Video Game Review #279: Contra: Hard Corps

Contra: Hard Corps

Sega Genesis

Nostalgia Factor:

If you’re a loyal reader of this blog you’ll know I’ve been working my way through the Contra Anniversary Collection and reviewing each game in the series. I’ve now played and reviewed every game on this collection, with the exception of Contra: Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis. Well, that changes today. It’s been an epic collection of games so far and I am so glad I’ve gotten the chance to play all the titles in the series I missed as a kid. Where would Hard Corps stack up against the rest? Turns out I saved one of the best for last! Read on for my full review.

Story:

This game takes place after Contra III: The Alien Wars. It revolves around an evil supervillain who has broken into a top secret research base in an attempt to steal a powerful alien cell that is a remnant from the Alien Wars. It’s up to you to put an end to the shenanigans.

I’m not going to pretend that this game’s story is important, but I do like that they did something different with this game. Every couple of levels you are given a choice as to how you would like to proceed. The choices you make affect how the game plays out, and the end result is a whopping FIVE different endings that you can unlock. This adds an unbelievable amount of replay value to an already fun game.

Gameplay:

It’s fast paced, there’s bullets and enemies coming at you constantly, and you’re going to find yourself dying quite often. Ah, must be a Contra game. If you played Alien Wars you should have a basic idea of what to expect here. Hard Corps does several things quite differently, however, and that’s what I will highlight in this review. I already mentioned the branching paths and the five different endings, but in addition to this you have a selection of four different characters to pick from.

As you play, you gather four different types of weapons that you can toggle between at any time as you play. Some examples include the spread gun, a homing attack, and a powerful shrapnel attack. Each of the four different characters have four different weapons, so in all there are 16 different weapon power-ups in this game. If you get hit and die with one of these upgrades selected, you lose it. So you have to be really careful as you play. If you can see that you’re going to get killed, switch to a weapon you barely use so that when you die you lose that instead of something more powerful. Your fifth weapon slot is allotted for bombs that you can collect. One of these destroys everything on the screen or does heavy damage to the boss characters. I suggest saving them for the bosses.

Gone are the gimmicky overhead or behind-the-back stages from Contras past. The closest this game comes to one of these stages is a Mode 7-esque stage where your character is running towards the screen and the boss character is chasing him in the background. This is a pretty easy stage though, probably one of the easiest in the game.

Before we go any further I am going to admit something to you: I didn’t like this game at first. The first time I played through this I thought it was a cheap, frustrating game that was vastly inferior to the Super Nintendo’s Alien Wars. I thought it was way too hard as well. My first playthrough of this game came using save states, and I remember that even with these save states I still found the game to be incredibly difficult to the point where I didn’t derive any entertainment from it.

In order to get 100% of the Contra Collection’s PSN trophies, I had to play through this game five different times and unlock all of the endings. Despite not really liking the game, I plugged away at unlocking these trophies, and as I slowly worked through this game one time after another, after another – something happened. I started to like this game. And I mean, REALLY like this game. Each playthrough I found myself getting better and better at the game. I started to master it in a way that I originally didn’t think would ever be possible. I still used save states, but I didn’t find things nearly as difficult as I did before. I unlocked all five endings and earned 100% of the game’s trophies. That’s usually when I stop playing. But I didn’t stop here. I kept going, and going, and going. I was bound and determined to beat this game without using save states.

To this day, I still haven’t been able to do this. Yeah, I know I know. Get good. But every time I play, I learn a little bit more and every time I play I get a little bit farther. One of these days I know I can do it. And to me that says a lot about this game because with other similarly difficult games in the past (like Super Empire Strikes Back, which I just reviewed) I only beat them once with save states and then never came back. There’s just something different, something magnetic about this game that keeps me coming back again and again.

Graphics:

Maybe this game doesn’t look quite as good as Alien Wars but it still looks really good. At first I thought it looked kind of plain and generic but the more I played and the deeper I got into the game, the more it began to impress me. This game just has so much personality that oozes through in its visuals. I love the over the top nature of the game’s action too with all the nonstop explosions and fast moving enemies. The game just does not let up. There’s some cool atmospheric effects to be found here too, most notably in the virtual zone and in the laboratory. The bosses are giant and brought to life wonderfully as well. I’m a fan.

 

Sound:

This game sounds amazing too. Maybe the game’s musical score isn’t as iconic as, say, the original Contra, but it is still pretty darn good. It is everything you’d ever want in a Sega Genesis Contra game. My favorite track in this game has to be the boss theme. As far as sound effects go, the sound of gunfire, explosions, and all the things happening on the screen match up with the graphics perfectly. No complaints from me.

Overall:

I never would have thought this when I first started playing the game, but this may be my favorite Contra title. Seriously. I don’t know if anything can top the original NES game for me, but Hard Corps comes the closest by far. This is a very challenging game, and it does take a lot of patience to play. So I can see how it might not be for everyone. But if you sit down and really give this game a chance you are going to find that it is a very rewarding experience. Any fans of the series who haven’t played this title need to get on it ASAP.

