Tag Archives: Platformer

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master Review

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It’s time to return to the world of Shinobi. The last one certainly had a crazy hard final boss and the same is true of this one as well. In fact they ended up doubling it this time since you fight two of the villains and they both have fast moving attacks. Then after that is the actual final boss who is pretty intense as you would expect. He attacks extremely quickly and has so many different techniques that it is tough to match them all.

The plot feels more low key this time. I mean you have the usual villain running around trying to destroy the world and you have to stop him but there’s not much of an intro and then there’s nothing until the final boss. The second game had a more memorable intro all the way and felt more like a full adventure. Admittedly it’s a rather low bar since this is still a Genesis game but I still appreciated that all the way. You’re playing this more for the gameplay than anything else though. That part is largely unchanged from the last game but does have some improvements.

You can run now which is great since last time I said that the characters moved a little too slowly. Now you can actually dodge attacks as needed. Additionally you have better use of your special moves. I still don’t know how you could use the other symbols but in this game there is only the lightning so it’s less overwhelming. Beyond that, it still comes down to your overall ability on slicing through the enemies and landing hits before they strike you back. The Shinobi himself is fairly fragile so if you aren’t careful then you will be completely knocked out.

There are a decent amount of health items to grab in the levels though so it’s not quite as hopeless as in the second game. In that one if you ran out of health at any point then you were really doomed. It fits in with the overall feel being that this game is a fair bit easier than the second. The final boss makes them fairly comparable in the end but the actual levels are a lot easier. There is still a really tough maze level near the end though so watch out for that one. You could potentially be running around in loops for ages if you pick the wrong doors so you want to be careful about that.

The graphics look good, I do think they may have improved a bit over the second game although the second had some more memorable shots. So it’s a case of the technicals being better but you feel like the second at some more heart at times. Same with the bosses, they look better here but the second’s were definitely way more memorable due to the references even if they were toned down later on. So I guess what I’m saying is that the second was generally more memorable in every way which sounds a bit harsh.

This is still a good game that holds its own though. At the end of the day the gameplay is quite smooth and that’s one area where I would say that it beats the second one. You’re always in full control of what’s going on which I appreciate. At no point do you feel like you died because you made a mistake. Now there are areas where the enemies are unforgiving which goes back to the difficulty I mentioned but the fact that you can control your character more efficiently is a massive buff and can’t be overstated. Trust me it makes a huge difference. I wouldn’t mind if they made some of the jumps shorter though, you almost have to be frame perfect to make them. Reminds me of my Mario Maker days.

Overall, Shinobi III is a fun game. I do think as with many Genesis games it is a bit too unforgiving. It could stand to add more checkpoints and fun features to be honest. The overwhelming difficulty would have made it super difficult back in the day and I feel like that would even hurt the enjoyment level to an extent. Still with the power of rewinding thanks to the Switch Online it helps a lot. If you already have the service then it definitely makes sense to check this one out. My Genesis marathon still has quite a few titles left so get ready for more adventures soon!

Overall 6/10

Strider Review

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It’s time to take a look at Strider which is a fairly fast paced title with a lot going on but unfortunately doesn’t manage to turn the corner and be a great title. I mainly blame this on the gameplay which I found to be rather slippery at times so it was hard to land blows without falling. Ultimately you’re going to be replaying the levels a lot because some of these attacks are crazy.

As the Strider you have to stop a bunch of villains from succeeding in their objective. If anyone can do it…you can. So you have a cool sword and have to get to work on crushing the opponents. There are only 5 levels in the game but each level is fairly long so this actually ends up being a bit of a sizable Genesis title. I’m not saying it’s going to be 5 hours or so but it definitely does last a bit longer than you may have expected. If the game was easy then it probably would be like 30-60 minutes but don’t expect to be flying through this title.

The first difficult part is that your blade gets shorter the more you use it. So if you spam it too much then it becomes tiny and it’s hard to hit an enemy’s weak point. This really got me in the final level because the enemy is placed in a way where your short blade just can’t reach it. So I was fighting that guy for ages wondering why he wouldn’t go down and then eventually it made sense. Good game design or a mean trick? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. The main thing I will say is that I’d rather have a consistent weapon. Then there are a few gravity bosses where once you start flying in a circle you end up dying. I couldn’t figure out how to get out of that loop.

