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Balloon Kid Stats and Records
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Tag Archives: Nintendo Switch Online
PAC-Man (NES) Stats and Records
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Mendel Palace Stats and Records
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The Tower of Druaga Stats and Records
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The Tower of Druaga Review
This is easily one of the worst NES titles that I’ve played. I’m afraid it just hasn’t held up at all. Any game where you have a missable item that makes completing the title almost impossible is definitely going to be a thumbs down from me. It’s a super obscure gameplay decision but this isn’t the first time that I’ve run into this. So that’s already a bad thing against this title. The gameplay actually had some potential too so that’s what makes this one sad.
There are 50 levels in the game. You essentially start off in a Pac-Man type of maze. You have to find the key that is scattered somewhere within the maze and then use that to unlock a treasure chest. When you’ve done that then you will have completed the level. Rinse and repeat for 50 levels. There are various enemies and ghosts that will try to get in your way. If any of them touch you, then you lose a life. You seem to be able to slash at them and can defeat most enemies but it is unclear on exactly what enemies you can defeat. I didn’t have very much luck with defeating them.
So far this doesn’t sound so bad right? It means you will be getting a good amount of exploration done and you have to move quietly and carefully so that you don’t bump into the enemies. Well, the main problem comes midway through the game when the title suddenly turns the lights off. Now you can’t see anything and it turns out that the reason for this is because there is an item you have to get from one of the minions. This would have worked as a flashlight of sorts and by missing it, you are now in big trouble. With the help of rewind I was able to power through 2 of the dark levels but it takes an incredibly long amount of time to do that in each instance. It’s definitely not easy, to put it mildly.
This was an absolutely massive misstep by the game. It makes the later levels virtually unplayable as a result. Not only can you not see the various paths but you can’t even see the enemies in some cases which causes you to bump into them. Your only recourse is to start the game from scratch. When that is the only thing to do, you have essentially failed at being a game. There should never be a case where you are effectively soft locked like this.
To an extent you can get a small pass on this in strategy games but even then it should be something that is difficult to achieve. For example in Fire Emblem games it is absolutely possible for this to happen but in general I would say that it should be rare. More the exception to the rule if you would. In this game, odds are very high that you won’t get the light because defeating enemies is already very difficult.
The game incentivizes you to skip them and to focus all of your attention on the key. So now you have a gameplay mechanic that goes against the game itself. There also could be more gameplay mechanics like that within the title. I don’t know about them because I didn’t make it to the end of the game but it certainly feels likely to me. This is a game that is all about punishing the player and that’s a problem.
The gameplay also isn’t very smooth which is part of why defeating enemies is so difficult. It is very ease to just move too quickly or to miss something. If you really want to make a game about finding things and going backwards, well then I’d suggest making a rogue-lite kind of game. The kind of title that encourages you to play over and over again with quick runs on the back-end. If you develop a game like that, then you could have game ending scenarios. I would still recommend not making it quite as easy to fall into as this game though. No matter how you look at it, this feels too excessive.
As for the graphics, well it looks okay. The game is definitely old and the graphics reflect that but at the same time it doesn’t look below average or anything like that. I would say it fits in with the rest of the games well enough. As for the soundtrack, it’s certainly on the bland side but that was the case for a lot of the NES titles back in the day. So even this is more par for the course really. The technicals are not holding the gameplay back, it is simply the game design which did that.
In terms of replay value, well I believe the game does loop after 50 levels so you can keep on trying to play it and see how far you go. That’s the only kind of replay value here though and the original 50 levels should only take you around 2-3 hours to get through. As long as you don’t lose or miss any items. The amount of content here is about up to standard as well.
Overall, If you have the Switch Online then you have access to hundreds of other great games. I would recommend playing those instead of checking this one out. It’s easily one of the weaker games that I’ve played through and that’s saying something. It is definitely not the kind of game that will become your favorite franchise going forward. Trust me on that one. That said, maybe I’ll check out another game in the series because it sounds like it is a very different kind of experience. You can only go up after a title like this as well. It’s pretty rare to play a game that I would say is downright “bad” so in a way that will end up making this one fairly memorable, more so than if it was actually good.