I have been saying this in a lot of my review lately, but I can't wait until my son is old enough to start gaming. Me and him are going to play the co-op mode in this game someday and we're going to beat it without save states. Just watch. I'm updating this blog when it happens. Don't think I won't.

 

Final Score:

A

If you liked this review please check out some of my other game reviews:

Contra

Super C

Contra III: The Alien Wars

Willow

Mega Man

Video Game Review #278: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Arcade

Nostalgia Factor:

It’s hard to describe just how big Ninja Turtle mania was back in the mid to late 1980s. It seemed like the Ninja Turtles just showed up out of nowhere, and then all of a sudden bam just like that I was under their spell. I religiously watched the cartoon. I had all the merchandise – the toys, clothes, comic books, bedsheets, school supplies, etc. I even had a music cassette tape from their “Coming out of Our Shells” rock tour. The Turtles were everywhere. The conversations at school were all dominated by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We ran around during recess and acted like the Turtles and recited our favorite Turtles quotes. We drew pictures of them. Personally, I lived and breathed Ninja Turtles. They even had a cereal, so I guess you could say I ate them too!

It was only a matter of time before we would be blessed with a TMNT video game. Unfortunately the game we got was the 1989 NES title. Everyone was so hyped for this game, only to be devastated by how odd and challenging it was. I think I am the only person from my circle who was actually able to beat the game. Almost everyone else I knew didn’t like the game. The fans felt like they deserved better.

Later on in the year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would be released in the arcades in the United States. Back then the internet wasn’t a thing. No one ever knew when arcade units were going to be released. They just kind of “showed up” with little to no fanfare. That’s what happened with this game.

Me and my family were at Chuck E. Cheese. I was wandering through the arcade section, looking for something good to play, when I heard a familiar tune in the distance. Was that… the Ninja Turtles theme song? I went running to track down where the music was coming from. I remember rounding a corner and – there it was, in its full glory: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. The graphics looked like the cartoon. The music was authentic. You could play as all four Turtles, and the gameplay looked like it was similar to something like Double Dragon (I wasn’t quite familiar with the term beat ‘em up yet). It was love at first sight.

Over the years I had the chance to play this game many many times at various arcades. Unfortunately, arcades have almost completely vanished since they were big in the 80s and 90s. Normally I frown on emulating, but if I didn’t emulate this game I likely never would have played it again. So that’s what I did. Read on for my full review of this game.

Story:

It’s a beat ‘em up, so don’t expect this game to have much of a story. The Foot Clan has kidnapped April O’Neill, so the Turtles go on a quest to beat the shit out of Krang, Shredder, Rocksteady, Bebop, and all of the evil minions of the Foot Clan to get her back. Their mission takes them from April’s flaming apartment unit to the city streets, the sewer, the Technodrome, and more!

 

Gameplay:

This is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up where the action takes place on a 3D plane. If you’ve played Final Fight, Streets of Rage, or Double Dragon you should know what to expect here. It is very easy to pick up and play. You have two buttons: jump and attack. Attack does what you’d think it would do: it attacks your enemies. Each of the Turtles has their own unique weapon with their own distinct strengths and weaknesses – Leo has the sword, Donny has the bo, Raph has the sais, and Mikey has the nunchakus. The jump button also does what you’d think it would do: it makes your character jump. Use this to jump over obstacles, avoid enemies, or launch into a jump kick attack.

The point of the game is very simple: beat the shit out of everything you see. Most of your regular enemies are going to be Foot Clan soldiers – color coded based on their unique attack modes. You make it through each stage, fighting Foot Clan soldiers and avoiding obstacles (like wrecking balls rolling down stairs or giant street signs falling on to your character). At the end of the stage you’ll square off against a boss character. You’ll recognize some familiar faces as these characters are pulled from the cartoon and the comics. Rocksteady, Bebop, Baxter Stockman, etc. Make it through all the levels in the game and you make it to the final stage, the Technodrome, where you must square off against Krang and then Shredder at the end of the game. Defeat them, and you have won. 

Playing this on an emulator, the game is quite easy. I died a lot, but there were no consequences to my deaths. I’d just pop in a virtual quarter, which costs me nothing in real life, and keep going. I would say I probably raced through this whole game in about 30 minutes –if that. The only parts that ever gave me troubles were the boss fights, most notably the Rocksteady/Bebop dual battle and the fight against the dude made out of rocks. I don’t know his name. These fights are probably the worst part of the game for me, as there seems to be little strategy involved. They turn into what seems like a pure war of attrition and nothing else. Like I said, playing on an emulator this is fine. But when it costs you real quarters in a video game arcade? That can be a real problem. No one wants to spend two dollars pounding away at some lame rock boss that wasn’t even recognizable from the cartoon.

(OK I just looked him up – and yes he is from the cartoon, but was a very minor character. Just wanted to post this for clarity’s sake)

 

Graphics:

This game looks sensational considering it came out in 1989. I can’t believe it’s 32 years old!

The graphics are bright and colorful and do a faithful job capturing the look and feel of the TMNT cartoon. The cutscenes at the beginning of the game really help transport you into that world, and the game never lets up after that.