I assume there has to be a way to do it since no boss is invincible like that but it was definitely a crazy journey. I had to retry that boss so many times. Then the final boss has telekinetic abilities that serve as one hit KO moves once they are close enough and I wasn’t ready for that either. He was just throwing me around and I can’t imagine beating that guy in a normal way. The blasts are just so fast and there’s no way to outrun them.

I guess what I’m getting at here is that the game is unrelentingly difficult but not always in the best ways. You want a game that really challenges you and makes you have to wonder what you’re going to do but this one takes that a step further. It makes it so that it’s nearly impossible for you to beat it normally and I think it would have been nice to have given Strider more abilities. Maybe some kind of a blaster which would solve the issue of always rushing in only to find that you have a short blade.

The enemies all have blasters, rockets, and other projectiles so I don’t think this would be a crazy ask. It would just help to balance things if anything and you know how much I like to have some good balance. At least I can say that the graphics are really good. There are some excellent shots throughout the game and the final landscape is really good. The game was ahead of its time in that regard. The soundtrack also isn’t bad. It’s not quite Mega-Man but it’s more advanced than the average title.

There may not be much replay value but this is mainly a single player title where that’s not really the point anyway. The idea here is to beat the game and then you’re done. Since the game is fairly long for a Genesis title that’s not really a problem. You’ve got a good amount of value here so long as you enjoy the gameplay. Hey I may not have been the biggest fan of it but it’s still possible you may enjoy it. Just beware that your jump has so many animation frames in it that it makes you a complete sitting duck for a while so you probably shouldn’t jump too much.

Overall, Strider had some potential but ultimately I didn’t think it was a very good game. Its biggest offense is really that the game just wasn’t very fun. In a lot of ways that is the worst offense for any game though because that’s the whole reason that you’re playing right? I’d be interested in a more modern Strider game with a lot of quality of life improvements because there is potential here. In the meantime you can do a lot better with the other Genesis titles that are on the Switch Online. I recommend sticking to those titles and only check this one out if you are super curious.

Overall 4/10

Hellboy: The Science of Evil Review

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It’s time to jump into the world of Hellboy! This is one of those games that I sort of forgot existed but it’s a pretty fun beat em up. The gameplay is solid and there are a good amount of cutscenes in here. So while there aren’t a lot of frills around the game, it does really do the job of being a fun title that keeps you entertained all the way through. The combos are tight and while you will be spamming a lot, it’s just fun.

The story is kind of all over the place since you keep jumping from the past to the present. There’s an evil witch who is causing trouble so you have to destroy her in the past and then in the present you’re dealing with an evil scientist who is probably trying to take over the world. You feel like Hellboy himself is probably overwhelmed too because it feels like every level involves him getting beat up and thrown around over and over again. Like he seriously can’t catch a break and he’s fed up at this point. Fortunately he does have super durability so he can handle himself.

Hellboy’s a fun lead because he has a very sarcastic air about him. No matter what happens, he’s got to have the last word on it and I can respect that. The guy is also a total tank with how he can just keep taking shots and walking them off. It doesn’t always translate into full attack power which his opponents take advantage of but he wins in the end which is what counts. The gameplay is mainly beat em up style so you go around crushing enemies with your fists or using your gun. For 99% of the game I recommend sticking to your fists but one world has a light gun which one shots all opponent so I definitely recommend using that one.

There is no level up system or any kind of power ups so what that means is you should only fight the enemies that you have to. I would just keep on running until a barrier stopped me and then I would fight the enemies. After all, why fight when there’s no benefit right? Occasionally there are a few puzzles that you have to solve like moving a lever or breaking something but the game keeps them fairly simple so I wouldn’t worry about that too much. You’ll typically be able to notice that the object or wall look a bit different.

One mechanic that makes the game a whole lot easier is that you are able to absorb health from enemies. This attack is petty much broken to be honest. You just grab the enemy and thrown him in the air for a slam. Do this and you get half of your health back. You also have high speed health regeneration if you can dodge attacks for around 5 seconds. So with very few exceptions, you should not typically be in any danger. It is possible to get overwhelmed if you let your guard down though. Also, the final boss did finish me off the first time. The laser basically covers the screen and is tough to deal with. I very nearly lost a second time but hung on with the last bit of my health. That seems to happen to me in a lot of games to be honest.