Overall 3/10
Mendel Palace Review
It’s time for one of those retro NES titles. I definitely hadn’t heard of this one before, but granted, I suppose a lot of these were really before my time. The game is decent, it has a very unique style to it. That being said, I don’t think this would end up being a game that I would seek to replay. It’s not like Mario or Pac-Man where the gameplay is just super solid. The gameplay is original and can be fun but isn’t super great or anything like that.
Basically you are on a checkers board of sorts. You can move across the tiles and flip the ground which sends a little shockwave in the direction that you are facing. You will be faced off with 4 opponents and your goal is to shockwave them into one of the walls. Once your opponents are slammed then you move onto the next level. Each world has 10 levels to it and there are around 8-9 worlds. Each one introduces you to a new enemy until the final world where you fight them all. Now that is definitely a real ambitious final world, I can tell you that.
The levels range from being a few seconds long to several minutes. It really depends on the different tricks that the villains are using and a little RNG sprinkled in as well. The gameplay is simple so you can really just focus on positioning and being in the right place at all times. There are also different kinds of floors which becomes more of a factor as you play through the game. You have star spaces which cause shockwaves in all directions and other tiles that cannot fire shockwaves.
The most annoying kind of tile is definitely the portal which allows enemies to infinitely summon new versions of them. You need to flip these tiles over immediately or the levels will get much more difficult. You have no health bar so if any villain touches you then you lose a life. Additionally if a shockwave hits you, you will lose a life. So there is absolutely no margin for error here. For the most part you can react to any kind of attack, but one exception is when enemies bump into each other and then get sent into a bunch of different directions.
You just have to try and prevent this from happening in the first place because you will really not be able to prevent this from happening. There are simply too many enemies and they are all over the place. One wrong step and that is game over. Each enemy has a different movement style, some are easier to deal with than others. You have the sumo wrestler for example who can resist the shockwaves pretty well. You need to land lots of hits to take him out and he counters after each one. If any counter hits you, you don’t die but you get sent across the field.
There’s the swimmers who…well they swim across the riles which isn’t a problem since you can still hit them with shockwaves. You even have other “players” who move and attack in the same way that you do. For the most part they aren’t a big problem but you definitely don’t want to underestimate them. After all, they only need to land one good hit on you.
The graphics aren’t bad in this game. It’s definitely basic NES stuff but it’s not under average or anything like that. It’s good enough and it’s not like this is a very complicated game either. So as long as you can see what is happening, then you’re good. The game delivers on that front. Then for the soundtrack, well that is more on the forgettable side. There aren’t any tunes that you will be humming to yourself later or anything like that.
In terms of replay value, there isn’t a whole lot here. There was a score display at the top so I suppose you could try to get a higher score. This doesn’t feel like a game that is really made for replay value though. You would need to really enjoy the gameplay style a whole lot for that to be possible. Ideally that is what will happen though. The main game’s length isn’t very long but that’s usually the case for an NES title.
What the game could have done to be more fun would have been to not have the teleport tiles. I feel like those were the cheesiest with how they kept spawning new monsters. If you’re going to add that in, at least don’t make it infinite. I think that would have gone a long way to making the game feel more balanced. The levels would be more on the straight forward side, compact and not too crazy all around. Without rewind this game feels like it can just be a little too unforgiving. Maybe if it took more than one hit to defeat you, that could have been another way to enhance the game a bit. So some good ideas in here, but it’s clear that the title was a bit rough around the edges and that’s why it didn’t end up being the next big thing. Nobody’s really heard of this title which means that it was fully forgotten to history.
Overall, This isn’t the kind of game that I would play a whole lot of but if you have the Switch Online then you should check it out. After all, it’s effectively free at that point so why wouldn’t you want to give it a quick shot right? If they ever made a modern remake of this game, they could probably do some cool things with it. Throw in a fun story and then you’re really off to the races. It does beat the next NES title that I will be reviewing though so prepare yourself for that.
Overall 5/10
Pac-Man Review
Pac-Man is one of those games that is truly timeless. It’s been around forever and has been ported many times. The appeal is really easy to see. Who doesn’t want to be running around the mazes and chomping up ghosts right? There will always be a case to just play Ms. Pac-Man instead because the game is just better but it doesn’t make this game any worse. Objectively speaking this is still a very fun game all the way around. It may take you a little time to get used to it since the speed is slightly different than some other versions though.
