Last Retro Game You Finished And Your Thoughts

gjones wrote:

Peggle (2007)



Fancy a game of Lucky Hit? I'd never played this Pop Cap gem, largely dismissing it as a mobile game back in the day. More fool me, as I smashed through this in the space of a week. For those still operating phones with buttons, you fire balls at pegs with the goal to hit all the red pegs so that they light up and disappear. With only ten balls, you quickly need to plan your course of action, but for the most part, it's just highly satisfying shooting a ball around a board. Definitely has a bit of pinball ASMR to it.

9/10

Popcap were kings of the casual puzzle game before they were bought over by EA. I was much like yourself gjones in that I initially dismissed a lot of their games as not being worth it and being mobile-fare, but Peggle and Plants vs Zombies are both fantastic games. Simple to play, really satisfying stuff.

A recently published Nintendo Life feature article about the two-man Berlin-based developer Morphcat Games means it’s well-timed for me to post my thoughts on Evercade's Morphcat Games Collection 1.



Super Bat Puncher Demo was Morphcat’s first homebrew title, from back in 2011. Its title explains it’s premise well, in that it’s a platforming game where you explore caves and leather bats and spiders with your trusty boxing glove. The title also suggested that it’s just a snippet of a full game and that’s exactly what it is: Super Bat Puncher Demo is extremely short-lived at around half an hour. It’s a shame that Super Bat Puncher never formed a fuller release in the end, as there was a ton of potential with it.

I think Morphcat Games are best known for Micro Mages, which is their vertically-scrolling co-op platformer where you find loot, hunt for treasure and compete with other mages for the highest score. If this had been a NES game from the console’s heyday then I think it would honestly be remembered as a classic, as one of the best games of its whole software library. It apparently could have been an authentic NES game too, the Evercade manual that that Nintendo Life article point out that it was developed using 40kb of memory. Even on your puff it’s excellent stuff.

In the style of Contra, Ghouls ‘n Goblins and the first Zelda, Morphcat Games wanted to create a second adventure for Micro Mages, one that loops once you’ve finished the game. That’s what Micro Mages: Second Quest is. As you’d expect it’s more of the same, but with a few different locations, some added secrets and a heightened difficulty. All good with me.

Morphcat Games have quite the natural spring-fresh idea in Bobl: it’s a water-based MetroidVania where you control a bubble to navigate a submerged maze. Gradually unlocking new abilities, it’s a really smart little game with brilliant physics and immaculate controls. Genuinely a belter.

Spacegulls is the fifth and newest game on this compilation, and it’s yet another 8-bit platformer that’s a little bit like Mega Man and a little bit like Joust. You explore an open map to stop an evil doctor, and while it’s very good it’s also very short. Just like Super Bat Puncher Demo, Spacegulls is a 30 minute-or-so game.

Of the fifty-odd cartridges that are available on Evercade, I think Morphcat Games Collection 1 ranks as one of the best (on default of having no shite games like so many of the others do). I think this is Morphcat’s entire portfolio here, but scattered elsewhere I think a couple of them are free to play on itch.io, and I think the others can be bought off Steam. Everything on here comes recommended however you might try to scrounge them. 8/10.

Here’s a duo of Demons of Asteborg and Astebros, two 16-bit titles from a group of self-taught coding and games design enthusiasts living in France.



Playing as a fearsome warrior with mysterious origins, in Demons of Asteborg you conquer hostile castles, forests, mountain tops and swamps. This is to avenge the death of your mother, save your continent’s people and protect the escape of demon hordes from a lost portal. The story, truth be told, doesn’t really interfere the game, change the experience or add much to its personality. All that’s really needing known is that Demons of Asteborg is a side-scrolling action game that’s very reminiscent of Ghouls n’ Ghosts, Strider and Castlevania.