The game has constant checkpoints which is a great quality of life feature. As I mentioned the gameplay is also just fun because it’s nice and flashy all the way through. You may be using the same moves over and over but they’re still fun because of this. The platforming is a bit clunky but there are only a few sections in the game where you have to jump so this tends to be rare. The graphics are also fairly decent. It’s not a high end PS3 game but it is still PS3 level and so you have full cinematics and a lot of different backgrounds. I felt like the game had a reasonable budget. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side.

There isn’t a ton of replay value to be had here. You can try to find all of the collectibles scattered throughout the game but aside from barely charging the power up meter that you never use anyway, I’m not sure if there is much of a point to it. The main playthrough here will really be for the story all the way through and that works for me. It’s short but there’s enough levels here. The ending also leaves room for that hype sequel even if you know that it’s just not going to happen at this point. We did get an unrelated Hellboy game recently though so it’ll be fun to compare that one at some point.

Overall, Hellboy is a pretty fun game. It brings you back to the simpler days of movie-tie ins where they had basic gameplay styles and just took you through the events. Some would be about the same as the movie and some would diverge immediately but you didn’t have to worry about advanced mechanics or anything like that. This is a very simple plug and play that I think works really well. I’m not going to call it a great game but it was never trying for that. It’s a game that you can get for cheap and will last you for a few hours so there’s no real downside to that right? I’d say to pick this one up as long as you like the beat em up genre.

Overall 7/10

Dynamite Headdy Review

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Now this is definitely one of the most difficult video games that I’ve played in a minute. Certainly one of the toughest platformers and without the power of access points and rewinding I don’t see how anyone was able to beat the final boss of this game. It’s incredibly difficult with randomized movements and a whole lot of health. I died so many times in this fight but of course in the end all I had to do was win once to turn the tables and that’s exactly what I did! You just have to keep on fighting until you have made it to the end.

The basic plot involves the main guy getting suckered by girl who keeps stealing stuff. Yeah okay that’s not technically the focus of the plot even though it’s what happens. Someone is putting the entire world at risk and has powerful robotic menaces under his disposal. Headdy had to destroy them all and save puppetkind but does he have what it takes to defeat everyone? He has the power needed to be sure but the guy isn’t the smartest and is easily suckered so you really have to take that into account. Trust me, the guy makes me roll my eyes sometimes to be honest because the same cutscene happens after every world. You’d think he would learn…

All that said, I’m glad that the game actually has a real story. There are lots of cutscenes even if there isn’t much dialogue and the characters are very expressive so you feel like you are always in the mix. This game would absolutely do well with a modern remake because even this one has aged well. The gameplay is also very unique with how you put on different heads to gain different abilities. You need to get used to jumping and then launching your head since that’s a bit different compared to the usual action of jumping and automatically grabbing onto something. Once your muscle memory gets used to it, you’re set though.

Also watch out because there are what I call trap heads. One in particular involves putting on a giant head that prevents you from moving for a little while and then you get destroyed. The game is very punishing with your mistakes so if you put that on…good luck. It’s over by that point and you’re not going to make it to the end. Other power ups like turning tiny are good for very specific circumstances but if you use it in the middle of a level it will often hold you back instead of helping you. So I’d say you should definitely keep that in mind. The best power up is probably the one that surrounds you with an energy barrier that damages any enemy who gets close. That one is super handy with no real drawbacks.

Now like I said with the difficulty level, the enemies hit hard! You will lose all of your health very quickly and the attacks can be hard to react to. Specifically I have to talk about the final boss here because he is the most noticeable by far. He has a ton of different attack options up his sleeve and there is barely a chance to see what he is going to do before he does it. The guy seems to have a different pose for each attack which is likely your entry way to being able to dodge in time but it’s still an incredibly tight window.