The basic concept is that you need to eat all of the pellets in a level in order to keep going on. You cannot touch any of the ghosts or you will lose a life. You can eat power pellets though which temporarily make you invincible and allow you to plunge right through them. You want to use this strategically in order to complete the levels. Assuming you are playing for a high score, you also want to eat as many ghosts as possible with each power pellet because the points are super high.
For that reason you will sometimes not want to use a power pellet right away because only one ghost is in range. The amount of time you have to eat a ghost after using the power pellet will gradually get lower as you go through the levels. Occasionally there will be a throwback level where the pellets work perfectly again but on the other side you will go to levels where the power pellet doesn’t do anything. You want to really watch out for those stages.
The game is just a lot of fun to play and you really feel good when you are able to outsmart the ghosts and get to the goal. There is a bit of RNG here but for the most part if you lose, that was really on you. You want to be careful about taking too many chances here because that just won’t end well for you. You get one extra life at 10,000 points. I want to say you get another one at 100,000 points but I’m not positive on that. So from that point on you need to be careful because you won’t be getting extra lives.
The fact that the level stays the same forever can be a bit misleading because it will make you overconfident. Just keep in mind that the ghosts will act differently. They also get gradually faster as the levels go on to the point where they will easily out speed you. During those times you definitely do not want to get in their way. A straight dash to the pellet will suddenly become a matter of life and death.
The soundtrack is fun. It’s not the type that will really stand out but it works out well as good background noise as you’re going through the game. The various sound effects are all pretty good. Then you have the bright graphics which work out well for the game. It makes the title seem very inviting all throughout the experience which is definitely a nice touch. It’s all the little things that add up together and make the game so much fun. It also goes without saying that the game basically has infinite replay value. As long as you are still alive, you have infinite chances to increase your score!
There is also a multiplayer mode in the game. That’s obvious enough where I almost forgot to mention it. Naturally that is a really fun addition as you compete for the score but ironically the multiplayer gets less fun the better that each player gets because you have to wait a long time for your turn. For that reason I always thought that it should alternate every level and then you keep going until the last person either runs out of lives or has passed the score of the eliminated player. It just makes a lot of sense to me. I suppose the counter would be that you are destroying the momentum of the first player but I don’t actually see a problem with that since it will be the case for both players.
Overall, Pac-Man is a game I’ve played in many different variations over the years. I can safely say that it always ages well and this one is no exception. If you have the Switch online then you definitely want to check this one out. It’s just a fun retro experience. Hopefully soon we will get a brand new Pac-Man game since the company is really slow about continuing the franchise. In the meantime, playing through the original adventure is going to have to do.
Overall 7/10
Balloon Kid Review
Balloon Kid is one of those games that is perfectly serviceable. There’s nothing really wrong with it but it also doesn’t have enough actual good elements to really get it going. So what you end up with is a rather forgettable experience. A modern remake of the game could really end up being a whole lot of fun as it would at least be a bit longer. This game is under an hour long with no real replay value in terms of a post game or anything like that. So that puts it behind the action right from the jump.
The game starts with a little boy being carried off into the winds on his balloons. His sister must now rescue him by using her own mastery of balloons in order to follow him. Alas, this will not be very easy. There are a lot of monsters running around and different natural obstacles. The world itself appears as an enemy and balloons are rather unpredictable. Can she destroy all of the monsters and save her brother in time? She will have to really push her own abilities to their very limit.
The game doesn’t really have many cutscenes or anything like that so for the most part you’re just going through the levels until you clear the game. The controls themselves are rather simple. You want to hold onto the balloons and use them to go above and under objects. At times you will need to discard the balloons entirely so that you can pass a tight space. Then you will put them on once again. You do this by digging into the ground. Or at least that’s what it looks like, technically you are probably pressing air into the balloons.
I didn’t actually realize this at first so I died a few times until I realized what was going on. The game has some reasonable difficulty as a result of this because you have to be reacting quickly. If you are slow to react then you will really be in danger here. So keep your guard up at all times because if you don’t, then you’re gonna be in a jam.