When I downloaded it on Switch about a year ago, it was one of these sorts of games that I was confident I’d enjoy in a passive manner, as sometime to tide me over between finishing a ‘big’ game and starting another. However, I quickly felt like and then fully recognised that I was playing something a bit more special than that. Demons of Asteborg is unmistakably fantastic, an expertly-crafted game in every sense I can describe. The movement and agility of your warrior is so tight and reliable that wall-jumping, evasive dashing and various forms of attacking are always great fun; the variety of magical spells that you get between each level ensures that things stay fresh; the boss battles are highly creative without presenting obvious solutions; and I felt that the game’s audiovisual qualities were really impressive as well. For modern sensibilities it’s really well balanced, paced appropriately and simply a brilliant demonstration of the formula that made Ghouls n’ Ghosts, Strider and Castlevania so successful and enduring.

On that GG website I made a list of the best games I completed in 2023; it was only Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Super Mario World that stopped Demons of Asteborg from being at the very top. I thought Demons of Asteborg was outstanding, and I think it’s a minor classic.

The developers followed that up with a sequel that’s canonically a prequel, called Astebros. The key differences this time around are that it’s a roguelite that supports up to three players. You can control a knight who has strong physical attacks, a mage whose expertise is unsurprisingly in conjuring magical spells, and a ranger who is most proficient in using bows and guns. While all the game’s dungeons have the same keys, currency, map blueprints and power-ups to collect, their layout changes every time.

That said, the idea of ever-changing dungeons is perhaps a bit too ambitious for a game that was developed and physically released for such an old system in the Mega Drive. It runs on emulation on Evercade, meaning that what’s available here is the same as what you’d plug into your thirty-five year old Mega Drive. And while the dungeons change shape and move things around, I have to think that the system’s memory is so small and limited that there’s only so much scope for a game like Astebros. The dungeons change shape and move things around…but only minorly, and they’re pretty basic in the first place. All the same, the excellent graphics, sound and combat from Demons of Asteborg are transplanted to Astebros, and modifiers that affect your attack, health and other factors mean that you can tackle the game in a load of different ways. Astebros is a very worthwhile follow-up to Demons of Asteborg that I’ll no doubt be similarly ranking highly on my 2024 GG list.

This is the best indie cartridge on the Evercade and likely the best one they’ll ever do. 9/10.

We’re already quite far along on the road to WrestleMania but my annual celebration of foosty old pro wrestling games is only just beginning – and where better to start than with WWF Royal Rumble on the SEGA Dreamcast? I know “lots of places” is the answer but just come along for the journey with me, will you?

Everybody’s favourite type of gimmick match, the Royal Rumble is an all-out, no-holds-barred fight to be the last person standing, where victory can only be secured by throwing each of your opponents over the ring’s top rope. What I’m reviewing here is a port of an arcade game that was released in early 2000, and it’s a cracking representation of what WWF life was like back then. Stone Cold is here, pretending to skelp cans of Younger’s Tartan Special where 0.0001% of the liquid goes into his mouth; Rikishi too, slapping his big arse and rubbing his hoop in your face; and then there’s Val Venis, saying hello to biological ladies…here we are now, all the lads.

There’s plenty of superb wrestling games that debuted in the arcades, and the first impressions of WWF Royal Rumble are that it carries on that fine tradition. Allowing up to nine wrestlers in the ring at the same time, the gameplay is chaotic, and it’s just a loud and exciting game always. One of the things WWF Royal Rumble does to stand out is, of all things, channel the spirit of Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter and give you button commands to unleash partner attacks. These charge up really quickly, meaning that during your Al Snow Vs. The Big Show exhibition match-up you can summon D-Lo Brown to come in hit a Sky High, or call upon Tazz to smack someone with a bin lid, or wolf-whistle The Godfather over to run your opponent over with his big STD-ridden ho train. It’s mad stuff, but it’s very entertaining.

How disappointing, though, that so little seems to have been added to the Dreamcast version from its arcade origin. What appears to be an all-time-great wrestling game at first glance quickly reveals itself to be shallow, repetitive, and sorely lacking in content. There’s about two-dozen wrestlers, which is good. But there’s two modes and about fifty moves in total, which is bad. WWF Royal Rumble is a classic example of a game that’s best played in short bursts – precisely for the length of time it takes you to use up a credit in an arcade game, in fact. Honestly speaking, nothing about WWF Royal Rumble holds your attention for much longer than quarter of an hour.

