Mega Man X2
Someone must’ve taken a cue from the original Mega Man 2 on this one…
Mega Man X2 is the sequel to the Super Nintendo’s “X” series of Mega Man games which spun off of the originals, which only saw one true dedicated 16-bit sequel with Mega Man 7.
The reason I say that X2 took a cue from the NES sequel is the difficulty: this freaking game is insane at certain points. It also has some of the more “interesting” and utter useless weapon upgrades in any MM game.
Granted, they still look cool and are at least creative, but in the end? They suck!
The story and mechanics are all familiar here. Beat bosses, obtain their special powerup, go fight the main boss…
Many of the “Maverick Hunters” (bosses) are incredibly cheap to fight against. One is a gator which you can’t see, then it grabs you and doesn’t let go. Another boss board has spikes – which means instant death!
Outside of the “norm” for these titles, the graphics are incredible for an SNES game. I had to see if it had a special chip in the cartridge and apparently it did. The “C4” chip improved the game’s graphics to where this title looks as good as Mega Man 8 on the original PlayStation (minus FMV cutscenes, of course).
There are also some vector 3-D graphics which look about as cutting edge as watching the Lawnmower Man on DVD these days but were likely state of the art at the time. They feel both revolutionary and out of place at the same time, as if to just show off that there was some special tech that could be accomplished.
Regardless, it’s a feat and an unexpected one at that.
In all, I actually liked this title a bit more than the first MMX. The story was cool, but it didn’t build much on original otherwise. However, the menus, sound, and graphics were all better and part two still feels like a step forward in the series as a must-play for any Mega Man fan.
Metroid
Now here’s a classic for you 8-bit Nintendo gamers!
I’ll never forget holding this game in my hands for the first time. The shrink-wrapped silver box with a spaceman-of-sorts ready to fire an arm cannon at aliens.
Metroid captured the imagination of the era, which included Sigourney Weaver’s Alien movies. Little did us gamers know that Metroid captured a bit too well, that is, until you saw one of the secret endings or used the infamous “JUSTIN BAILEY” code on the password screen.
Either would reveal that the game’s protagonist, Samus Aran, is a female – a pretty shocking (and cool) revelation at a time when such information was rarely spoiled for gamers.
Metroid (and Konami’s Castlevania) would be so iconic and groundbreaking that the term “Metroidvania” would be coined for a genre of games with a similar premise: unlocking new areas by gaining new items/powers, often which requiring a lot of backtracking throughout the game.
But that wasn’t all that made Metroid unique. Most games of the time scrolled sideways, but Metroid did that and had vertical sprawl to it. You would often have to fall down, or scale, large corridors to get to the next section of the game.
With the exception of requiring certain items to get to certain locations, the game was also open-ended; meaning you could choose to go just about anywhere you wanted. (Though doing so might get you instantly killed if Samus wasn’t adequately equipped!)
The premise of the game is that Space Pirates stole an parasitic organism known as a “Metroid” and planned to replicate them as biological weapons.
Samus is actually a bounty hunter, tasked with hunting down the pirates and their leader, the Mother Brain.
The sci-fi overtones, fleshed out storyline, unique graphical areas, and new open-ended adventure made Metroid stand apart, but that’s not all it was known for. Samus was the first character to “spin jump”, curling into a ball mid-jump, in a video game: something taken for granted now but totally new to gamers in 1987.
There are so many good things I can say about this game, but in summation: combined it made for a helluva action/adventure game that still has a cult following to this day. Not only did it launch an entire series, but it launched an entire gaming genre.
If you haven’t played it, or any of its sequels, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Even with 8-bit graphics, the original Metroid still stands tall as a game that is as accessible and replayable as any to this day.
Streets of Rage 2
As far as side-scrolling beat’em up games go, Streets of Rage 2 might be one of the best.
I’ve always held a high regard for the genre, specifically Konami’s line which took a formula based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and replicated it successfully to other brands such as the Simpsons and Marvel.
Sega’s flagship series features no such branding, but closely mirrors the edgier marketing of the Genesis at the time – as well as the pop culture trends too. In the early 90’s, action movies were all the rage, as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone cranked out box office blockbusters such as Terminator 2, Demolition Man, True Lies and many more.
With action, explosions, and the occasional ninjas all the rage, it’s hard not to see the inspiration for the sequel to the successful Streets of Rage. This title adds on more playable characters to start, and retains much of what made the first game so good.
Namely, the soundtrack to this game thumps.
