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    Randomised Gaming Retro Videos & Blog

    As some of you may have seen I'm helping with a friend's gaming blog, thought I create a discussion topic for the various retro reviews we are doing.

    Reviewing and playing video games at random! The gaming blog for modern and classic consoles, handhelds and home computers. No it's not Randomized Gaming that would be the American spelling. Article...


    Currently our next gaming review is on Donkey Kong Land 2 for the Nintendo Game Boy. I'm helping put the video together for this one and have just done a interesting comparison on the game when played via the different Game Boy Systems.



    Interestingly it's almost unplayable on the Original Game Boy due to the ghosting and motion blur. Impressive port by Rare but not that fun to play on the Game Boy these days.
    Last edited by S3M; 13-03-2018, 16:18.

    #2
    This week we look at the terrible Rampage Puzzle Attack on Game Boy Advance, here is one turkey you won't see being discussed on many retro websites.

    They even managed to get the colour of George's fur wrong.



    Blog now features comments too.
    http://randomisedgaming.tumblr.com

    Comment


      #3
      Couple of new updates to the site:

      First off we have a review of the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on Nintendo 64, a game that appears to have been somewhat overrated at the time:
      Format: Nintendo 64 Publisher: Acclaim Developer: Iguana Entertainment Release year: 1997 Genre: First Person Shooter (FPS) For this review Randomised Gaming reviewed the original PAL N64 release of the game. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was released on the N64 in 1997 and was also a launch title for the European release of the system in 1997. Turok also has the honour of being the first, First Person Shooter (FPS) on the system and one of a select few FPS games to appear on a Nintendo system up till that point, previously Doom and Wolfenstein 3D were some of the best and only examples of the genre on Super Nintendo, along with the down right bizarre Super Noah’s Ark 3D. For many Nintendo fans there is a good chance this was likely their first taste of the FPS genre and after playing the first 30 minutes of the game you can see why this was quite a hit amongst the Nintendo fans in 1997 as it’s certainly very different to any Super Nintendo released game. The controls handle well and the game plays at a solid frame rate, on first glance the 3D visuals are also impressive and the environmental sound effects really bring out the jungle atmosphere of the first level in the game. Certainly the very start of the game is very impressive. However has Turok stood the test of time and how does it compare to PC, PlayStation and Saturn, First Person Shooter games of the same period. Certainly while Turok may have well impressed Nintendo 64 gamers, PC gamers on the other hand had been playing Id software’s excellent Quake since 1996 and to a PC gamer Turok may have well looked somewhat underwhelming. The plot of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter revolves around a evil overlord known as the “The Campaigner” who seeks an ancient artefact known as the “The Chronoscepter” in order to rule the Universe. Turok’s task is to find the eight pieces of the Chronoscepter before the Campaigner does and put an end to his evil plan. Very run of the mill stuff but at least the game itself doesn’t include any boring story cutscenes it’s just pure 100% FPS action. All the plot for the game is included in the Manual, which also includes a lovely 14 pages full coloured comic inside it. Unlike most modern games Turok doesn’t force you to sit through an hour of tutorial gameplay which makes a refreshing changing. There is a tutorial level available but it’s entirely up to the player if they want to play it or just jump straight into the main game. Some of the more impressive insects and dinosaurs seen in Turok. Gameplay is simple enough with Turok having to reach the end of each level, while collecting the various keys hidden on each level to unlock the next stage. Along the way you can also find pieces of the Chronoscepter hidden on each level, collect all eight parts and you unlock the Turok equivalent of the BFG9000. While Turok only starts off with the Knife and Tek Bow additional weapons such as the Assault Rife, Grenade Launcher and Mini Gun can be found dotted around the levels, more powerful guns are reserved till the later stages of