I did appreciate that we had real boss fights here. For a little while there I was not expecting any so that was a welcome treat. The boss battles feel a bit like a Mario or Sonic fight as you have to jump on the enemy and then use your momentum to dodge their counter attacks. That’s why if the game had just been longer then this could have probably reached the next level as a 7.
The graphics are okay at best but not really my style. It’s all due to the color though as you don’t get to see all of the fun colors the way that a GBC title would have been able to unleash. The soundtrack is also more on the forgettable side. So you’re really here for the gameplay 100%. The rest of the areas will just have to suffice in the end.
If you have the Nintendo Switch Online then you should check the game out since it’s free with the service anyway. That said, if you are looking to pick this game up, then I wouldn’t really recommend that. You are just not going to have enough content to really justify it in the end. You’d have to be a really incredible game to be worth it even at lasting less than an hour. In a way it just goes to show how high the expectations are. Most people wouldn’t bat an eye to spend $10 on a quick lunch that will only last 15 minutes as opposed to a 60 minute game that you can replay as much as you want in the future. It’s just different expectations there.
Overall, I had a good time with Balloon Kid but it was definitely a brief time. I can see the vision of how this kind of gameplay would be fun for a whole title though. Just look at Flappy Bird. In a lot of ways this game is super similar because you are trying to go above and below the obstacles. If you bump into something or go too low then you lose. It’s a really creative style and you can’t 100% cheese it the way that you can for some Kirby games. I’ll definitely be ready if we get any more Balloon titles.
Overall 6/10
The Bionic Commando Review
Whenever you make a video game where your main character doesn’t have the ability to jump, it should raise some red flags. How do you actually plan your game around that? Surely it can’t be easy and that’s why I would usually recommend not even taking the risk. Well, this game decided to do it anyway and unfortunately it did not go very well. The game goes too far in being as non-linear as possible to the point where you have no idea where to go after a while.
The game starts out with the world’s greatest agent being taken out of the picture. So the world’s second best agent is forced to get in on the action. He has to find the first guy and save him as well as stopping the villains from taking over the world. It will be difficult but this guy has a whole lot of training up his sleeve so it’s nothing that he hasn’t seen before.
The gameplay is your standard 2D platformer at first glance. You can move and jump as well as firing your blaster at folks. As I mentioned before, there is no jumping though. Instead you have an extendable claw that you can use to grab onto walls and mount your comeback. You will have to time the claw throws very carefully because your momentum only lasts for a quick instance. Once it is gone, then you are back to normal and often times you will be in a worse position than when you started.
Each level has a computer room that you must access before you can complete the level. This is a place where you can swap out your current equipment as well as learn some information about the villains and their movements. So this still sounds straight forward right? Well, where the wheels come off is you have to move through the hub world to the last level but you have multiple paths to get there. There are around 19 levels and the numbers are on them but it can be difficult to follow them in order.
You have to endure extra battles based on the enemies who are patrolling those areas. That’s not the only problem, you then have to factor in that you need the right items equipped for different levels to get through. You have up to 3 walkie talkies for example and no clear indicator on which one you need to use in order to proceed. You also have obstacles that can only be broken by specific guns. So there’s a lot of things to consider and none of them are all that fun. I would say that’s the main problem here.
I want to just get to the levels already. The combat is fairly decent and I enjoyed the boss battles. The shine starts to leave as you have to complete those same levels and bosses over and over again though. They keep on respawning and it just feels like that goes against the whole point of the adventure. This should be a fast paced battle to save your friends, not an ever lasting war against foes who refuse to go down. It just doesn’t add up.
The graphics aren’t bad. I do appreciate that we have actual cutscenes of sorts here as well. There is a real story and so this game put in the effort, it was just unfortunately overwhelmed by the fact that the gameplay mechanics were no good. Unfortunately I don’t believe there are a whole lot of ways to get around that. This game was not able to accomplish such a feat after all and that’s why I didn’t really want to rush back to it. The way I see it, this game just failed on a basic level in terms of being really fun to play.