The Genesis lacked the same audio processing as the Super Nintendo, but you’d never know it playing this game. Sega’s console also lacked a more diverse color pallet as its competitor, but that aside, Streets of Rage 2’s audiovisuals are quite possible the best of any Genesis game. Ever.
The stages take notes from other games in the genre, with a nod or two to TMNT perhaps, albeit coincidental.
The isometric elevator level? Sure. The pirate ship level? Maybe… Streets came out only a few months after Turtles in Time. Other stages draw inspiration from fighting in back alleys, a baseball stadium, and an arcade (which features the Japanese port’s namesake of Bare Knuckle on the machines as an Easter Egg.) There’s even a stage which is very Contra-like that feels as if it was ripped from the movie Alien as well.
None of this stuff takes anything away from the game, as it only enhances the culture surrounding it. SOR2 also puts some SNES-style movement throughout each level, visually surprising the heck out of me with background and foreground movement, and a solid number of enemies on each screen. Some of those opponents include enemies on motorcycles or others who throw bombs from the background.
The action never stutters, at least not in my single player implementation.
The HUD is a nice touch as well, showing the names of recurring bosses with a health bar indicator too. Gone are the days of figuring out just how many times you need to punch/kick a boss to beat it!
But punching and kicking aren’t the exclusive moves to SOR2. No sir, we have your usual jumping karate kicks but in addition, grappling knee strikes, suplexes, and special moves (which replaced calling in backup police with a rocket launcher) give the game some diversity and makes it seem as though you’re truly kicking ass!
Knives, pipes, and a samurai sword are among the weapons you can pick-up. You can also find money, apples and a fully cooked turkey on a plate by breaking barrels or other in-stage items: yes, young ones, that was a given in this era of games too and didn’t feel out of place as it might some nearly 30 years later!
Regardless, the controls for this game are incredibly tight whereas other brawlers may see you miss punches and take unnecessary strikes, SOR2 seems to “hit” on all cylinders.
While the level of difficulty ratchets up depending on the level you’re on, or the options screen where you can set it, the game is a blast to mash buttons through and still feels fresh for replayability. If you’re a fan of any sort of games such as those mentioned, or Capcom’s Final Fight, I would highly recommend Streets of Rage 2 finds a way into your retro gaming backlog… and please do move it to the top of the list!
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Mario Kart: Super Circuit is a cult classic that’s sort of an oddity as well. That’s because it was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001, five years following the Nintendo 64’s sequel to the Super Nintendo original.
However, the GBA version here, despite being a 32-bit platform, more closely resembles that of its SNES predecessor than that of the N64.
Although that sounds like a knock in my review, it really isn’t. Many of days and nights were spent with this title in hand mastering a whopping 40 levels, which was the most of any Mario Kart game up until the Wii U’s Mario Kart 8 (which only trumps it by adding DLC).
New to the series was the concept of bringing back levels from the previous SNES game, denoted here as “extra” levels and unlocked as you complete each of the Super Circuit cups: five of them, which is also an uptick from the series’ usual four-per-grand prix.
The game plays much like you’d expect, tightly tuned to its controls despite having to once again use a D-pad in lieu of an analog stick introduced with the N64 controller. Regardless, it’s still a fun romp, with the usual nine returning characters as well as all of the same items.
There are some carryovers from the N64 game, but Super Circuit is at heart, and in my opinion, a direct sequel to the SNES original as it was unable to achieve a lot of the new 3D features that the more robust N64 could accomplish. In spite of those limitations, this game is much more polished than what was capable on the Super Nintendo, and shares a closer link with its successors just based on the art direction.
I also like how the sprites are made to appear three-dimensional with a lot of different scaling and scrolling effects, not only on the opening menus but throughout the game. Some of the finer details include getting frozen (as in covered in ice) if you fall into a pit in Snow Land or seeing karts that are ahead/behind you fly above an overhead pass. Some levels also change from day to night or vice versa as the sun rises and sets.
The audio tracks are what you’d come to expect: catchy and used to where they don’t become too monotonous.
The game modes are a plenty, with the handheld nature of the GBA allowing for up to four players to link up against one another simultaneously too.
While you’re unlikely to dive into GBA games anytime soon, this title lives on with some stages reappearing as “retro” tracks in later iterations of the series. (Although there are several stages which I never want to see again… cough… Cheese Land… cough… why Mario Kart 8, why?)