All in all, it’s entertaining for sure, but extremely throwaway and certainly a poorer alternative to PlayStation’s WWF SmackDown and  N64’s WWF No Mercy for those poor Dreamcast owners. On another, more accurate hand though, the Dreamcast was well overrated, and they got what they deserved. 6/10.

Boo this man, Dreamcast underrated you mean.

Cracking write-up Cappa. I'm always interested in hearing about other wrestling games as I missed the boat on the offerings on N64 and Dreamcast, along with anything earlier than the PS1.

Think I rinsed all the wrestling games that I could get my hands on with the PS1 though.

The idea of calling in other wrestlers for support moves like one of the Vs. fighting games is really interesting. Makes me wonder why we haven't got an actual fighting game style wrasslin' game yet.

In Your House on PS1 was kinda like a VS fighting game.

Also we should be talking Dreamcast alongside the PS2, Cube and Xbox. Where's the Saturn love alongside the N64 and PS1?

I remember being so disappointed by this game after gawping at screenshots in various Dreamcast magazines for what seemed like months, I was totally took in by the impressive visuals and it having 9 wrestlers in the ring. So it was traded in pretty quickly and we just continued played No mercy instead.

JayMoyles wrote:

Cracking write-up Cappa. I'm always interested in hearing about other wrestling games as I missed the boat on the offerings on N64 and Dreamcast, along with anything earlier than the PS1.

Think I rinsed all the wrestling games that I could get my hands on with the PS1 though.

The idea of calling in other wrestlers for support moves like one of the Vs. fighting games is really interesting. Makes me wonder why we haven't got an actual fighting game style wrasslin' game yet.

The last one that had that fighting game feeling was WWE All stars but that was what, 2010-11? Madness.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I think Morphcat Games are best known for Micro Mages, which is their vertically-scrolling co-op platformer where you find loot, hunt for treasure and compete with other mages for the highest score. If this had been a NES game from the console’s heyday then I think it would honestly be remembered as a classic, as one of the best games of its whole software library. It apparently could have been an authentic NES game too, the Evercade manual that that Nintendo Life article point out that it was developed using 40kb of memory. Even on your puff it’s excellent stuff.  

This is absolutely the right opinion* on Micro Mages - I appreciate the technical effort to get this onto a tiny NES cartridge, but I feel like the world just needs Micro Mages Remastered for everyone.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Here’s a duo of Demons of Asteborg and Astebros, two 16-bit titles from a group of self-taught coding and games design enthusiasts living in France.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

This is the best indie cartridge on the Evercade and likely the best one they’ll ever do. 9/10.

I'm genuinely interested in this - if, with my grumpy boy attitude, pleased  that there are other formats to access this on.

*There are no right opinions**
**Well there are, who are we kidding

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

How disappointing, though, that so little seems to have been added to the Dreamcast version from its arcade origin. What appears to be an all-time-great wrestling game at first glance quickly reveals itself to be shallow, repetitive, and sorely lacking in content. There’s about two-dozen wrestlers, which is good. But there’s two modes and about fifty moves in total, which is bad. WWF Royal Rumble is a classic example of a game that’s best played in short bursts – precisely for the length of time it takes you to use up a credit in an arcade game, in fact. Honestly speaking, nothing about WWF Royal Rumble holds your attention for much longer than quarter of an hour.

All in all, it’s entertaining for sure, but extremely throwaway and certainly a poorer alternative to PlayStation’s WWF SmackDown and  N64’s WWF No Mercy for those poor Dreamcast owners. On another, more accurate hand though, the Dreamcast was well overrated, and they got what they deserved. 6/10.

This was one of the games I didn't mind pirating at the time - always found it odd how a handful of magazines gave it 90%+ scores because it is slim pickings even on a console known for arcade ports. Isn't there a bunch of backstage areas too, which makes no sense in a Royal Rumble game?

