Super Mario World
How could you not love all of the Mario games?
Growing up, this was the penultimate Mario game. It took SMB3 and injected it with steroids. The graphics were better, sound was better, controls were tight, and everything just popped off of the screen.
Gameplay elements introduced here became cornerstones of the franchise, such as Yoshi, bonus worlds, hidden levels, and more.
Because I loved this game so much, I made sure I played through and beat every single stage, including each stage’s hidden exits: up to and including the incredibly nasty SPECIAL WORLD, which was a hidden world hidden within the hidden Star World. (Follow that?) These stages had names such as “Tubular” or “Gnarly” and they are incredibly difficult to defeat!
Of the levels in SMW, my favorites are:
“Top Secret Area” – A hidden level which was only one screen large but had multiple “?” blocks to give you powerups to help aide in beating other stages.
“Backdoor” – This was a secret way into Bowser’s Castle, which was much easier than defeating the rest of the final world.
“Sunken Ghost Ship” – Once you find out you can swim out into the ocean; the first board is a homage to Super Mario Bros. 3 and their airships. This one is sunk underwater and doubles as a ghost house too!
IMO while the “New” Super Mario Bros. games which followed are excellent, this may still be the best side-scrolling Mario game ever made. The NES games will always have a special place in my heart, but Mario World was not only a sequel, but just about smashed every expectation for a SMB game up until that point and even to the present day. It’s the benchmark to which all other platforming games should be held.
Pit-Fighter
One of the first arcade games to digitize actors into its graphics is one of the main reasons I remember Pit Fighter.
The game play is why I forgot it.
The novelty quickly wears off with the “advanced” graphics (which look horrible by today’s standards). You choose one of three fighters and get a set amount of “life” that must last through each subsequent level, with no continues. (You die, you start over.)
The life meter eventually builds back up, but the game can be really tough at times… and it recycles things far too often. The same stage/background is used throughout most of the stages. You will face the same 3-4 fighters including a “grudge match” mirror of the character you selected during each stage.
For some odd reason, when you win, you receive prize money while standing on a pallet which is raised by a forklift as you “ascend” the ranks. You can’t use the earnings to upgrade your fighter at all, and the score is probably a ceremonial type of thing that harkens back to “high scores” of early arcade games like Pac-Man or Space Invaders. (Note: The original Mortal Kombat had a scoring system too, but it went away in the sequels.)
Not sure if this was just a SNES limitation with cartridge size or not, but the same exact music is used for every single part of the game. It gets incredibly repetitive! (And a limitation of the console ports is that the crowd doesn’t interact with the fighters like the arcade version: which was one of the main draws of this game!)
But all of it was worth it for the awesome game ending, shown in my a screen capture in the gallery below.
Sonic the Hedgehog
I want to get this out in front: the Game Gear versions of Sonic the Hedgehog are not the same titles which were originally seen on the Sega Genesis. The confusion lies in the not-so-original naming scheme. For whatever reason, Sega published the titles under the same exact names (in most cases) as their Genesis siblings. Therefore, there are two Sonic the Hedgehog titles, however, they are not the same.
To further muddy the waters, there are also two editions of this same Sonic the Hedgehog “not Genesis” title, which were ported to both the Sega Game Gear and Sega Master System.
Geesh!
Obviously, the game didn’t have the same visuals as the 16-bit Genesis version, but even in the 8-bit world of the Game Gear (and the Master System, which is near identical) this title holds up very well. In fact, to the uneducated, had you handed them the 8-bit Sonic first and then had them play the 16-bit Genesis version, they’d feel like a natural progression in the series.
However, the Genesis version released six months earlier, making it the first in the series.
According to WikiPedia:
A version of Sonic the Hedgehog was developed by Ancient and released in late 1991 for Sega’s 8-bit consoles, the Master System and Game Gear. Its plot and gameplay mechanics are similar to the 16-bit version, though some level themes and digital assets are different and Chaos Emeralds are scattered throughout levels rather than special stages.
Gameplay as a whole is simplified; the level design is flatter and has a larger focus on exploration, with no vertical loops, and Sonic cannot re-collect his rings after being hit. The game has a different soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshiro, which includes adaptations of music from the original version.