As this game has been reissued in other spots, completionists and Mario Kart fans should definitely give it a look. The large number of levels and unlockables (despite no unlockable characters) will keep on busy for quite some time. The visuals aren’t so shoddy either that they’ll eventually turn you off from playing, which his maybe my biggest gripe for a game that should’ve never been on the SNES!
Yoshi’s Woolly World
The first impression anyone will get from Yoshi’s Woolly World is that it’s a child’s game: and you’d be correct.
Nintendo has positioned the Yoshi games as platformers for younger children for several iterations now. It really began with this title for the Wii U, which also has a “Mellow Mode” to make the game even simpler for those smaller tykes who may be playing alongside their parents.
Mellow Mode makes this game almost too boring to want to play, unfortunately. The regular mode may bring it back to speed with the “Island” series of games (which offer a far greater challenge) but the repetitiveness of Woolly World can, and likely will, get to more mature gamers.
With that said upfront, this is still an enjoyable game with superb art direction, graphics, audio, and controls. The style of the game is at the forefront, as noted in the title, everything is geared toward yarn – think grandma’s knitting – as Yoshi creates “yarn eggs” now, and unravels enemies and secret areas like kittens playing with a ball of yarn on YouTube.
Throwing yarn balls at “invisible” outlined targets covers them in yarn to complete necessary platforms or unlock areas of the level.
It’s a really cool mechanic that fits well within the Yoshi genre – so well, that I think this game is underrated and overlooked due to being too simple at times (and ignored by more serious gamers).
Yoshi, himself, operates in the same manner as Island games, however, there’s no babies on Yoshi’s back anymore – your life is a circular heart meter similar to the timing mechanism in previous games when a baby was knocked off of Yoshi’s back.
The game is geared toward completionists, with plenty of replay value… if you want to actually grind through and replay it.
I found collecting every flower, piece of yarn, rubber stamp and more to be monotonous. However, some of it may be necessary to proceed later in the game.
Collecting everything will unlock a different color or “themed” Yoshi which you can swap to play as – a pretty cool reward if you ask me.
Poochie also makes a cameo appearance along with some other familiar Mario characters. (The various types of Shy Guys are especially cool.)
In all, Woolly World is an enjoyable, but super easy romp. Like most Wii U games it’s lost to time for a console that didn’t sell well. Unlike some of the best Wii U games, this one wasn’t reissued for the Nintendo Switch, instead getting a port to the 3DS which doesn’t hold up as well graphically (but is aimed at a better, young target audience of that handheld console.)
If you have the ability to check this game out, as a fan of Yoshi games or simple platformers – or have a kid that’s getting into gaming, this one is highly recommended. Hardcore gamers can safely bypass this as it won’t be their cup of tea.
Sonic Blast
Nearly all of the Sonic The Hedgehog games on Sega’s Game Gear were subpar efforts.
However, aside from the first one (which plays like a through and through 8-bit platformer and not really “Sonic”) Sonic Blast is the only other game worth anyone’s time.
At that, it wasn’t the bee’s knees compared to the Genesis counterparts.
The game play was far better than the previous Sonic iterations. (Which wasn’t hard seeing as two of them were downright unplayable.)
This game was short and sweet, and carried over concepts from the Genesis releases – but for some odd reason Sega’s developers chose to use faux 3-D sprites for Sonic and the enemies, on 8-bit tech.
It looks fugly at best and really distracts from the core game.
Sonic fans will no doubt want to re-live this, but for the common retro gamer you’ll be alright sitting this one out.
Madden NFL ’94
For how groundbreaking John Madden Football ’93 was, it’s amazing how much of a leap this series takes when jumping one year and also between platforms (from the Sega Genesis to the Super Nintendo).
It starts right as the game loads with the famous EA Sports “It’s In The Game” audio tagline and animation. Seeing this over 25 years later just sent chills down my spine as to what I’m about to review…
Obviously the SNES graphics are leaps and bounds over the Genesis just based on hardware, but it’s the included audio, mainly speech elements, that start sending you into a tizzy. This game has such refined menus and elements it’s pretty crazy.
Just choosing teams beyond the start menu shows you a huge upgrade in visuals. John Madden gives you a briefing over a panning stadium shot with moving fans. It’s text-based but still light years beyond what any sports simulation was doing at the time.
Even the referee coin toss moves to dedicated animations rather than just showing players on the field.
The “regular season” mode still relies on a password system in this edition. There are the usual modes such as sudden death or recreating the 1993 playoffs (or pitting former Super Bowl championship rosters against one another).