Also speaking more about fighting/wrestling games this podcast is worth a listen/watch.

First coming to my attention on Renovation’s Evercade collection a couple of years ago, 1991’s Beast Wrestler is an isometric “wrestling” “game” where giant monsters, dragons and mutants plod around a square and sometimes flick their tails at one another. Supposedly you can grab, use submissions and toss your opponent in the air, and apparently you can even land what the game calls Death Blows. That all sounds very exciting, but I wouldn’t really know. I didn’t see any of them for myself. I know for fact that there’s stat building and monster training involved in becoming the champion Beast Wrestler however, and while it appears comprehensive and fully-featured the matter of fact is that life’s too short to be bothering my arse with that.

Beast Wrestler is one of the slowest, most confounding and most poorly executed games I’ve ever played. Sometimes you just have to take a step back from a game, stand up, applaud and say aloud ‘fair play, that was fucking shite’. 1/10.

ChuChu Rocket! (2001)



Polished off the 1-Player mode in this GBA launch title, and it's held up rather well. Granted, it only takes the best part of an hour to roll the credits, but it's great fun. If you're unfamiliar with the original on Dreamcast, I won't hold it against you, but this GBA version is very similar bar two main areas. Firstly, it looks much rougher compared to the gloriously colourful console version. Secondly, it can be a bit fiddly to control, with L and R as crucial as the A and B buttons so it depends on what you're playing this on (I'm using an RG35XX which has cheap shoulder buttons).

My understanding is that the key selling point of the GBA version is it includes 2,500+ user-created levels from the Dreamcast's online community, and, given it wasn't an online platform AND it's portable, that's a worthwhile reason for purchasing (or playing illegally two decades later). I gave it to my 8-year old on a train journey and she beat it no problem - great game design transcends generations once again. Probably.

8/10

It took me a moment to work out that those pits were meant to be in the shape of a mouse's head.

It'd have made sense to post this final wrestling write-up around the time of WrestleMania, but I forgot. 




“The Showcase of the Immortals”, “The Grandest Stage of ‘em All”, “The Super Bowl of Wrestling”…WWF Super WrestleMania on the SNES is none of these things.
 
Released in late 1992, WWF Super WrestleMania was the first WWF game on the Super Nintendo and the debut of the Acclaim grappling system that would be utilised and refined again for 1993’s WWF Royal Rumble and 1994’s WWF RAW. I remember those sequels as being fairly all right at the time – I had a decent time playing them on the Mega Drive myself and with mates. It’s a strange game engine and mechanic that they use right enough, as on the evidence of WWF Super WrestleMania it should have been tried once and taken out of action, like the time Earthquake sat on Jake Roberts’ snake and made it into his dinner, or the time The Undertaker chokeslammed Bradshaw through a limousine. What a sport!

WWF Super WrestleMania is a dreary, uninteresting and badly underdeveloped button masher that has all the atmosphere of the Moon. Acclaim’s aforementioned grappling system amounts to little more than a game of electronic tug-of-war, and the moves you can pull off from that can honestly be counted on one hand. It’s much more straightforward to hammer the kick and punch buttons until your opponent can’t stand. Leaping off the top tope with a splash, springing off the ring ropes with a dropkick and brawling outside besides the crowd might sound more exciting, but in truth they just prolong the boredom. The best thing to do with WWF Super WrestleMania is get it over and done with as soon as you can – and with exactly three modes and exactly ten wrestlers who all play exactly the same, that’s achievable in under thirty minutes.
 
As they habitually did with other properties, LJN and Acclaim coasted on the license here. The enjoyable spritework and catchy renditions of the wrestler’s theme songs might have livened it up thirty-two years ago, but nowadays WWF Super WrestleMania lacks any worth or value. 3/10.

Cracking write-up, as usal Cappa.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

The enjoyable spritework and catchy renditions of the wrestler’s theme songs might have livened it up thirty-two years ago,

I feel like this would absolutely have done the job for me back in the day.

That no-armed man speaks the truth!

(except I actually think the graphics in the first game are better)