The characters are instantly recognizable. The stages are nice and detailed. The bosses are amazing. I can’t say anything bad about the way this game looks.

 

Sound:

Just as the graphics do a great job bringing the cartoon world of the Ninja Turtles to life, so does the music. The iconic TMNT theme song plays at the beginning of the game. The level music is terrific. The voice acting is not the best, but all the small sounds you hear as you pummel your enemies are very satisfying to me. Playing this game instantly transports me back to the 1980s, and the music and sound effects are a huge reason for that.

 

Overall:

If I had never played this game before and I was judging it by today’s standards, I’d like to think I’d still have had a good time with this game. It is one of those titles that, despite its age, is infinitely playable. I just think it has aged SO WELL!

You can tell that a lot of heart was put into this game to make it as faithful to the cartoon as humanly possible, and it shows. Even if I wasn’t a TMNT fan I’d still have to sit back and appreciate the love that went into this game. But hey, I am a TMNT fan and I think that this game is an absolute treasure. I think back to the year 1989, when seven year old Danny boy was running through Chuck E Cheese, following the sound of the Ninja Turtles theme song. I think of how my face must have lit up when I first laid eyes on this arcade cabinet. I think of all the good times I’ve had with this game over the years. This title means a lot to me, and I just want to say thank you to Konami for crafting something that had such a giant impact on my childhood.

Is the game perfect? No. Is it chock full of secrets and replay value that will keep you coming back for more? Not really. I played through this game from start to finish two times and I’m probably going to be done with it for a long time - until my son is old enough to appreciate it, and then I can introduce it to him too. I can only hope his eyes light up like mine must have 32 years ago. 

I’ll keep you posted. Really, I will. And I can't wait.

 

Final Score:

A-

For a complete index of all of my game reviews, click

>>HERE!!<<

Video Game Review #277: Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Super Nintendo

Nostalgia Factor:

 

I first reviewed Super Star Wars back on January 23rd, 2015 – a whopping six and a half years ago. My initial plan was to play all three Super Star Wars game in rapid succession and pump out some reviews talking about which of these games was the best. Obviously this never happened. Later is better than never, however, and it’s finally time for me to play and review Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. How would this game compare to the original? Quite well, actually. Read on for the sweet sweet details.

Story:

This game follows the basic events of the movie’s story. Obviously there are a lot of liberties taken with the story (do you remember when Han got into a blaster fight with the carbon-freezing generator? How about when Luke gunned down a bunch of security forces on his way into Cloud City? I sure don’t) but I really can’t hold that against the game as the movies don’t offer enough source material to fill an entire video game. Just like with the original Super Star Wars, you just kind of have to accept these wacky scenarios and take them as they come.

Gameplay:

At first glance this plays a lot like the original Super Star Wars. You run, shoot, hack things with your lightsaber, jump over pits, and generally destroy everything in your sight. Even the power-ups are the same. Lightsabers that extend your life bar. Darth Vader helmets that double and triple your points. Thermal detonators that kill everything onscreen. Pretty quickly, though, you begin to notice some major differences.

The first major difference is the addition of a double jump. I didn’t even really think about it that much as I played, but now in retrospect I realize how much of a difference this extra jump makes, especially in some of the more difficult platforming areas. You can’t choose what characters you can pick either, as the game does its best to follow the basic events of the movie. For example, it wouldn’t make sense to have Han training on Dagobah or Chewbacca fighting Darth Vader.

The game also seems a bit faster paced than the original. The original had some levels that seemed like they dragged on forever – like both the interior and exterior of the Jawa sand crawler. This game is comprised of many shorter, quicker levels. There were some that I beat in a matter of two or three minutes, which would have been unheard of in the original game. When you start a new level, you start with full health so that was always a welcome thing for me.

I mention full health because this game is HARD. I’m going to say something that may make you disown me as a serious gamer, and I’m fine with that. But I used save states to beat this game. I used them a lot, too, trying to make my way through each level while taking as minimal amount of damage as I could. If I majorly screwed up and lost too many lives or too much health, I’d reload the state and keep doing it again until I got it right. This may seem like “cheating” and I didn’t beat the game the way it was intended to be beaten, but I really don’t care. If I sat down to play this game and didn’t use save states, I’d probably STILL be playing it two weeks from now. It’s just so damn hard, and unfairly so too. Enemies pop out at random. They literally just drop from the sky in many different levels. They respawn when you kill them. They knock you off ledges. They constantly pester you every second of every stage. The game often feels cheap in its difficulty level, which is why I don’t have any problem with me using the save states. If it is going to play dirty, I’m going to too.

One plus side to this is that I was able to beat the game on its normal difficulty level, which I wasn’t able to do with Super Star Wars (which I had to play on easy). So there’s that.

Outside of the bosses, this game has some… uh… “fun” mode 7 flying levels? I appreciate that they tried to do something to break up the 2D platforming monotony, but some of these levels are flat out bad. They’re clunky, it’s hard to aim, and you are constantly getting cheap shotted left and right. If I had to pick one of these levels that I liked, however, it would have to be the Hoth stage where you pilot a snowspeeder and have to wrap the tow cables around the AT AT’s legs to trip them up. I loved this part in Shadows of the Empire, and I liked it here.