You also need to be able to grab the specific power up that you need in order to dodge his attack and that is way easier said than done. Trust me this is exactly the kind of enemy that you do not want to face because he is always in the perfect position to take you down. I died probably over 50 times against him and that was with the power of the Switch Online. He’s an awesome looking final boss though. Great design all the way and really someone who does strike fear into you. He’s an excellent final boss and definitely a villain who excels over 90% of other platforming villains. This game deserves to be a big series.

The graphics have aged really well due in large part to the fun artstyle. The soundtrack is really good too and I definitely have no complaints there. The length is not the longest as each world is fairly short but the levels all have a lot of originality to them. For example in one level you are flying around the whole time, then you’re underwater in one, etc. The gameplay itself changes to match the levels which is impressive. It’s not afraid to change things up a lot.

In fact one level even had a whole puzzle which really did stump me for a bit. You have to basically bounce off of a bunch of walls to get to the top and you have to do this really fast before you fall down or hit a spike. The timing was so specific that I overthought it which is part of why I didn’t think that was how to get past the puzzle. I was looking for a switch or an alternate exit but in the end the direct way was the right way.

Overall, This game was better than I was expecting. I’m not crazy about one aspect of the ending since the implications are rather dire but otherwise this was very satisfying all the way through. The game feels ahead of its time with how many different gameplay mechanics it used and the fact that it had a true story all the way through. Trust me, that’s really not an easy feat and it only gets more and more impressive as I play other Genesis games.

Overall 7/10

Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls Review

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It’s time for the last Apple Arcade review as I have now canceled my subscription with the service. It had a good run but that’s how things have to be. This one’s more of a real title than Mane Merge although it does suffer from a few issues with how the original game was designed. It was going to be a gatcha title after all but had to remove the freemium elements for the Apple Arcade. So what you have is a game that is not very well balanced and yet…it is fun. You just have to use some special methods to get around.

The basic plot is that Alucard becomes aware of another plot to revive Dracula. He has to make sure that this doesn’t happen and so he partners himself with an organization to stop this. Basically they have to go through the books of history and recruit all of the strongest vampire hunters. The villains are trying to change history at the same time to remove these heroes. Whoever moves fast will claim the edge but with Death itself trying to resurrect Dracula, is there any way to stop him? It definitely won’t be easy but Alucard is an old hand at this and ready to win.

The gameplay here is your classic 2D platformer. You use your sword, wand, or whip to mow through enemies and get to the end. Each level is fairly short so you can breeze through them but of course there are a lot of levels in each world. There are 10 worlds here and each one has 16 levels although you only need to complete 10 to move onto the next one. Beating the rest of the levels is often recommended to get progress towards new S class weapons and to get stronger. So you go through the levels and claim victory right? Well there is one thing stopping you from doing that and this is your power level.

So here’s where the gatcha type elements come in. Each of your characters has a level and then your account has a level. You raise character levels by beating enemies and getting EXP while your account level goes up by completing stages. Your weapon, sub weapon, weapon 2, weapon 3, and 5 armors all have individual levels as well. Those you level up with gems but every 5 levels it gets maxed out and then you have to limit break the equipment. You limit break it by getting memories of the weapons which you can try to find in a stage, search for through an auto complete, or summon. It will take a while to do each one so these are basically stopping points where you just have to wait until you get them.

Summoning is expensive and searches are limited to 60 times per day so the rest of the time you will need to actually go out there and just keep on completing the levels. That part is limitless at least but you can see how this would take a while right? The levels keep jumping up in terms of difficulty level so you have to try and stay close to compete. In the end I was able to complete the game with a power level of 88,000 and it took me 22 hours to accomplish this. The number is partially RNG based on what you summon so add or subtract from that amount if you aim to complete the game.

There is a trick that I mentioned earlier though so lets talk it through because without that I would not be anywhere close to beating the game. On the Arcade none of the shops work and it sounds like this is being worked on but I didn’t have time for that. So the trick is to turn off your mobile phone’s automatic date finder and manually put in an earlier date. I warped myself back to 2023 which activated all of the shops and I was able to grab what I needed. The one annoying thing about this is your phone’s other apps like your email will keep asking you what’s going on with the date so accomplish as much as you can in one shot before going back to normal.