the game. The levels themselves however are massive featuring large 3D open areas not seen on a console before and the first level alone will take you 2 – 3 hours to fully navigate especially if you’re planning on finding all the keys and items hidden in the stage. The problem is the levels are a little too big and due to the limited texture memory of the time after about 5 minutes of play you’ll know how the rest of the level will look. Add to this the fact that the draw distance for the game isn’t that far and you will often find yourself navigating the game via the 2D map. All in all this makes exploring of the world map extremely boring as it all looks very similar. While on a technically side the huge environments are impressive, from a design side they just don’t work as there isn’t enough variety in them to sustain the player’s attention. Some of the levels also feel a bit disconnected as many of the sections within a level are only connected via warps and save points can also be a good 30–40 minutes apart. Exploring the world may have worked better had the game featured a Metroid style power up and explore system. As without that type of game mechanics, aside from the single Chronoscepter piece and keys there isn’t much reason to explore a level. There are hidden bonus portals that take you to area full of power ups but many of these are hidden in hard to reach areas, one such portal on the third level requires the player to make a nearly impossible jump across the top of three pillar to land on a portal. At the same time having to avoid hunters and dinosaurs both behind and below you, in the end the risk rewards factor for some of the portals just isn’t worth you going for many of them and the player is better off conserving the ammo and health you would waste trying to reach some of them. One of the many secret portals hidden in the game (left) and the bonus area you are taken to for entering them. (right) While exploring the world of Turok isn’t that enjoyable, it’s still fun to shoot velociraptors and hunters. Aiming works very similar to the original Doom system so there’s no cross hair and instead as long as you point and shoot in the general direction of the enemy you will likely hit it. Occasionally it can be tricky to hit the odd enemy with no cross hair but inventive players will note the marker of Turok on the in-game map works as a surprising good replacement cross hair. Human enemies also have a variety of different death animations with blood pools often flying out of them as they die, amusing as first, it does get old pretty quick. While there is plenty of enemies to shooter at, a big problem Turok suffers with is an issue of enemies often re-spawning 30 seconds after you defeat them. While in most case they don’t infinitely re-spawn it’s rather annoying to kill an enemy and while you’re still exploring the area watch them appear again. The give away teleport sounds and yellow tower of light as they reappear makes them easy picking, but with the limited quantity of ammo found in the game. You will soon find yourself running low on ammo if you hang around for too long and this factor adds in another reason why exploring areas isn’t fun, if you have to keeping checking behind you in case the hunter you just killed hasn’t just re-spawned. Add to that the fact that teleporting in velociraptors look a bit silly and you have to question why the developers choose to re-spawn enemies in this manner. Velociraptor being teleported in (left) and the cyborg raptor you meet later in the game complete with mounted laser. (right) By now it’s quite clear to see Turok suffers with some quite bad design issues, the worse of all of them is the fact that Iguana Entertainment seemed to think they were making a platform game at times. Resulting in plenty of awful platforms sections, problem is that jumping sections have to date never successfully worked well in a FPS due to the camera angle and the lack of the ability to see your character’s feet and the floor together. In some sections like the end of level 3 the platforms you had to land on were so small the only way to get pass the jumping section was to bring up the map and use that as your navigation guide to see where you needed to land. You can try looking down as you jump, but this slows down the jump momentum and makes longer jump near impossible and rather awkward. In the end I lost count of the number of times I saw the death scene where Turok impersonates Wile E. Coyote and falls down a bottomless chasm. Turok going for the Looney