 

Graphics:

This game looks awesome. The bright colors, the giant character sprites. The levels look fantastic. There is so much detail everywhere you look. The world of the Empire Strikes Back is really brought to life in such a fun, colorful, cartoonish kind of way. I can’t say enough how much I love this game’s look. It is terrific.

Sound:

The game sounds amazing too. You can never go wrong with Star Wars music, even when it is pumping through a Super Nintendo cartridge. The lightsaber sounds great. The blaster shots sound great. The hectic nature of this game means there is always something wild happening on screen, and the game manages the chaos perfectly. The sound coupled with the game’s colorful look really brings this game to life. The presentation of this title is wonderful, and probably the best thing about it.

 

Overall:

I’m really torn when it comes to this game. It does so many things right. The presentation, the weapons, the nonstop action. This game looks and sounds amazing, and it is fun to play… to a certain extent. I thought this game was pretty tough and challenging even using save states. I can’t possibly imagine playing this game without them. I am sure it can be beaten, but it probably requires much more trial and error practice than I am willing to put in. I see that this game does include a password feature, so that is nice. You don’t have to start from the beginning each time you run out of continues. But still, this game is hard. And not just hard – fucking hard. And in a cheap, random way too. It doesn’t feel fair half the time.

And that’s the main problem I have with this game. I had fun with it, yes – with save states. I can only imagine that without them this game is no fun at all. You constantly die, the bosses are unfair, the level design basically sets you up for failure. I’m kind of at a loss as to how I should grade this. 

I think this would be a really amazing game if it was more fair. All the tools for success are there. It’s just that the challenge level drags it down SO MUCH. It doesn’t matter how good a game looks or sounds if you aren’t having a good time playing it. If you are playing with save states like I did, you’ll have a much better time playing this game. If you aren’t… I really don’t know how you’d like it. I guess I’ll have to aim somewhere for the middle with my final score. For what it’s worth, I do feel this is a better game than Super Star Wars, which I gave a B-. But I just really don’t know if I can go any higher than that.

 

Final Score:

B-

If you liked this review check out some of my other game reviews:

Super Star Wars

Demolition Man

Contra III: The Alien Wars

Aladdin

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter

Video Game Review #276: Grandia

Grandia

PlayStation

Nostalgia Factor:

I first became aware of Grandia back in 1997 or 1998. This was supposed to be the Sega Saturn's big answer to the PS1's Final Fantasy VII. I was super excited for it. Unfortunately, despite enjoying success overseas, the title was never ported to the US. I was very disappointed. The reviews for it had been overwhelmingly positive. I'd even read it described as the greatest RPG ever made. And yet I wasn't going to be able to play it. Another failure in a long series of failures for the Saturn console.

Luckily, in 1999 the title was picked up and ported over not to the Saturn but to its original competitor the PS1. I didn't immediately run out and buy this game, but I did get my hands on it about two years later. For whatever reason, I never bothered to really give the game a chance. I fired it up one time in 2002 or 2003 and made it to the part where Justin has to swab the deck, but that is where I stopped. 

I'd end up coming back to the game in the year 2021. 22 years after the game's initial release, and 18 years after that one time I played a few hours of it. It's kind of funny how it took me so long to finally play this game, despite being so excited for its potential Saturn release WAY back in the day. I don't know why it took me so long. It was just... never the right time to play it. This is a perfect example of the way I choose to play my games - precisely however and whenever I want.

Would Grandia be worth the long wait? Read on to hear my thoughts.

Story:

Grandia’s story is actually pretty simple. You play as Justin, a young self-proclaimed “adventurer” living in the ocean side city of Parm. Justin sets out on a quest to discover the mystery behind the Spirit Stone, a strange gem left to him by his late father. His travels take him to an excavation site where he sees a vision of a woman named Liete, who tells him that he must travel across the ocean to discover the lost city of Alent – where he will find his answers. Justin is joined on his journey by a local friend named Sue, and along the way they encounter many different eclectic personalities that join the party and flit in and out of it.

Justin and his companions travel past “The End of the World”, a mysterious wall that separates the New World from the old. There it is discovered that an ancient creature named Gaia has been awakened by the Garlyle military. Their leader, General Baal, is looking for the Spirit Stone which will help him control Gaia and take over the world… or something. Justin trades the Spirit Stone for his friend’s life, and is forced to regroup and bring together all of the people he had encountered during his adventures to strike back at Baal and destroy Gaia and the Spirit Stone once and for all.

This is an extremely truncated and short version of the game’s events. This is a 50-plus hour game. Not mentioned are all the side quests you are going to get pulled into. I’ll give you a few examples. Along the way, one of your companions (Feena) is kidnapped and you have to rescue her before she can be forced into a marriage she does not want. You battle a ghost ship while crossing the ocean. You save a town from acid rain. You run multiple fetch quests almost every time you enter a new village before the people of the village will actually help you. There are many, many more side quests that I can’t think of at the moment. If I had to compare the pace of this game to any other game, it would be that of Final Fantasy IX. It just felt very similar at times to me, particularly with how linear the game is and how you are pulled into a new adventure each time you reach a new location. The actual main plot often felt secondary at times in favor of the small adventures you encounter along the way.