I’m not sure if messing with the date could cause any problems with your phone but it’s best not to really take any chances with that right? Then you can keep warping days to collect the login bonuses and refresh the searches so you can progress through the game. So while I played the game for 22 hours, I lived through close to half a month by moving myself through time. Without that ability, it would take me about that long to complete which is pretty crazy. Apple Arcade really enjoys adding a grind to its games but since this one was left unfinished that worked in my favor since they didn’t bother setting an automatic date.

It’s still something worth considering in the review though which is what holds this game back from being higher. I enjoy the actual gameplay but you’re effectively locking all of the players out with the way the difficulty jumps up. You just wouldn’t be able to damage the boss until you got upgraded and that’s why gatcha elements can be a little annoying in gameplay. Particularly when getting stronger is such a time consuming project.

What helps compared to something like Mane Merge is that at least the story was a lot of fun all the way through. Again I do think we should have gotten more cutscenes and voice acting but the crossover effect was cool even as someone who doesn’t know a ton about Castlevania. I imagine there were probably a lot of easter eggs and such in the story. Everyone got their props and respect in the story which is what you always want to see and the ending was actually very satisfying.

The graphics in this game aren’t quite as impressive as the other Apple Arcade titles. This is the one aspect that the game really lacks in. It’s a bit surprising but maybe it’s just the art style that it was going for. Whatever it was, the game definitely doesn’t look very good. Meanwhile the soundtrack is fun though, there are actually a whole lot of tunes in the game so you don’t hear them repeat very often.

Overall, The length of the game is pretty impressive. As noted, it’s 20+ hours while playing through even with the enhancements Play it normally and you’re probably looking at 50+ hours. I didn’t even touch the special event stages which will add some replay value. I will note though that the replay value is limited in this case because after you play through those last levels, there is nothing else. No other mode to have fun with the gameplay or anything like that. You’ll just have ended the game and then it’s time to put it own. That’s actually a bit rare for a gacha title but I guess once a title is no longer supported it makes sense not to keep on adding stuff. If you enjoy Castlevania and have the Apple Arcade then I recommend checking it out but otherwise you can probably grab one of the classic Castlevania titles instead.

Overall 6/10

Ecco the Dolphin Review

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It’s time to take a look at a game that is pretty well known for the Genesis, but is it actually good? That’s always the key question in these kinds of things and unfortunately I can confirm that it’s not one of the top titles. It is missing a lot of quality of life features that could have helped it out a whole lot like more of a full map, more of a tutorial on the controls, and just more signage in general. I should know where I have to go at all times. Instead of being a fun fast paced adventure, it ends up getting lost in the weeds.

The general plot is definitely pretty crazy especially if you haven’t read the booklet or anything. Some Dolphins are splashing around when there’s a giant tremor and a bunch of trippy lights appear. The whole crew is scattered and there may be something very sci-fi going on around the place. Ecco (Why isn’t he called Echo tho?) has to stop these invaders and creatures that are certainly not from Earth while also making sure that the rest of the Dolphins are okay. You meet up with one of them again in level 1 but he doesn’t really do anything. So really you are on your own here, Ecco is the last chance for all of Dolphin kind.

I think you’ve got a solid intro right there but the real problem is once you get onto the gameplay part. You only have 3 real controls here, acceleration, attack, and sonar. You’ll be using them all quite a lot as you go through the game but there are definitely some issues here. First off, it’s often hard to know exactly where you are even going. You might want to go right but then that’s not the right way and you’ll be blocked by a crystal. You try to go left and then you get stumped that way as well. You can try to pull off a lap and go the other way but then you’re still busted.

After a lot of trial and error you’ll see that this is really a puzzle game. You have to activate different crystals with your sonar which gives you the ability to move another crystal out of your way. Eventually you will have them all out of the way and then you can really move forward. So that’s pretty good but then there’s another problem, you have an air supply. You have to routinely find an area where you can go above water to replenish that or you instantly lose and go back to the very beginning of the level. Yes, the very beginning so you have to re-complete all of the puzzles again.

