The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (1991)

Better known as the first Super Nintendo part of the Ganbare Goemon series, with two parts previous on the NES (and two Gaiden RPGames in the style of Dragon Quest), it sorta didn’t sell enough to get the other parts in the series translated, but since part 2 and 3 were recently fan-translated, I revisited it. I remembered playing it ages ago and liking it.

It’s a really nice game to look at. The pixel graphics are a delight and its really fun to explore the game just to see everything it has to offer. The game consists of 8 worlds, divided into usually a city part, that’s a bit 2.5 dimensional, in that you move left and right, but also up and down a bit. In those city parts you can enter houses, buy stuff from armor to health, play mini-games, get hints and so on. Initially, the enemies here are pretty easy, but as the game progresses you encounter more and more enemies with ranged attacks that can be a bit annoying.

From each of those city stages, you have to find the proper 2d platforming parts, at whose end you will encounter a boss to beat. Usually, this is pretty easy, except maybe the stage where you have to find a secret tunnel and the message about that one is confusing, as you need to destroy statues (but only one takes more than a couple of hits, the one you actually need).

Besides being rather easy on the eyes, the game loves to throw clever ideas at you. You find platforms moving around a rotating pillar almost 3d-like, mode 7-like buttons to rotate the entire level architecture, clever bosses including a fight against a ninja on a big kite. The game is eager to try out new things again and again and it never really gets boring.

My biggest problem with the game is the difficulty. Your hitbox, the technical term for how your character recognizes whether it got hit from enemies upon contact with them or their shots, feels slightly larger than the character sprite you see on the screen. This is probably not true, but since most games are clever about this and have a slightly more forgiving hitbox it often feels like you got hit when you shouldn’t, which adds to the feeling that many enemy hits are unfair and the game very finicky.

Too often it feels like you fight not with the controls, but with standing in the right position in relation to enemies and bosses to get a hit in. Most of the time you’re already too close. Together with an HP gauge that is slightly misleading, as most enemies take off at least two HPs each attack, and you can feel frustration rising. That said, the overall difficulty doesn’t really ramp up until later levels, it’s just annoying in how it behaves.

And lots of the bosses feel a bit gimmicky in the sense that once you figure out where you have to stand to not get hit, it becomes too easy, but before that it’s not, and it makes it look like the game expects you to find out these spots, instead of having actually interesting and compelling attack patterns.

Overall, while I appreciate the game for doing so many things and being so varied (and looking as good as it is), I can’t say I really enjoyed my time with it.

Super Metroid (1994)

The magnus opus of the whole Metroid series. You’re back to Zebes and have to find out what happened to the last Metroid you saved at the end Metroid 2. Upon replaying the game I was reminded just how much it mirrored the original game in places.  Many parts of the original game are in there, to the extent that you can find some of the original level structure buried beneath the overall map layout. And yet, the game isn’t a remake, like Zero Mission was.

The best analogy I can come up with is that it’s a bit like Terminator 1 and 2. Both movies sport a similar structure, a machine sent back in time to murder a person to change said future, and a protector, also sent back in time, to stop the Terminator from doing it. And yet nobody would call Terminator 2 a remake, while it hits similar plot points, it changes enough to make it entirely its own movie.

The same can be said about Super Metroid. While it often references bits and pieces from Metroid, it never feels repetitive. Even the final fight, which is again against Mother Brain, references the original, final Metroid boss fight, and then does something unexpected with the last, now fully grown Metroid showing up and helping you win.

Super Metroid usually shows up in all 10 best SNES games lists and often in people’s personal best lists as well, and for a reason. There are few games that feel as perfect as this one. From the start, it sets the pace, with an almost cinematic opening on a space station, a fight with the iconic Ridley and finally the tense escape before it goes bust. Only then do you set down on Zebes, with an opening scenery that is the moodiest piece of scenery I’ve ever known. It’s raining, thunder is occasionally heard in the background and you can hear your wet steps while you walk away from your ship. That moment is almost burned into my brain and works flawlessly.