 

Gameplay:

This game takes place from your typical RPG overhead view. You run around, you explore towns, you buy and sell items, you talk to people. There is no overworld that you use to traverse from location to location. When you leave an area, a game map is brought up and you simply pick your next destination, hit X, and you are taken directly there.

Battles are not random. You can see enemies on the game map and either run directly at them, which often results in you gaining initiative during the battle, or you can try to avoid them. Be careful though - enemies will chase after you and if they touch you from behind, you are pulled into battle and the enemies will have initiative, making the fight that much more difficult. Combat takes place in a semi real time manner. There is a bar on the bottom of the screen that indicates attack order. If you strike an enemy, it freezes their progress on the bar for a second or two while everyone else continues to advance along the bar. You can use this strategically to stun your enemies and try to sneak in as many attacks as you can before it is their turn.

Character and enemy placement is also a big thing. If your characters are bunched together, it makes it easier for enemies to hit everyone in your party with a single magic attack. If you space everyone out, the enemy has a much more difficult time doing that. This works in reverse, too. If your enemies are all bunched together, you have a much better chance of doing damage to all of them with a single magic attack than you would if they were spaced out. Utilizing this strategy plays a big part in battles throughout this game. 

One thing I liked about the combat system is that your special moves and spells level up the more you use them. So for example if you cast fire all the time, eventually fire will level up into a more powerful attack. If you never cast fire, you’ll be stuck with the same measly weak fire spell the entire game. This lends a little extra strategy to battles. I was often using multiple techniques in battle since I wanted the most leveled-up skills and spells I could get.

If this all sounds fun and dandy to you – it is. This is a very well-designed and intricate battle system. But let me get to the problems I had with it, most notably the load times and the grinding. The load times often last a good ten seconds after each battle before you return to the game map. This may not seem too excessive at first, but keep in mind that you have to grind A LOT if you want to have a chance at beating this game. Some of the bosses in this game can be absolutely brutal. You have to sit through hundreds and hundreds of battles throughout this game if you want to level up strong enough to win. Those ten seconds really start to add up. There is also a long delay when you open up your inventory on the game map. It made me not want to use healing items or check my character’s equipment since it takes so long for the menu to open up each time. 

Another issue I had was with the enemy placement on the map. Grandia kind of gives you the illusion that these enemy fights aren’t randomly generated like, say, Final Fantasy IX. While it is true, yes, there aren’t random encounters, enemy placement on the map often forces you into fighting them whether you want to or not. There’s so many tight corridors filled with enemies you just can’t sneak by. And if you do try to run by them, they’ll just hit you from behind and force you into a more challenging battle. As a result I ended up fighting almost every single enemy I came across, which somewhat defeated the purpose of no random encounters.

There also seems to be an imbalance in the game’s difficulty level, especially later in the game. I would absolutely slaughter every enemy on the map before they even had a chance to attack me, but then when I’d encounter a boss I’d get wiped out in just a small handful of turns. WTF? My only solution was to grind and grind some more – against weak enemies who offered no resistance or challenge to me whatsoever. The grinding would go on for hours and hours. It just KILLS any momentum this game may have had in its second half. It took me months and months to finish this game, it became such a slogfest. What were the developers THINKING???

That’s my AVGN moment of this review. Anyway, this game had such a great concept, fun characters, a good battle system, etc. It feels like such a waste that the grinding and the load times pretty much canceled that all out.

 

Graphics:

This game has that classic JRPG pixel art look to it that I just love. The world is bright and colorful. This is definitely a good looking game. If I had to compare the look of this game to anything it would be to Xenogears, with its 2D pixel characters inhabiting a rotating 3D world. In many ways this game looks better than Xenogears if only due to the detail and interactivity found in the game’s interiors. For example, if you touch some dishes on a table they will clatter, or if you touch a tea kettle steam will shoot out of it. It’s small touches like that which really bring this game to life. There are also some big, cinematic moments to be found in this game, like when you reach the top of the wall. This game’s presentation is definitely not one of its problems.

 

Sound:

I’ve made the Xenogears comparison with the graphics, so I guess I’ll do it with the sound too. A lot of the villages have fun, Gaelic-inspired music themes that are very reminiscent of something you’d hear in Xenogears. Overall this game’s soundtrack is much inferior to Xenogears, but I couldn’t help but notice a lot of similarities. One of my favorite tunes in the game is the jingle that plays when you win a battle, and I am really mad that they changed it about halfway through the game. The voice acting though…. yikes. It’s best if I don’t even mention it any further. It is bad. Good thing it isn’t utilized very often.

 

Overall:

If it feels like I’ve been pretty harsh on Grandia, I have. This is a game with a lot of flaws and pacing issues. It does a lot right, however, with its fun battle system and its unique way of leveling up your characters. It looks good, it sounds good. I was interested in its story, even though it meandered a bit too much for my tastes.