Ecco is a really fast creature but that works to your detriment most of the time as it means that you will be crashing into monsters constantly. Looking for a safe area? Crash! Looking for the next puzzle? Crash! It just keeps on happening and while you do have a few health points, you will quickly lose them every time. There is just no real safe zone here. Part of the problem is that the game isn’t ready for Ecco’s level of speed which means that crashing into everyone and everything is basically inevitable. If you go too slow then you’ll run out of oxygen after all. At least the game does remember the enemies that you’ve defeated so you can really take the slow and methodical approach but it also means that every level will probably take forever.

I can’t imagine trying to complete this without access points. It feels like it would be absolutely crazy. Once in a while I do get the feeling that I wouldn’t have been quite as big a gamer as I am nowadays if this was the era I started off on. Of course there were still a lot of solid games back then but it feels like tons of them were really unforgiving. Making constant save points a regular thing in the modern era was definitely a great move.

I can at least say that the graphics are pretty good here. The game looks nice all the way through and I didn’t have any issue there. The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side but I’ve definitely heard worse. Also, I probably didn’t hear most of the soundtrack because of how early I died here. My understanding is that the length of the game is fairly short but at the same time I think you have to account for the difficulty level. So because of that this would be one of the longer Genesis titles. It’s not enough to win me over to their side or anything like that but it’s definitely worth noting. You do at least get a lot of bang for your buck.

Overall, Ecco the Dolphin is a game that had some potential but ultimately the gameplay just wasn’t all that fun. That is a massive problem because without fun gameplay you don’t really have anything. You need that in order to take the win. So we need to redo this game from the ground up. I would argue even the core gameplay should change because while there can be good quality of life features that come in, they won’t be enough on their own to turn this around. Maybe they can prove me wrong, I’ll probably play more Ecco games at some point and I have to imagine that they will beat this one. This is one of the rare titles where I would tell you to skip it for now. There just isn’t much reason to check this one out. When you boil a game down to the basics, it is all about having fun and so if you aren’t having fun then you are out of luck.

Overall 3/10

Ristar Review

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It’s time to jump right in to the big Ristar title. This one had a cool cover and a solid looking main character which are pretty massive factors when you’re looking into any platformer. If you want to be big then you need to be memorable and in the end this game pulls that off. My only main gripe is that the game is very short. Even for a platformer I would say this one is short as each world only has 2 levels rather than the standard 6-8. So that immediately makes the game fly by.

Still, the game starts off with a bang as the legendary hero is defeated and so his son steps in to put an end to the villain. Ristar may be new a this but he acts like a seasoned pro as he takes everyone down for the count. This guy is not going to be holding back. So you go through the 6 worlds and conquer the boss at the end of each before entering the final boss. The level structure is fairly straight forward here and the final boss has a classic 2 phases to him. For a second there I thought he was about to get a third with the way the game was shaping up with that last cutscene but ultimately it was really more of a cliffhanger setup for a sequel.

Now this is a franchise that we really need to come back. It’s just got a really fun gimmick. So the main difference here compared to another platformer is Ristar attacks with grabs. He grabs opponents who are far away and drags them up close. You also use the grabbing to latch onto objects and swing yourself to the other side. It’s pretty well executed with just about everything being grabbable.

The toughest obstacle was in one level where you have to keep bouncing across the walls in order to get high enough to grab onto the next object. There are spikes all around so one wrong jump and you end up getting taken out. You start each level with 4 life points but you’d be surprised at how quickly that gets taken down to 1. So the game’s difficulty level is the real deal without a doubt.

I’d say it’s probably tougher than the average platformer. It’s definitely fun and enjoyable all the way through though. The toughest habit for me to break was not jumping on the enemies all the time. In almost every other platformer you just keep on stomping them but here doing that actually causes you damage instead. So you have to remember to just grab everyone instead and completely forget about jumping as an option.

The bosses don’t always have much of an indication that they’ve been hit so if you’re unsure, just keep grabbing them. Ultimately that will always do the trick when the going gets tough. The boss designs are pretty fun. You could really tell that a whole lot of effort was put into this game which is why it’s hard to believe that it didn’t kickstart a big franchise. You get the feeling that this was always the goal here.

Again we do have to talk about the length though. I can’t imagine that word of mouth was terrific about how quickly you could beat this game. This isn’t an arcade title with tons of replay value. This is a platformer with a beginning and end so once you complete the game there isn’t much else to do. There aren’t any real collectibles or bonus levels to play through after all.