Toon style of falling to your death. If Turok could grab onto ledges and pull himself up it would make the jumping a lot smoother and more interesting alas he can’t and for a FPS there is just far too many awful jumping sections. Ironically Retro Studio was founded by and hired a number of former Iguana Entertainment employees and despite Samus being able to climb in Metroid Fusion. It appears Samus has gone on to suffer a similar issue to poor old Turok as none of the Retro Studio Metroid games have ever allowed Samus to climb or grab ledges. Resulting in some rather backwardly designed Metroid 3D titles with rather average platform sections when compared to the 2D games in the series. Are we spotting a pattern here? Every last flaw in the jumping system is shown up by Nintendo’s console  rivals at the time in the form of the excellent Tomb Raider on Saturn and PlayStation which arrived on the gaming scene before Turok and let’s not even not talk about the wonderful Super Mario 64. Quite what Iguana Entertainment were thinking when they included large amounts of jumping sections in a FPS is a bit of a mystery? Hardware limitation perhaps? The map vital for navigating dark caves and some of the more tricker platform sections. Another rather underwhelming moment in the game is the first boss battle. Having survived the first three levels in game you face the first supposedly menacing boss, queue massive dinosaur battle you would think? Nope instead it’s the highly not so scary threat of a jeep that’s right a jeep. Followed by another jeep and then a guy who run around shouting “Hey” all the time. Supposedly it’s a character from the comic book called the Longhunter but the game makes no direct reference to the character’s name in-game. The jeep itself can be easily defeated by walking around in a circle and it has to be seen to be believed. While later bosses like the Cyborg T-Rex are somewhat more impressive even the final battle with The Campaigner is also a bit of an anti-climax. Funny movement is when the Jeep gets stuck on the wall, happened to me during this review also.  While it’s easy to point out faults with much of Turok Dinosaur Hunter, the one element that does stand out is the excellent in-game soundtrack. As with the sound effects the music really brings out the atmosphere and feel of the world along with the tension of battle. One of our more favourite tracks is the underwater theme and it’s braving the deep tones as you dive into the many rivers of the game, which often hide secrets. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is certainly a game of its time and format as the game has not aged well. And was it that good a game in the first place either? The 1996 released Exhumed (Also known as Powerslave and 1999AD) is a cult classic FPS for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation set in Egypt, Exhumed gameplay is also very similar to Turok. Exhumed, still as playable today as it was in 1996. However Exhumed arrived before Turok did and Exhumed also used a proper Metroid style explore system. Which allowed you to find and use different power ups to revisit previous stages to find hidden weapons, extras and additional routes in each level. It’s a faster paced game with more variety in the stage design, levels are much smaller but there is plenty of them. Graphically Turok is a better game in terms of character models and animation, but that’s about it Exhumed just feels all-round a better game for your money. Even now in 2014 Exhumed still remains a game worth tracking down and playing, Turok on the other hand has aged badly and should be left in any bargain bin you find it in. While back in 1997 N64 fans may have rejoiced at the release of the first FPS on their system with rich 3D environments and character animation. The truth is sadly that PC, Saturn and PlayStation gamers already had better games to chose from. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter did receive a number of sequels, including the ill-fated 2007 Disney reboot which might have fared better if it had used a Far Cry world map and hunt style of gameplay, instead of a preset level structure. This is one Dinosaur video game series that has long since gone extinct and for clear reasons. Review by Random Gamer Riven. Twitter: RDGamerRiven E.mail: [email protected] Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, for video game, art, reviews, features, videos and more. You can also follow us on twitter and subscribe to us on YouTube for even more Randomised Gaming content.