From thereon is the usual metroidvania gameplay loop, explore sections of a larger map, where many parts are blocked off due to you lacking various abilities and skills. All the different levels feel unique, aesthetically speaking, and yet still fit well into the overall theme of abandoned high-tech ruins of an alien civilization. Every one of them has a couple of new ideas and show you something new, and finding new areas always feels exciting. Compared to the first two games, there were quite a lot of new skills and abilities as well, that have become standards for later games in the series.

That said, probably the only weakness of the game, one that I had completely forgotten about, is how finicky some of the controls could be. Not the main moving around in general, but some of the specific stuff. Super Metroid, for example, has the worst implementation of wall-jumping I’ve ever seen in a 2d game. Thankfully, it’s actually only needed for one section, and can be forgotten about afterward. More annoying, because you have to actually use it a couple of times, is the grappling hook. It’s not as terribly implemented as the wall jump, but it could have been far better, and often forced me to repeat segments where I knew exactly what I needed to do, but the controls just weren’t cooperating.

Thankfully, that’s about it for negative points. Apart from that, Super Metroid is still one of the best-looking metroidvania around, with a massive map (I clocked in at 9 hours with 85% items collected or so) and an almost endless supply of secrets and hidden paths. Occasionally you will get stuck, mostly because you overlooked something or didn’t identify a hidden wall (my favorite upgrade is definitely the x-ray vision) and actually making screenshots of when you find something that blocks your way and you need an upgrade from much later, will help you get around faster.

But at its most basic, the game is a deeply refined experience of what the first Metroid offered, to the point that it’s peak Metroid. You can, and they did, make new 2d Metroid games afterward, but none of them came close to Super Metroid, the game is just too perfect. It feels like a game where a group of people came together and put out all the stops to make the best game they could do, and they totally nailed it.

Super Turrican 2 (1995)

Super Turrican 2 feels like someone had the same misgivings about the Turrican series as a whole as I have, and tried instead to ape more console-style gun ‘n’ run games like Contra. The outcome is a slightly bipolar game that does a lot of things better than any other Turrican game but introduces a few new problems as well.

Instead of large, massive but boring levels, you have shorter, more linear ones where you mainly move left or right, not in all four directions. The boss designs feel more creative and the levels look even more atmospheric and stylish.

One new mechanic is a grappling hook, and I can count the games that did a good implementation of grappling hooks on one hand. Super Turrican 2 isn’t among them. It’s not the worst implementation I’ve seen, but it adds frustration most of the time, especially the segments where its essential to survive.

In a lot of ways, I think the game looked to the Contra series for inspiration, both graphics-wise (some of the backgrounds in the early levels remind me of some stuff in the early levels of Contra III) and gameplay-wise. The grappling hook strikes me as an inferior alternative to the wall-climbing of Contra (which is one of the best implementations I’ve seen) and just doesn’t work as well. I wish they just outright copied it.

That said, as varied as Contra III was with different 2d-environments, various creative sections and even the two top-down sections, Super Turrican 2 tries to up the ante and switched between different styles even more often. Some of it is quite impressive, like the worm-riding where you constantly have to jump from one to another (though the jump-distance could have been a bit more lenient) or the final fight in the worm’s mouth.

That said, not all of these sections work well or are fun to play, like the fake-3d floating motorcycle rides and stray too far from the 2d-action level mechanics, or the underwater level that goes on far too long for its own good (a criticism that sadly applied to a couple of levels). At times I felt like I was playing a massive tech demo to show the capabilities of Factor 5, which admittedly were impressive, but not always good for the game. That said, one of the neatest things was a shmup-sequence close to the end of the game that looked like it was taken right out of Axeley, a SNES shmup famous for its unique horizontal scrolling visuals.

But the biggest problem of the game is the time limit. I had multiple situations where it was damn impossible to reach and then finish the boss inside the time limit. The game is already hard without that (no continues, once your few lives are used up), but the time limit really made it frustrating beyond even that.

Super Turrican 2 is a game that fluctuates between extreme highs (stunning visuals, inventive ideas, and fun gameplay) and extreme lows (unbalanced difficulty spikes, the unforgiving time limit that and some stuff that just isn’t much fun). On the whole, I think it’s still the best Turrican I ever played, but a bit more restraint and better balance, and it could have been a real contender for best gun ‘n’ run on the SNES.