So it’s short enough where this has to be part of the conversation. I know back then games were shorter in general but 1 hour for a platformer? Eh that’s just a little too short. I imagine it was probably difficult coming up with a lot of levels using the grab mechanics especially since nobody else had been trying that before so I bet the sequel would have been longer.

I already talked about how good the game looks so the graphics are a definite win here. Meanwhile the soundtrack is on point here. Some pretty fun tunes all the way through. Also while the game didn’t have any flying gameplay, you can definitely see where that could have been a thing in the sequels because when Ristar gets enough momentum he becomes a shooting star. It doesn’t play much of a role here beyond cutscenes or ending a level but it’s pretty handy.

Overall, Ristar is a pretty fun game. I had no complaints with the gameplay itself and the overall presentation was handled very nicely. I would recommend picking it up while you have the Switch Online. If you had to spend money to purchase the game then definitely I would be very hesitant before saying anything but as it is, this is a good title to check out. It’s definitely got that nostalgia factor to it as well with the artstyle.

Overall 6/10

Flicky Review

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It’s time to check out the classic Flicky game. I’m making my way through the classic Sega games and this seemed like a good one to check out. The gameplay will feel very familiar when you turn it on and this works out in a nice way. The game has a few puzzles at the ready as the levels get tighter and tighter but in the end as long as you stay focused then you got this! I find it hard to imagine anyone clearing all 48 levels without access points though, the difficulty really spikes as you go through it.

Basically the gameplay here is to shepherd a bunch of baby birds to the goal before they are eaten by cats. So the stakes are really high and you can only run, jump, and shoot objects as you pick them up. You shoot as soon as you jump so you have to time that carefully. There aren’t a whole lot of objects to throw after all. The levels themselves are fairly small so they loop as you go right and left. That means you are never far from the goal but it also means that you are never far from the cats so you better keep that in mind. One wrong move and it’s game over.

The graphics here aren’t bad but they are noticeably old. I wouldn’t say it holds up as well as some of the other classics like Pac-Man but I will say that the backgrounds are very pleasant. You see a lot of nice looking buildings and designs behind you which is cool. The soundtrack is more forgettable but I don’t believe it’s bad or anything like that. Just could have used a little more action and excitement personally. Now with the length there are 48 levels and each level ranged from being around 30 seconds long to possibly 1-2 minutes if you are having a lot of trouble.

It’s not likely that a level would take longer than that as you’d probably have been caught by the cats by then or just naturally beaten the level. So this is really quick and you can beat the game in an hour easy if you take the difficulty aside. If you are trying to beat this on pure skill then I imagine it’ll take you way longer than that in the end. There isn’t much replay value beyond that though. You can always try to beat the game quicker or just get a larger high score but I don’t think the game quite has the staying power for that.

Still, it’s a fun game to quickly check out if you have the Switch Online. I would also say that the gameplay really is fun all the way through. Even if it may lose to other games, at the end of the day that doesn’t take anything away from this title as a whole right? I think there’s a whole lot you could do with a modern Switch Flicky game to be honest. Spyro is really the only main platformer series with full flight and he barely ever gets games so Flicky could easily steal that part of the market away from him. I do think you would need to go with a different gameplay style like that to get big.

Of course I do always believe that any gameplay style can work with the right story. If the story is engaging enough then you would play 100 levels of this gameplay style. Why not right? It is certainly fun enough. It just seems to be the case that arcade style platformers like this never really have cinematic stories. Maybe developers feel it would take you out of the immersion but I’d love it. Imagine a modern Galaga with the same gameplay but every few levels a massive cinematic cutscene shows up and furthers a cool RPG type plot. That would be awesome.

Overall, Flicky is a fun game. There’s not a lot to it which ultimately prevents it from getting much higher though. I just don’t really see the replay value in trying to get a high score as much as some of the other games. It feels more luck based. Yes there’s a bunch of skill here but even with the best reaction times you’re probably going to get blindsided a few times due to how the levels are structured. So once you’ve gotten about as far as you can that’ll likely be it for you. I can see this being a fun game to challenge friends to as you see who can go the farthest though.

Overall 6/10