A Bunch of Replays As I Tested Handhelds
Apr. 27th, 2023 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroStarTropics (NES, replayed on Retroid Pocket 3) - I feel like this game, more than any other, was sold to me by Nintendo Power. I’ll be in my 80s and senile and still remember the parrot saying “Do Me So Far, Do Me.” (Though like every player post the mid-90s, I had to look up the “747” code from the packed-in piece of paper.) It’s very much a product of its time and heavily influenced by Zelda, but the different style of puzzles and power-ups and the emphasis on 3/4-view jumping make it stand apart. (And the fact that Mike has edge gravity and you can never accidentally walk off a platform is what really makes it playable.) It’s a shame that StarTropics 2 wasn’t as good and didn’t really make a splash, so this never became a big franchise.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1, Replayed on RG35XX) - There’s a reason this really kicked off a genre—I would argue that it’s held up as well or better than the six games that followed it. I reviewed it a decade ago and stand by that.
Spanky’s Quest (SNES, Replayed on RG35XX and Retroid Pocket 3) - This game was an odd staple of my SNES rental history, because I enjoyed it in short bursts but not enough to buy a copy until I got it used for very cheap. It’s a goofy arcade-style action/puzzle game; you’re battling fruit and vegetable monsters in each level to collect keys to unlock the doors, but Spanky can only attack by bouncing a magic ball off his head and then “popping” it into a sports ball—popping immediately produces a baseball, one bounce for a waterfall of soccer balls, two for an exploding volleyball, and three or more for a spread of basketballs. Each non-boss enemy dies in one hit, but so does Spanky, and your lives are sharply limited. There are 50 main levels and 5 bosses, then the sixth level is five boss re-fights and the multi-part final boss. (With some power-up hats and tricky obstacles like cannons, fire-shooters, and goddamn bird generators.) You can get through the whole game in under two hours, but in practice you’re not going to because you’re going to die and have to continue and replay a lot. I played the first twenty-someodd stages on the RG35XX with save states, and then decided to swap to the RP3 and use cheat codes to play through the entire game in one go.
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES, Played on Retroid Pocket 3) – I haven’t actually played this since the early 90s, so I tried it again with the English Re-translation (+Map) hack. I give them a lot of credit for turning all of the comments from townspeople into understandable, useful clues; and for several quality-of-life improvements like removing the “horrible night” dialogue and adding an in-game map. (And saves, though with save states that’s less important.) The problem, though, is that the game remains very dated by the classic Castlevania play style: The slow movement, the dedicated jumping, the huge knockback, the easy pit-deaths…and all of that in a long, wandery game. Playing this after replaying Symphony reminds me why I didn’t like the series in the NES era. A full remake of this would have to do something to address the fact that death by pit is by far the most common hazard (which necessitates the extra lives, which the later era gets rid of altogether)…or we could just enjoy the glorious terribleness of the original translation and use walkthroughs like God intended.
Fester’s Quest – European Gameplay Changes (NES, Played on Retroid Pocket 3) - This was the first time I’ve played this game since the early 90s, I think, and I played this hack that brings the US version of the game more in-line with the European revision, so shots pass through walls and do more damage. Most of what I remembered was walking back and forth to grind power-ups and that you needed to use keys on buildings to get all the items. What I didn’t remember was what insane bullet sponges the enemies and bosses are, even with the hack—this is a game that was made for a turbo controller, if nothing else. (It also is painfully obvious they had started making a game and then got a license to add the Addams Family to it; it feels more like a Blaster Master side-game than anything else.)
Dragoon X Omega (NES, Played on Retroid Pocket 3) - A full overhaul of Dragon Warrior into a completely new game; this hack is really impressive. You play as a survivor of the losing army tasked by the evil emperor to deal with the alien invasion that just happened. The monsters are all alien creatures and the weapons and armor are futuristic. I found the equivalent to the Mountain Cave, and I found the equivalent to the Tunnel Cave (complete with Dragon battle) and then you find Duke Argus in the next town (which also has keycards for sale) and he gives you the Locator Cube. (An FAQ I looked up tells me that you then need two components and an ID card to get a robot to make you a nuclear bomb, which you use to destroy mountains and enter the alien craft.) The bones of Dragon Warrior are all there, but they did something really adventurous with it. That said, I didn’t finish it because NES Dragon Warrior isn’t actually that great a game by modern standards and I’ve already replayed it recently.
Super Mario Land DX (GB, Replayed on RG35XX) - A colorization and enhancement hack. This feels a little more “slippery” than the original, but I’m not sure how much of that is the hack vs. the emulation vs. the physical device. The hackers have definitely created something that I would have expected Nintendo to make if they did a “Deluxe” version of Super Mario Land—full color, redrawn graphics, the option to play as Luigi, and the option to jump straight to hard mode. And it’s very pretty. I don’t think it scratches my nostalgia itch the same way playing the original does, though—it’s different enough to feel like its own thing.
Kirby’s Dream Land 2 (GB, Replayed on RG35XX) - I started playing a little of this, then realize there was a Deluxe hack that colorized the game, rearranged some music, and generally brought it up to standards of the next generation. (I think it’s actually better than the Super Game Boy color options, despite this being one of the few games specifically designed to work with that accessory.) Like with SML DX, the emulation was a little janky, but I’m not sure how much was the hack vs. the emulator vs. the interaction between the two. This was a perfectly good Kirby game, though some of the nastier parts (such as the forced-scrolling sections and forced-movement sections) and the repetitive parts (especially in the last area) get tiresome. And man, that final battle is a pain in my butt, even after the painstaking process of getting all the rainbow drops.