Super Turrican (1993)

I’ve never been a big fan of Turrican franchise, and Super Turrican doesn’t change that. It’s a 2d-action side-scroller with, unusually for this type of game, jump’n run elements (basically you can damage enemies by jumping on them). As the series started on the C64, it sports the typical Euro-type levels: large with scrolling in all four directions, but also with repetitive and generic level architecture that often makes it hard to see enemies or pits below you. As you also can’t aim up or down, this only adds to the frustration.

The game has few bosses, and most of them are quite easy. The last level is pretty much, like the last level in a lot of Contra games, an alien hive inspired by the Giger aliens, to the point of outright copying the visuals. That said, the game has nice graphics. Maybe a bit too colorful at times for an action game, but nicely done nonetheless. Music ranges from good to awesome on some levels.

Controls, except the up-down aiming, are fine and the minute-to-minute blasting of enemies is crunchy and quite satisfying. The biggest problem really are the levels, which are just plain boring, and despite their size, don’t really invite exploration. A solid game for playing once, but still far behind exemplary efforts like Contra or other 2d-action platformers from Japan.

Musya (1992)

 

Musya on the SNES (aka Gōsō Jinrai Densetsu Musya on the Super Famicom) is a terrible, terrible piece of garbage and not the hidden gem I was hoping for. It’s an action side-scroller that on screenshots looks cool, but in reality is just one of the worst games on the platform. Sluggish controls, awful hit detection that makes it look like your hitbox is bigger than your actual character, there’s no impact feedback for when you got hit except your character is blinking, level design is highly repetitive, enemies are endlessly respawning and you often can’t avoid them.

Bosses look kinda cool, but the fights themselves are quite boring and merely require you to mash the attack button as fast as you can and hope you can avoid getting hit. All of the bosses have simple, repetitive pattern and in some fight, if you’ve figured out the pattern, they become almost too easy (except the boss for three and six, that’s just mean). Like the final boss, which is easy-peasy, just use the spin attack on the first form and jump up and attack his second.

The game is quite economical by repeating the first three levels as level four to six with two new bosses. Level three and six also like to reset your progress via teleport statues (in three you need to get to the end, down and then jump over the statue at the end, in six you need to get up the ledge at the start of the level with the teleport statues). For six, you need to know about the super jump, which is up+A.

The nicest thing to say about the game is that the graphics can look quite atmospheric and the sound is okay and the US box art looks cool. But the rest is just an unholy union of badly designed mechanics and repetitiveness, where you feel that none of it was play-tested much and feels like a misguided attempt to imitate much better games.

The Chaos Engine (1993)

The Chaos Engine is, in my opinion, the magnum opus of the Bitmap Brothers, which showcased the most refined version of their highly recognizable art direction combined with almost perfect playability. It’s a top-down action shooter where you have to traverse four worlds with four levels each, only to finally confront and if possible defeat the eponymous Chaos Engine at the end.

The first few levels start easy but get noticeably harder in each successive level: new enemies that move faster and more erratic or can even climb walls, that can fire more deadly projectiles, and can take on more damage than before. The only advantage you have is to collect as much money as possible in each level, buy upgrades and keep pace with the arms race.

What adds to the immense replayability of the game is that every level has countless secrets that allow you to collect even more money, often offering two or three different paths through each level and various exits. I don’t remember any other game of this type that had such an amount of content and variety, at least if we’re talking about top-down shooters. You’ll always wonder what the best way to collect the most amount of money each level is and whether you’ll find a new secret on your next run.

You’re also not alone, a second soldier is always following you, though this is also one of my biggest gripes with the game. The second soldier is more obstruction than a useful tool and how the game shoves him into your face gets annoying very fast. The second soldier also acts incredibly stupid most of the time (Dos-version). You can increase his intelligence, but by the point, you have enough money to do so, you rather wish you could kill him forever. Sadly the game forces you to resurrect him repeatedly.

Overall it’s pretty hard. Coins appear after you hit an enemy, but shortly afterward disappear again. You need them to power up, or you’re soon hopelessly outclassed, but if you’re too fast to collect them, you might bump into another enemy who comes from the same spawn point as the first one.