It’s also cool to flip through and see how each position group matches up against one another. Madden was always stat-based, but this is when I first truly remember seeing it as a player and taking it into consideration when deciding plays and more.
Speaking of plays, “flip play” is introduced in ’94 with one particular pass play allowing for a wide-open receiver 100% of the time – the bug was exploited to death by me playing with then perennial Super Bowl champions the Dallas Cowboys and their “flipped receiver” being Alvin Harper (although due to lack of an NFLPA license, only player’s numbers were shown and not their names.)
The screen also flips, or shall I say rotates, during kicking plays and turnovers, in a way that the team with the ball is always at the bottom of the screen playing toward the endzone at the top.
Instant replays also allowed you to rotate the screen 360 degrees, which was breathtaking in itself – but you could also highlight a dedicated player and watch the entire play, in slow motion or full speed, and see where the play breaks down (as it does with my Steelers safety blitz below in the screencaps!)
Fans cheer. Fans boo. Heck, you can even turn “Maddenisms” off if you choose to.
But go get buried in the pause screen (or halftime – complete with a “halftime show”) and you can relive all of your stats, which goes well beyond what was in the previous iterations of the game, even breaking down pass completion percentages and some other advanced statistics.
In other words, this wasn’t your usual Tecmo Bowl arcade-style game, but turning into a full-fledged simulation where throwing into double coverage often resulted in interceptions and relying on higher-rated players in order to make, or break, a victory.
It gets even better with subsequent years, but its easy to see how Madden started to establish itself as a yearly update and must-have game each season due to the amount of upgrades packed into ’94. In fact, this game is so much fun to relive, I highly recommend retro gamers check it out.
Mega Man 10
Another digital-only release, Mega Man 10 is a direct sequel to the main storyline. As such, it continues the plot of one Dr. Wily and the story somehow still sticks despite this being the 16th title I’ve played in this series! (And I have yet to get to most of the X and any of the Zero titles!)
Now, let me say, for my gripes with Mega Man 9, 10 is a really solid title. I felt most of the weapons were balanced (except that sheep/wool/cloud crap) and being able to replay as different characters (such as Protoman) is really cool.
However, they left out some key abilities from previous iterations, like being able to slide, which I felt took away from this game.
Another change I wasn’t happy about with 9 or 10, is the return to MM1/2 style graphics: the later games in the series looked sharp, including 5 and 6 on NES.
There was no need to strip MM10 down to its bare bones.
Following playing the Genesis release (which was a remake of 1, 2, and 3) I question the move even more. The Sega version was sharp. The Super Nintendo games were sharp. And Mega Man 8 on the original PlayStation was tremendous, almost like playing an anime cartoon.
This felt nostalgic, but it was unnecessary – unless it was deliberate to churn more profit by not getting too fancy with the visuals.
Regardless, if you’re into Mega Man or retro games, this one holds up pretty well. (No wonder this spawned yet another sequel!)
Crackdown
I’m not Microsoft ever intended for Crackdown to become a franchise.
Basically, the Xbox 360’s answer for a Grand Theft Auto open-world style game, Crackdown was originally pushed with an add-on disc for one of the most anticipated games ever – a beta version of Halo 3, the Master Chief’s first foray on the 360.
It was a clever marketing tactic: buy Crackdown, get a first look at the upcoming Halo 3. Yet, Crackdown stood on its own and over time became one of the best-selling games on the console.
The premise is a bit of the opposite as GTA. Instead of playing as a criminal, Crackdown puts you in the shoes of a genetically enhanced “agent”, sent by an organization called “The Agency”, in order to clean up Pacific City. Like others in the genre, your character grows over time, leveling up in one of five areas: strength, agility, explosives, firearms, and driving ability.
In order to level up in each, you must perform those abilities through your standard gameplay – with the exception of “agility orbs” and “hidden orbs” – the former increases your ability to jump, while the latter increases all of your statistics by some random distribution method. (Maybe?)
The agility orbs are the heart of the game and what makes it feel as if you’re playing as Superman at times. Buildings in different areas range from small one-story shops to apartment complexes and skyscrapers. The creative ways in which the developers bring you along vertically scaling throughout the game gives you a big sense of achievement as your character turns into a bad ass who can blow things up a la a Michael Bay movie or jump from rooftop to rooftop.
With over 500 agility orbs and 250 hidden orbs, collection-crazed gamers who must complete every minute task in a game stay challenged as well. (There are also various races, such as rooftop races on foot or stunt races with the vehicles to complete too.)