I just feel as if there are too many negatives to be found here- and these negatives are so strong that they begin to overtake the positives. The loading times, the grinding, the fetch quests, the unavoidable enemies, all the meandering and going off track that the plot does. I haven’t even mentioned the confusing nature of the dungeons and how everything looks the same. I shit you not, if you added up all the times I got lost trying to leave a dungeon or combat area it must have added up to about 5 or 6 hours. There is no map to reference. Your compass is useless. Way too much time is wasted unnecessarily in this game. 

I also hated how characters would randomly leave the party. I’d spend hours and hours leveling people up only to have them leave and never come back. Such an obnoxious waste of time. That seems to be the theme here. From the long loading times, the endless battling and leveling up, the getting lost, the fetch quests, the backtracking – everything this game does seems like it is designed to waste your time. It’s not fun. It’s not cute. It’s fucking tedious.

There’s a reason it took me so many months to beat this game: I didn’t want to play it. Firing up the game was a chore each and every time. Grandia began to feel more like work than play – and that doesn’t fly with your homie over here.

It’s such a shame too, because buried under all my complaints is a game that at its core is worth playing. For the first time in the history of this blog, I feel bad giving a game a poor score. I have heard that there is a remaster of this game that came out sometime in the last few years. I really, really hope that the remaster fixes this game’s flaws. Even adding a simple speed-up option (like in the FF VIII remaster) would do wonders for this game. Truly: I really wanted to like Grandia. I really did. For that 16 year old kid in me who was so crushed when the Saturn version wasn't ported stateside. I just… ugh. Since you can’t see me I want you to know I am shaking my head right now.

No, this is not a horrible or unplayable game. Like I said there is a lot of good to be found here. But will I play it again? Absolutely not. And that’s pretty telling right there. I have heard this game's sequel is better, however. I am still very willing to check it out someday. This game hasn't completely killed my interest in the series.

Final Score:

D+

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Chrono Trigger

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy IX

Xenogears

Final Fantasy VIII

Video Game Review #275: Aliens

Aliens 

Arcade

Nostalgia Factor:

On this blog I’ve made note of the fact that I recently discovered how to work video game emulators. One of the best things about emulators is the ability to go back and play games that I missed out on when I was younger. Aliens is one of those games. Not only did I not play Aliens as a kid, I had never even heard of it before. That changed when I was perusing a retro video game group on Facebook. I saw some screenshots of the game and read the comments praising the game, and I knew instantly that I had to check it out. Would I like it? Let’s find out.

 

Story:

This game loosely follows the plot of the ’86 movie Aliens. And when I say loosely, I mean loosely. I guess the basics are there: You arrive at the colony on LV-426, you shoot the shit out of a ton of aliens, and then you kill the queen at the end using that yellow mechanical suit thingy.

A lot has been added to the game that was not seen in the movie. Different alien types, different weapons, different scenarios. Do you remember the part of the movie where Ripley zooms along on a rail car, blasting dozens of Aliens that swarm her way? What about the part where she fights a giant bubble-shooting alien? Maybe the part where she is on an elevator and has to kill all the aliens trying to chew through the cable lines? Of course not, none of this happens in the movie. But you can’t fault the game for adding content. If it stuck solely to the events of the film it would not allow for any kind of creative flexibility and would probably make for a very dull game.

 

Gameplay:

The gameplay is simple but effective: shoot aliens and don’t allow yourself to be killed. This game differs from other shooters like Contra in the way that it incorporates 3D playing fields for your character to traverse– almost like a TMNT or Final Fight-esque beat ‘em up. You have two attack buttons – you can fire high or you can fire low. I found myself firing high most of the time as you can move quicker from this position. Also, there aren’t many enemies that hang out low to the ground, but when you do encounter them (like facehuggers) you can see them coming a mile away.

You collect power-ups as you play, and these power-ups increase your weapon’s firepower. If you die you go back to your basic pea-shooter weapon, so when you get a new weapon upgrade you want to hang onto it as long as possible.

The game is comprised of six stages, most of which have bosses characters at the end of them. The game as a whole I didn’t find too overly difficult. I’d say if I was playing in the arcade it would have taken about three or four dollars for me to finish this game. Most of my deaths occurred during boss battles, most of which boiled down to wars of attrition. In particular, the second to last Alien queen boss (the one with the sacs still attached). I could not for the life of me develop a good strategy for fighting this character, and found myself just standing there spamming the attack button while taking damage and dying over and over again. I imagine this probably would have angered me if I was plugging actual quarters into an arcade unit. On an emulator with unlimited continues, it is far less frustrating.

 

Graphics:

I think this game looks really good. It was released in 1990, and certainly looks better than any NES or Genesis games released in that general timeframe. I think it looks better than most of that era’s arcade titles too. The environments are varied and unique. There are a ton of different enemy types to fight. And I just really love how vibrant and colorful everything looks. Who would have thought such a dark and drab looking movie would have inspired such a colorful looking game?

