spawned several sequels.

In fact, if I were to redo my bucket list of games, I’d probably play this version over the original. It’s that solid of remake/reissue.