Shooting is only 8-directional and you can’t move while you’re shooting, while your enemies don’t seem limited by this as much as you. Your hitbox is quite large while enemies have a seemingly smaller one and often you miss them by a single pixel. The later levels are quite trying, and the final boss is extremely difficult due to how the controls limit you. Also, later on, you often can’t outrun enemies and if you don’t start hitting them once they appear, you already lost valuable hit points.

The game was released on a buttload of systems: Amiga and later Amiga CD32, Atari ST, on floppy disk on MS-Dos (in 1994 and it was the one I played first) and in 1995 an enhanced PC CD-version (which despite a patch for stuck keys remains almost unplayable, as the patch doesn’t really alleviate the problem), and on the Genesis and the SNES. The floppy disk version for MS-Dos is quite good (but has weak sound).

SNES: Soldiers of Fortune (NTSC) / The Chaos Engine (PAL) (1993)

The SNES version looks a bit more colorful, has actually a soundtrack, and is much faster, including much faster enemy spawning, which makes coin farming from spawning enemies more difficult and the whole game even more nail-biting hard.

Genesis: Soldiers of Fortune / Mega Drive: The Chaos Engine (1993)

The Genesis version has more muted colors, but has a similar tempo as the DOS-version and is, in general, better balanced for playability, and just as the SNES-version has better sound as well. Both the SNES and the Genesis show also much better AI for your companion.

The one major drawback of the Genesis version is that you can’t exchange abilities with your partner, which makes the early game easier in the DOS- and SNES-version if you take the Scientist as a companion and use his medkit. The Mega Drive version of the game has three selectable difficulties, which is not in the US-version and neither in any other.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (1992)

Near perfect beat’n run that stars the TMNT displaced in time by Shredder. Each level represents a certain time period, like the prehistoric age, the pirate age and so on. The game plays like the grand daddy of beat’n run games, Golden Axe. You can’t just walk from the beginning to the end of each level since the levels are segmented into small sectors and only beating up all enemies in one sector allows you to advance to the next. This can get a bit repetitive, but the game makes that up through the variety of the scenery.

TMNT: Tournament Fighters (1993)

Mostly well-done turtles beat’em up. My biggest beef with the game is the punishing difficulty, which makes it nearly impossible for someone who doesn’t play these types of games regularly to beat it on any of the higher difficulty levels. My second beef, only from difficulty level three and up will you be able to meet Karai, the final villain. I really hate games that limit content by what level of difficulty you play.

I managed to beat the story mode on level 3 (and it goes up to 9) and even that wasn’t much fun due to the difficulty. So, I’m ambivalent about the game: excellent and much better presentation than the Genesis-version, but due to the difficulty not easy to get into.

Ninja Warriors (1994)

A SNES beat’n run also known in Japan as The Ninja Warriors Again. I pretty much stumbled upon it through pure luck, but man was I satisfied about that. It’s rare to find such a high-class game for a console after years of searching for good games through countless best of lists. I don’t remember seeing that on any of those, but it’s a true winner. Well, okay, it’s a game about an evil empire of 80ties bad guys taking over the world and about three cyborgs with the mission to stop them. But as far as gameplay is concerned, the game wins.

Each of the three cyborgs plays differently, the game manages countless big sprites with no flickering, you can destroy various objects in the background and the pixel art of the game is some of the best I’ve seen in years. Sure, it basically about going from the left to the right and beating up bad guys, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. They don’t seem to make games like this anymore.

Sparkster (1994)

Sparkster is something of a spin-off of the Rocket Knight Adventures series for the Genesis,  only that it’s on the SNES. You’re a humanoid opossum who has a rocket pack and a sword. It’s a mechanically excellent platformer with an unusual amount of variety. It never repeats itself, each level is different and each boss has something new to show.

The story, on the other hand, is quite hackneyed, which sees you trying to save a princess. Settings-wise it’s kinda steampunky, with medieval and futuristic tech side by side all the time.

The difficulty of the game is adjustable, but to meet the final boss you have to play on the hardest setting (similar to the SNES Contra). Only two places in the game were really annoying, the flooding section in the submarine (which will kill you the first time, if you aren’t extremely lucky) and the big robot battle at the end of the vertical shoot’em up section (good idea, bad execution). But apart from those two, it’s excellent.