Necro's game clears and mindless musings

[geise]

Hell yeah necro! Nice on the clears! 

[Necromancer]

Thanks, goosey.  This next one is because of you and the GotM.   


Clear #103 - Last Alert



The Good:  the hilari-bad voice acting; neat rank system based on score, granting you new (usually better) weapons and more health; pretty decent redbook tunes; tons of different stages, some of which are non-linear and some reward stealth instead of just having you blast away at everything; plenty of variety in enemies, bosses, stage design / graphics, and weapons / sub-weapons; and the cut scenes are pretty impressive for such an early title.

The Bad:  the hilari-bad voice acting; the stupid short timer in many levels, forcing you to rush ahead and ignore enemies, and yet you still might run out of time, causing insta-death and game over or continue; and I feel bad for the sad melty snowmen.  The poor bastards.... 

The Ugly:  NA

Full Disclosure - unlike most of my clears, this one is not 1CC.  I can't imagine trying to blow through this in one sitting and without ever running out of time; 'tis frustrating as fuck.

[Necromancer]

Holy crow!  It's been four months!!!   


Clear #104 - Fray in Magical Adventure



The Good:  great opening and closing cut scenes; Fray is super cute and bumbles into all sorts of silliness; bright, colorful, and nicely varied backgrounds and settings; a fun mix of mainly overhead platforming with a couple of shewty / surfy stages to break up the action (kinda like Final Zone 2 but with cuteness and humor turned up to 11); Fray's ever changing facial expressions, representing her moods or current health; several weapon and bomb-like options; plenty of funky enemies and giant bosses; and did I mention Fray's cute?   

The Bad:  spotty jumping that leads to lots and lots of falls; and not enough animated cut scenes, with the story mostly being told with voicework and moonrunes, making it hard to follow the story.

The Ugly:  jumping on the falling logs will piss you off!

[geise]

I love Fray! Thanks for selling me your Dupe years ago. I have yet to finish this one as well. I am taking a ton of time of for holidays this year. So I'll be making time to sit down and play some pc-e / turbo.

[Necromancer]

December's GotM?   

[Gypsy]

This is a game I've always been on the fence about and never pulled the trigger even with a burn. I do have the iso just sitting in a folder here. Heard so many mixed things and I'm just not sure if it's worth my time.

[Necromancer]

Doooo eeeet!  Cute lil Fray is definitely worth a look.  The falling logs are annoying, but it's a short bit of an otherwise great game; don't let it scare you off.

[Androsynth]

Doooo eeeet!  Cute lil Fray is definitely worth a look.  The falling logs are annoying, but it's a short bit of an otherwise great game; don't let it scare you off.

My PCE knowledge is rusty (first time in 6 years I've been able to unpack and get back into it), but I think I missed this game even back then. This looks fun, might track a copy down once I get my Duo fixed.

[_joshuaTurbo]

Doooo eeeet!  Cute lil Fray is definitely worth a look.  The falling logs are annoying, but it's a short bit of an otherwise great game; don't let it scare you off.

My PCE knowledge is rusty (first time in 6 years I've been able to unpack and get back into it), but I think I missed this game even back then. This looks fun, might track a copy down once I get my Duo fixed.

It might be slightly more annoying, but just make sure you get the US version rather than the imported version.

The US voice acting is so terribly amazing, it's a classic!

[Necromancer]

Jashy forgot the Cook.   


On a serious note, I'm told the MSX version has been translated, but I'm not weeb enough to mess with turdy old PC stuff.   

[Androsynth]

It might be slightly more annoying, but just make sure you get the US version rather than the imported version.

The US voice acting is so terribly amazing, it's a classic!

Yeah, the 90's era CD voice overs are a pleasure in and of themselves. A good friend of mine and I sat down with his Sega CD and CDI collections one evening with some beers and went through this whole 'how bad can games get' thing. I was actually sore from laughing afterwards.

I'll have to nab this one once I get my duo fixed

[Necromancer]

Clear #105 - Doraemon Nobita no Dorabian Night



The Good:  cute, colorful, and cartoony scenery and enemies, with a giant djinn to fight at the end and nice, simple parallax in some spots; cool couch time warp scene between areas; several different weapons and special items; going back and replaying levels to enter previously unreachable areas; and how the end of the stage often previews the setting for the next stage.

The Bad:  slow pace, especially the level map screen; the screen doesn't center well vertically, leaving you open to attacks from your blind side if you don't jump up to force scrolling; and going back to previous stages seems kinda pointless - for what purpose do the pom-poms and microphone serve?

The Ugly:  NA

[roflmao]

Nice! My son and I played through the other Doraemon game (the Bomberman/Loderunner mashup) and it was fun, but got pretty repetitive by the end. Still, it was enough for us to hunt down and watch a few episodes of the cartoon, which made for a fun weekend afternoon.

[Necromancer]

That's awesome, rofl.  There's so much good doreamon stuff in Japan, but all we got was generic, bastardized cratermaze.   


Clear #105.5 - Doraemon Nobita no Dorabian Night CD



This is essentially the same game, so my comments are about the differences -

The Good:  better detail and coloring in backgrounds; a couple nice, new redbook songs; fancy new intro and outro scenes; and added voicework for when you pick up items, switch weapons, etc.

The Bad:  the game itself uses the same chip tunes, no redbook at all; the couch warp screen is now static and boring; and though the redrawn window skeletons are less flat and look more like they're popping out to get you, their preportions are off, looking weird and bulgy.

The Ugly:  NA

[Necromancer]

Clear #106 - CD Battle: Heroes of Light



Easiest clear ever?  It's almost as silly as a syscard clear!  You pop in a couple CDs to form opposing teams, you battle, and then it's back to the team formation screen to try again.

The Good:  it's unique, I guess; the art, what little there is, looks kinda cool; at least it's not pricey and dumb; and it's good to know that the Evil Dead musical's soundtrack forms a formidable team.

The Bad:  there's very little content, with no dungeons, towns, bosses, or other enemies.

The Ugly:  having bought it back in the day, expecting a real game.