 

Sound: 

I can’t say I remember much of anything about the game’s music or sound effects, and I even played through this game twice before sitting down to write this review. I was too caught up in all the fast paced action to give the game’s sound much mind. It was… fine, I suppose. I don’t recall having any complaints. It does the job – nothing more, nothing less. That’s really all I can say about it.

 

Overall: 

This is a really short game. You can beat it in 20 or 30 minutes easily. Since I was using an emulator, there was never a moment where I had to worry about running out of lives or continues. I was able to just sit back and enjoy the game for what it is. And it’s a fun game! I can’t really say anything bad about it. It’s fast paced, it looks nice, and the run and gun action is a lot of fun. I challenge anyone who grew up playing classic retro video games to sit back and say that this game sucks. They can’t, because it doesn’t. The only criticism I have to offer is, again, on the game’s length. If I had bought this as a full price video game for 50 or 60 bucks I would feel VERY ripped off. There’s not much replay value to be found here either. Beat the game once, you’ve seen everything there is to see in the game. Aliens is good for EXACTLY what it is – a short, relatively easy shoot ‘em up that allows you to kill some aliens and blow off some steam. If you’re looking for anything groundbreaking or world-changing, you’re coming to the wrong place.

Final Score:

B-

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Contra

Double Dragon

Smash TV

TMNT III: The Manhattan Project

The Lawnmower Man

Video Game Reviews #273 and #274: Batman Returns

Batman Returns

Sega Genesis and Sega CD

Nostalgia Factor:

This is such a historic day for this blog. You are witnessing two “firsts” unfold right before your eyes. My first review of a Sega CD game, AND my first ever dual review. Why the dual review? Easy. The Sega Genesis and the Sega CD versions of Batman Returns are two extremely similar games, but they have key differences that I feel make them two separate entities. At the same time, since they are so similar I don’t want to write two different reviews where I just end up repeating myself 90% of the time. Hence, the dual review. I hope that makes sense. It feels weird breaking my strict video game review guidelines but ultimately I feel comfortable with that decision.

Some background: I first played Batman Returns for the Sega Genesis back in the year 1992. I was ten years old at the time. I loved this game. I had to have played through it from start to finish at least 20 to 30 times. As a result, I became quite good at it. I didn’t have a Sega CD at the time, but I was aware that the Sega CD version of the game had driving levels in it which weren’t included in the Genesis version of the game. I always wanted to check out those driving levels, but I’d never get the chance. Until now, in the year 2021, with the help of emulators.

I’d not only end up playing the Sega CD version of Batman Returns, I’d check out the Genesis one as well for comparison. It’s been 29 years since I first played this title. How would it hold up over that time? Would the driving levels be worth the wait? Which version would ultimately reign supreme? Let’s find out.

 

Story:

This game does a good job of following the basic plot of the movie Batman Returns. It’s Christmas time. You’re fighting the Penguin’s evil gang of circus hoodlums. You fight the Catwoman. The mall blows up. You take the fight to the Penguin’s icy underground lair where you face off against him as the game’s final boss. The end.

There are some key differences here. I think the Genesis version actually has the leg up when it comes to storytelling because of some things that aren’t in the Sega CD version of the game. At the beginning of the Genesis game, you see the Penguin knock the Ice Princess off the top of a roof of a tall building and you see Batman jump down in a failed attempt to save her. Some haunting music plays in the background during this whole scene. It does a really good job setting up the look and feel of the game. The Sega CD shows this scene, but from a different angle with different music playing. I feel it isn’t nearly as effective as the Genesis introduction.

The other big difference is that at the end of the Genesis game, you have one last fight against Catwoman on a rooftop as the end credits play. If you defeat her, she falls to the ground and a bunch of cats come rushing in to… EAT HER BODY!! The cats disband and there is only an empty space where her body once lay. Laid? Lain? Was Laying? Who freaking knows. In the Sega CD version, after defeating the Penguin, you see Batman standing on a rooftop shrouded in fog while the end credits play. No mention of Catwoman at all. Very lame.

Genesis: 1. Sega CD: 0

 

Gameplay:

The Sega CD version of this game offers both driving levels and 2D platforming levels. The platforming levels are identical for both systems. Controlling Batman, you must make your way to the end of each stage, fighting enemies, swinging from your bat rope, collecting items, and going into battle against boss characters. Batman’s basic attacks are a punch and kick attack, but as you play you’re going to get your hands on all kinds of different weapons. You can access these weapons by bringing up Batman’s utility belt, where you are given the option of which one to select. Your basic weak, disposable batarangs, gas bombs, powerful homing batarangs, and more. Learning to master the use of these weapons is key to excelling at this game. Don’t hold back or try to hoard them. Use them freely!

The actual platforming action itself is nothing to write home about. The game moves kind of slow. The jumping and swinging can be a bit clunky. You can’t see very far in front of you and a lot of times you are just blindly jumping into the void and hoping you don’t fall into a bottomless pit. The enemies appear suddenly on the edge of the screen and can cheap-shot you left and right. It’s not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, I just don’t think there’s anything too horribly special about it. That said, I still oddly REALLY like it for some reason. This has to be a nostalgia thing. I liked this as a kid, so I like it now. And maybe there’s something to that theory. But god dang if I didn’t have a fun time playing this game, even though I knew in the back of my mind that the game itself really wasn’t too great.