Kirby’s Super Star Stacker (SNES, Played on RG35XX) – A puzzle/casual game of sandwiching star blocks between matching animal blocks. I had no idea there was a SNES version of this game until I happened upon the Japanese version on the RG35XX looking for Kirby’s Avalanche, and a little more research turned up a fan translation. The story mode…is a lot harder than you’d think after trying any of the other modes. This game is about thinking far in advance and getting a lot of chain reactions, and the CPU is probably better at it than you are.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1, Replayed on RG35XX) - There’s a reason this really kicked off a genre—I would argue that it’s held up as well or better than the six games that followed it. I reviewed it a decade ago and stand by that.
Spanky’s Quest (SNES, Replayed on RG35XX and Retroid Pocket 3) - This game was an odd staple of my SNES rental history, because I enjoyed it in short bursts but not enough to buy a copy until I got it used for very cheap. It’s a goofy arcade-style action/puzzle game; you’re battling fruit and vegetable monsters in each level to collect keys to unlock the doors, but Spanky can only attack by bouncing a magic ball off his head and then “popping” it into a sports ball—popping immediately produces a baseball, one bounce for a waterfall of soccer balls, two for an exploding volleyball, and three or more for a spread of basketballs. Each non-boss enemy dies in one hit, but so does Spanky, and your lives are sharply limited. There are 50 main levels and 5 bosses, then the sixth level is five boss re-fights and the multi-part final boss. (With some power-up hats and tricky obstacles like cannons, fire-shooters, and goddamn bird generators.) You can get through the whole game in under two hours, but in practice you’re not going to because you’re going to die and have to continue and replay a lot. I played the first twenty-someodd stages on the RG35XX with save states, and then decided to swap to the RP3 and use cheat codes to play through the entire game in one go.
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES, Played on Retroid Pocket 3) – I haven’t actually played this since the early 90s, so I tried it again with the English Re-translation (+Map) hack. I give them a lot of credit for turning all of the comments from townspeople into understandable, useful clues; and for several quality-of-life improvements like removing the “horrible night” dialogue and adding an in-game map. (And saves, though with save states that’s less important.) The problem, though, is that the game remains very dated by the classic Castlevania play style: The slow movement, the dedicated jumping, the huge knockback, the easy pit-deaths…and all of that in a long, wandery game. Playing this after replaying Symphony reminds me why I didn’t like the series in the NES era. A full remake of this would have to do something to address the fact that death by pit is by far the most common hazard (which necessitates the extra lives, which the later era gets rid of altogether)…or we could just enjoy the glorious terribleness of the original translation and use walkthroughs like God intended.
Fester’s Quest – European Gameplay Changes (NES, Played on Retroid Pocket 3) - This was the first time I’ve played this game since the early 90s, I think, and I played this hack that brings the US version of the game more in-line with the European revision, so shots pass through walls and do more damage. Most of what I remembered was walking back and forth to grind power-ups and that you needed to use keys on buildings to get all the items. What I didn’t remember was what insane bullet sponges the enemies and bosses are, even with the hack—this is a game that was made for a turbo controller, if nothing else. (It also is painfully obvious they had started making a game and then got a license to add the Addams Family to it; it feels more like a Blaster Master side-game than anything else.)
Dragoon X Omega (NES, Played on Retroid Pocket 3) - A full overhaul of Dragon Warrior into a completely new game; this hack is really impressive. You play as a survivor of the losing army tasked by the evil emperor to deal with the alien invasion that just happened. The monsters are all alien creatures and the weapons and armor are futuristic. I found the equivalent to the Mountain Cave, and I found the equivalent to the Tunnel Cave (complete with Dragon battle) and then you find Duke Argus in the next town (which also has keycards for sale) and he gives you the Locator Cube. (An FAQ I looked up tells me that you then need two components and an ID card to get a robot to make you a nuclear bomb, which you use to destroy mountains and enter the alien craft.) The bones of Dragon Warrior are all there, but they did something really adventurous with it. That said, I didn’t finish it because NES Dragon Warrior isn’t actually that great a game by modern standards and I’ve already replayed it recently.
Super Mario Land DX (GB, Replayed on RG35XX) - A colorization and enhancement hack. This feels a little more “slippery” than the original, but I’m not sure how much of that is the hack vs. the emulation vs. the physical device. The hackers have definitely created something that I would have expected Nintendo to make if they did a “Deluxe” version of Super Mario Land—full color, redrawn graphics, the option to play as Luigi, and the option to jump straight to hard mode. And it’s very pretty. I don’t think it scratches my nostalgia itch the same way playing the original does, though—it’s different enough to feel like its own thing.
Kirby’s Dream Land 2 (GB, Replayed on RG35XX) - I started playing a little of this, then realize there was a Deluxe hack that colorized the game, rearranged some music, and generally brought it up to standards of the next generation. (I think it’s actually better than the Super Game Boy color options, despite this being one of the few games specifically designed to work with that accessory.) Like with SML DX, the emulation was a little janky, but I’m not sure how much was the hack vs. the emulator vs. the interaction between the two. This was a perfectly good Kirby game, though some of the nastier parts (such as the forced-scrolling sections and forced-movement sections) and the repetitive parts (especially in the last area) get tiresome. And man, that final battle is a pain in my butt, even after the painstaking process of getting all the rainbow drops.
Kirby’s Super Star Stacker (SNES, Played on RG35XX) – A puzzle/casual game of sandwiching star blocks between matching animal blocks. I had no idea there was a SNES version of this game until I happened upon the Japanese version on the RG35XX looking for Kirby’s Avalanche, and a little more research turned up a fan translation. The story mode…is a lot harder than you’d think after trying any of the other modes. This game is about thinking far in advance and getting a lot of chain reactions, and the CPU is probably better at it than you are.