This game is also one of the first I can recall having changing real-time ads on the in-game billboards throughout the city. Playing through for my third time on the Xbox One seems to have updated the previous ads from many years ago (which I believe were for a Dodge truck and maybe Mountain Dew.)
I haven’t even discussed the wide array of weapons and vehicles at your disposal – yes, you can toss civilians out of their cars just like GTA and take the “acquired” vehicle for a spin.
Your agent then uses all of the above to remove three areas of Pacific City from three rival gangs – you can go straight to the end from the very start, but you’ll get smoked almost instantly… which is the appeal of leveling up and progressing through the game at a certain pace.
Ignore that advice and you’ll just keep dying trying to defeat some of the bosses: with each gang having a main “godfather” of sorts and a number of underlings that must individually be disposed of to help cripple their various operations.
Graphically the game used a cell-shaded cartoon style which still looked semi-realistic on screen. For the 360, it was one of the more visually impressive games upon its release. The audio is pleasant, the explosions are blockbuster-esque and the controls are mostly on point, which the exception of some tedious jumps that may not go as planned (especially when scaling the larger buildings later on).
There were some gripes about framerate stutter when there’s too many enemies on screen firing at once, but to be honest, its such a minimum and almost expected when so much has been packed into the game.
Crackdown may have been thought of as the ticket to previewing Halo 3 at first, but it has a cult following and a legacy as one of the best 360 games created – and perhaps the best of the three titles in the series.
With its arcade-driven gameplay straying from some of the more story-driven elements of GTA games, those gamers who don’t like GTA will perhaps enjoy Crackdown even more.
In fact, it will remain one of my favorite games ever played.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Game Gear)
For the most part, Sonic the Hedgehog games on Sega’s handheld Game Gear console are a forgotten gem.
However, the 8-bit sequel to the excellent first Sonic game on the handheld quite frankly sucks.
That may not even be a generous term – and it’s also lame that Sega named the first and second games identically to their siblings on the Genesis!
While Sonic 2 on the Genesis was a fantastic follow-up in the series, Sonic 2 on the Game Gear was riddled with issues. Oddly, this title came out before the Genesis version, which meant it was the real debut of Sonic’s buddy Tails.
The premise is the same: it’s a platformer. Collect rings (which you can recover some of after being hit, unlike the first game) and defeat the bad guys.
It’s the extras added to this game that make it awful. Sonic has an ability to smash through certain walls, but you have to know when and where to use this. Gimmicks such as a ridable mine cart and a hang glider are introduced too.
And that’s where the removal of checkpoints along with these gimmicks makes the game incredibly frustrating. The hang glider is impossible to use. Even in the case of using save states, several areas took quite the stitching together of well-timed pauses in order to continue across gaps.
If you die? Then you start over at the beginning of the stage.
The game is riddled with all sorts of cheap ways to die: random spikes you’d never know are there, impossible paths to backtrack, and you know right away something’s off because Act 3 of the first Zone has Dr. Robotnik carry you to a hillside a la the Sarlacc Pit in Return of the Jedi, where you avoid sliding to your instant death while other instant kill bombs bounce down the hill toward the, um, enemy.
The very next Zone sees you nearly meet your maker as soon as it starts, with bridges that collapse and spikes at the bottom of the pit. Giant air bubbles to float around to higher areas of certain levels offer a pretty crappy “challenge” too. Another underwater level starts with next to know air bubbles in which to avoid death either.
It’s quite shameful that the developers thought any of this was a good idea, but it gets “better” when you realize you cannot rescue Tails unless you follow a specific path of getting all six emeralds – one is hidden within each of the five zones.
In the sixth zone you must earn it by beating the zone’s boss and hopefully, you did well and your game doesn’t end right there – that’s right, if you don’t get the emeralds, you cannot access the final zone and rescue Tails.
The game simply ends… maybe mercifully.
Several of the bosses are very challenging in a sense of there’s not enough screen real estate to properly battle them, leading to more cheap defeats and having to do a lot of work over again.
If you read my part about the gimmicks above, then you can sense the pattern of wanting to thrown the Game Gear across the room. (One zone is appropriately named “Gimmick Mountain” in what may be a nod of how craptastic this game is!)
Another consideration in this era of playing the game versus back in the day: I’m not sure how anyone had enough battery life to actually complete the game unless you were a ridiculously good pro video game player.
Hard games were a way of life for an 80’s child growing up, but dumb and buggy games are another story. I only recommend someone check out this game to see the insanity for themselves. Otherwise, this is one of the Sonic games you can definitely skip.