As I mentioned before, the Sega CD version of the game offers additional driving levels not found on the Genesis cartridge. I’ve read that these driving levels are a ton of fun and that some people play Batman Returns for the Sega CD ONLY for these levels. I decided to check them out myself. All I can say is that I am disappointed in them. To me, they aren’t any fun at all. They are long, they are overly challenging, and they are at times unfairly frustrating. Yeah yeah, I know. Get good. Maybe if I’d grown up playing this game and had spent hours and hours with it as a kid, I’d like these driving levels. I just don’t have patience for them as an adult. The worst driving level in my mind is when you are driving that bat-submarine thing though the Penguin’s lair. The tight spaces you have to squeeze through are ridiculous. Get hit and it slows you down. There’s a timer, so you have to go fast. If the timer runs out, you have to do the whole thing over again. But if you hit too much stuff, you die and have to start over again. It’s SO annoying. And this stage goes on forever and ever, too – broken up into five different timed sections. Ugh. I didn’t think it was ever going to end.

So if you ask me, I prefer the Genesis version of the game because I don’t have to bother with the driving stages. I HATE them. At the same time, the Sega CD version of the game offers you the opportunity to only play the platforming levels, so if I choose to skip the driving stages I can certainly do that. So it is all a wash in the end. No points for either system.

Genesis: 1. Sega CD: 0

 

Graphics:

The 2D platforming stages are identical. They look darn good though, for 1992. This is one of the best video game representations of Batman himself that I have seen. The Penguin looks good. Catwoman looks good. Gotham City is hauntingly beautiful. The whole look and feel of the game completely matches everything the movie is trying to do. 

The driving stages might appear a bit dated when looking at them through the lens of the year 2021 (and beyond!) but honestly that doesn’t bother me at all. Back in the early 90s, these graphics were mind-blowing and as good as it could possibly get. Again, they capture the look and feel of the movies flawlessly. The Sega CD version also offers short cutscenes of Batman behind the wheel of the Batmobile. While these also might seem a little bit cheesy and dated, you have to remember that this was cutting edge stuff for its time. I certainly can’t fault it for that.

Sega CD gets the point here.

Genesis 1. Sega CD 1.

 

Music:

The Sega CD version of this game often gets praise for its music, but honestly I find the Genesis version of the game much better in this regard. Batman Returns for the 16-bit console has that classic Sega Genesis feel to its music and sound effects. It’s hard to describe it, but if you know what I’m talking about, you know what I’m talking about. The Sega CD version’s music, while good, sounds out of place for a Batman game and doesn’t match the look and feel of the rest of the game. The music for the Genesis game is a much better fit for the 2D platforming stages. The driving stages for the Sega CD have music that is more appropriate, but it still doesn’t quite do enough to elevate it above the Genesis for me.

Genesis 2. Sega CD 1.

Overall:

We’ve reached the end of this review, and the Sega Genesis version of the game has received more points than the Sega CD version. That means it is better, right? I don’t know. It’s all up to whether you like the driving stages or not. I personally did not like them, but at the same time I appreciate that they give you the opportunity to skip them and only play the 2D platforming stages for the Sega CD. When you line up both game’s platforming stages against one another, they are basically identical – with the exception of the music, which I liked more for the Sega Genesis.

So really, these games deserve almost the exact same score. I can’t hold the driving levels against the Sega CD version too much, because like I said you can skip them if you don’t want to play them. The music doesn’t do too much to lift the Genesis above the Sega CD game either. I’ve read many reviews where people have raved about the Sega CD’s music and has said it is better than the Genesis. I don’t know, though. The music feels like it would be more at home in another game, not a Batman game. And then you have to factor in the fact that the Genesis version gives you that extra Catwoman fight and a little bit of added closure to her story.

If I had a choice as to which one I would rather play, I’d say the Genesis game. The music and the few extra scenes put it over the top for me – but barely. You can’t go wrong with the Sega CD version either. If you like the driving stages, I can see why you’d like it more than the Genesis version. And I’m okay with that. I don’t agree with it, but I can see your point of view. That said, neither game is really that special or memorable in the grand scheme of things. If you’ve never played either game, you’re probably okay skipping over them. Personally I have some strong nostalgic feelings for this game as I lived through Batman Returns mania in the early 90s. 

This may surprise you but I have decided to give each version of the game the same score. As far as gameplay  goes, both versions are nearly identical when it comes to the 2D platforming stages. I've always stressed in these reviews that the fun factor is all that matters to me. Maybe I like one version's music a little more, but that's not enough to change my opinion on the core game. It's the exact same thing. I'm just going to pretend the driving levels don't exist.

Final Score:

Sega CD: C +

Genesis: C+

 

Check out some of my other Batman reviews:

Batman Returns (SNES)

Batman Forever

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Origins

Batman: Arkham Knight

Batman: The Telltale Series

Batman: The Enemy Within