It was the final game released for the Master System in North America.
While this may seem like an oddity, it’s definitely worth playing. The content isn’t a ripped-off version from the Genesis. The two games share similarities, just like Mario games have over different platforms throughout the years. It also has enough original content to make it feel fresh, even though it’s a short game.
This first version is an excellent 8-bit rendition that feels like a prequel to the Sonic series and therefore, one I recommend any retro game puts on their bucket list.
Mega Man II
As mentioned in in a previous update, I’m plowing through the handheld versions of this series… and most of the iterations are underwhelming additions that transpose ideas from their NES siblings. This one, in particular, is a mashup of MM2 and MM3 from the NES, featuring bosses from both. (Plus the addition of Mega Man’s dog, Rush.)
Apparently, this edition was developed by a different company than the others, and there are differences as such. Those are both good and bad since Dr. Wily’s Revenge (the first Game Boy title) was incredibly difficult and unforgiving. This one at least got the on-screen size of Mega Man proportional to the levels and enemies.
IMO this one is more worth checking out than MM1 on Game Boy, and especially more if you’re a fan of MM2 and MM3 on NES (which are, IMO, the two best on that system).
Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge
I really want to call all of the Game Boy Mega Man games steaming piles of monkey poo, but it’s simply not true. Each has its strengths as well as its faults.
Each iteration is essentially the same game. Yes, the NES Mega Man games were the same basic premise as the foundation (fight 6-8 robots, gain their powers and others) with small subtle changes and new challenges in each new edition.
The Game Boy versions are just like that too, yet, where they fall short is that you typically face only four robots (half of the NES version) before entering the Dr. Wily boards. That has more to do with the Game Boy’s limitations than the developers.
The part that really doesn’t sit well is that the games are more or less watered down versions of the NES games, mimicking Mega Man 2 and on. Many of the concepts, the bosses and level themes, are lifted directly from their big brother. However, the games at least have altered level designs that present new challenges from similar ideas.
The strengths are that the Dr. Wily stages are (almost) entirely unique and offer different storylines and challenges. For that reason alone, these are worth playing through and checking off of the list.
Now, the first Game Boy version is a frustrating trek down memory lane, because MM is so big on the screen, he gets hit by EVERYTHING and its way too easy to die in this game! It adds the difficulty of a MM2 on NES and amps it up a notch trying to avoid a constant barrage of enemies!
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!
Operation C
It’s not often that a Game Boy can live up to it’s bigger console brother, but Operation C is a fairly solid, albeit short, title.
If you’ve played Contra before, you know the drill. You’re given a small number of lives, in his case two (with a one-up after completing each stage) and have to plow through difficult button-mashing shoot-em-up levels against guerrilla forces and eventually, aliens.
If you’ve never played them, Contra is totally a mash-up of Rambo and Aliens. This small screen version is tried-and-true to the same formula, but as mentioned, there are only a handful of stages. That doesn’t downplay the difficulty or the cool additions which build on the usual concept.
In fact, even with the monochrome palette (colorized by the Game Boy Color in these screenshots) I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It’s a quick must-play for any fans of the series.
PS – the overhead view levels still suck!
Sonic the Hedgehog
Having not owned Sega consoles growing up I have a new appreciation of this series. The three-button Genesis controller layout was so foreign to me and I don’t think I ever quite had enough time to sit and understand how the Sonic games worked.
Going back and playing them now, I absolutely love them… at times.
Spikes, lava, and randomly placed cheap obstacles (enemies who make you lose all of your rings) definitely makes me think of other games of this era. It’s not always a bad thing and adds to the challenge of simply speeding through each board as fast as possible. (A gripe of mine with some of the Game Gear iterations, which are NOT ports despite sharing the same name with may of their Genesis siblings.)
The first Sonic is definitely groundbreaking. Graphically, it looks as if it pushes the boundaries of the Genesis hardware while giving the “blast processing” myth some credence with the fast-paced gameplay.
Once you have the hang of things, the game isn’t extremely difficult to defeat. It’s on par with Super Mario Bros. as far as platforms are concerned, which isn’t a wonder why Sonic became the face of Sega for the better part of the 90’s.