The game’s length is fairly good for such an old game so I can give it some credit in terms of lasting value at least. The soundtrack was okay too so it had some fundamentals here. I think this would make for a good film and I would definitely play a remake of it someday. In the meantime though, this is going to be remembered as one of the weaker Game Boy games. The title just got a little bit too clever for its own good and so the whole thing backfired.
Overall, The Bionic Commando is not a game that I would recommend. It’s not like it’s bad or anything like that but to me it wasn’t that much fun and that’s the biggest thing you need in a game. Actually, I guess I could call it bad in that case as anything under a 5 can earn that title. If you ask me this game should have either kept in the ability to jump or it should have made the levels linear. Either option would have made this better but the whole guessing game doesn’t really work in a game like this. I wanted to be right there in the action, not left to guess on what was going on. Props to folks who figured out how to complete this game back in the day. If you have the Switch Online, I’d recommend playing Kirby instead.
Overall 4/10
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters Review
Kid Icarus may have had an amazing 3DS game but before that he had rather humble beginnings with the earlier titles. This one is a pretty interesting game to play after the big 3DS adventure. It ends up being a fun title even if parts of it are certainly dated. That’s just going to be the reality for any Game Boy game but I had a good time with it. I can’t imagine how kids would have beaten the bosses back in the day though.
The story starts off with Pit needing to go find the 3 Legendary Treasures. With them he will be able to protect Palutena but standing in his way are an army of powerful monsters. It certainly won’t be easy to defeat them all but Pit is prepared to do what he has to in order to win. As the player you better have some good stamina as well because let me tell you, these boss battles are really long! You can expect each one to take close to 20 minutes.
The game is longer than you’d expect as a result although you’ll still clear it in under 3 hours. The levels themselves are easy, it’s just those boss fights which really take things to the next level. Part of why they take so long is each of the bosses like to fly around the levels like crazy with super speed. As soon as you think you’ve caught up, they dash away again. So you have to try and get in a few blows each time as quickly as you can and then rinse/repeat.
It’s a rather brutal cycle all things considered. The boss fights are creative but they definitely could have been improved with a little less movement. The actual levels tend to be more straight forward on the platforming side. You have your arrows to blast away at enemies with and you can jump around. You can use power ups to fly as well and then in the final level you unlock the ability to fly for real. I can see why they wouldn’t have added that power from the beginning though as it would have been pretty overpowered.
There was one level where I actually got lost for a few moments. To counter your ability to flight, they added a bunch of blocks in the air and you have to go through a specific path in order to avoid them all. So it’s kind of like one of those hedge mazes. I eventually got out, but let me tell you it was definitely not easy. I also died tons of times during the game with how fast the minions run around. The difficulty level is quite high here, more than what I would have initially expected from Nintendo. Clearly the Nintendo of old was a force to be reckoned with.
Usually my advice would be to go very slow and navigate your way around the obstacles but that’s probably not going to work very well for you here. You will get punished for not moving since several of the enemies infinitely respawn and move with a whole lot of speed. Instead you are going to really want to stay one step ahead of the competition and actively look for hiding spots. Find a place that is easy to defend while you think of where to go next. Alternately, pausing is actually a good strategy here to give yourself time to think.
The graphics are all green because of the Gameboy but overall I would say it looked good. The character sprites are all solid and have a lot of expressions going for them. The soundtrack is also decent even if it doesn’t have a lot of the energy that the 3DS Kid Icarus game had. This one still gets the job done when the chips are down. The length isn’t all that extensive for the game but considering the era I would say it did well enough for itself.
Overall, Kid Icarus is a reasonably fun game. The boss fights are a bit more exaggerated than they should be but you can still feel the solid fundamentals of the game. The gameplay itself is handled well and this is a title that had a lot of care put into every aspect. I suppose if you played the levels enough times then you would eventually be able to push through but yeah it’s not a relaxing experience. With this I am one step closer to playing all of the Nintendo origin games. So if you have the Switch Online then you should check this game out. There isn’t a whole lot to it, but the game did help to set the stage for future Nintendo titles and it’s not every day that you get to fly in a platformer. Even if it is only for a brief portion of the game.
Overall 6/10
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