      We also have a feature on the many up's and down's of spin-off video games:
      There comes a point in most successful franchises where the developer decides. That it’s a good idea to dump their successful characters in a different game genre which has little to do with them, case and point the previous two reviews Randomised Gaming has done on Rampage Puzzle Attack and Resident Evil HD Chronicles. Rampage was a fast paced action arcade where players destroyed buildings, ate people and smashed anything else that got in the way. So to suddenly make the transition to a puzzle game is a strange idea at best. Why not simply port the original Drop Mania to the GBA, as adding Rampage characters into the game does little to increase the value of the product or improve its quality. Rampage arcade (Top) and Rampage Puzzle Attack (Below) two styles of game that sit very uneasy with eash other. Let’s look at the characters which have all stared in spin-off game Mario, Sonic, Rayman, Crash Bandicoot, Link, Ratchet and Clank, The Street Fighter Casts, Megaman and Lemmings to name but a few and many have had mixed results. The Resident Evil franchise is another good example of this, what started as a survival horror series. Has spun off into a number of different genre including shooters like Darkside Chronicle and a online multiplayer game in the case of Outbreak. The results have been mixed at best indeed Capcom would now appear to be taking the main series into a more action shooter based genre with increasingly poorer results. The question is why do developers do this in most cases it’s just trying to add sales to a game which without the license would be a pretty terrible game. The first Resident Evil spin-off Gun Survivor on PS1 tried to use Resident Evil style tanks controls and combined them with a light gun game. The result was simply a game which did not work as the two styles of gameplay just did not mix. Sega’s The House of the Dead by contrast is a zombie light gun game designed the right way and is better game all round than Gun Survivor. Other times it can be an attempt to sell a game in the west where the original version is based on a series well known in Japan but not in the west, the result is that developers strip out the existing series and characters and replaced it with characters more well known in the west. In the case of the Puyo Puyo series this happen with both Kirby’s Avalanche/Ghost Trap and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine were both games started life as Puyo Puyo games in Japan. Super Puyo Puyo - Japanese Super Nintendo release (Left) Kirby’s Ghost Trap/Avalanche - European and USA release (Right) Not all spin-offs are bad ideas or cut up Japanese releases however and Mario has stared in a number of popular spin-off series. Mario Tennis, Golf, Party and Kart have all taken Mario’s existing environment and merged them with new types of game play to create games which stand on their own two feet. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo is also a far better example of how to do a puzzle game spin-off right. Capcom took their Street Fighter characters shrunk them down to a miniature size and added them to a decent columns style puzzle game. It also received a Game boy Advance Release and is a far better game to pick up than the awful Rampage Puzzle Attack. The mini character from Puzzle Fighter II would later get their own Capcom fighting game in the form of Pocket Fighter. Time to take a look at the most common of spin-off titles the racing game. The previously mentioned Super Mario Kart is by far one of the best spin-offs ever made a fast paced racing game which took the best of the Super Mario series at the time. Now about to have its eleventh outing (remember there are three arcade games) on Wii U later this year. The series itself is a strange one as none of the sequels has ever been as good as the Super Nintendo original, possibly due to Nintendo trying to add in too many new gimmicks in each game and the increasingly over powered power ups, blue shell anyone? Super Mario Kart still the best outing in the series Not to be outdone Sonic himself has been in a number of different racing games, but to far more mixed fortune. Indeed given how fast Sonic can run it does make you wonder what does he need a car for? First up was Sonic Drift on the Game Gear a somewhat average racing game which only got a Japanese release giving you some idea as to what Sega thought of it. A year later this was followed by Sonic Drift 2 which did get a USA and European release although in Europe it was titled Sonic Drift. It is a big improvement on the first game and is a enjoyable Sega Game Gear racer. Sonic next racing game was Sonic R on the Saturn/PC a pretty decent game but the controls are a bit sluggish at times. After that Sonic’s next racing game wasn’t till 2006 and it was Sonic Riders on PS2/GC/XBOX/PC a game to avoid at all costs and this sadly got two sequel Sonic Riders Zero Gravity on PS2/Wii and finally Sonic Free Riders on Xbox360 which like most Kinect titles is only fit for dust bin lining. Recent efforts from Sumo Digital, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed have been Sonic’s best racing offering yet and worth playing, but these games are still some way behind the Mario Kart series. Wii U version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Sony also have a bizarre habit of allowing characters which appear on their systems to appear in racing games. First was Crash Bandicoot with Crash Team Racing, This got a sequel on GC/Xbox/PS2 Crash Tag Team Racing although the copyrights for Crash Bandicoot have now switched to Activision hence the reason he appeared on other formats. Jak and Daxter also got there own racing in Jak X: Combat Racing. Given that Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter games where both by Naughty Dog, who also do the Uncharted series this has lead to the rise of the joke Unkarted as the racing spin-off for the Uncharted series. Alarmingly for Naughty Dog’s fans both previous racing games where always the fourth game in the series. Thankfully it looks like Nathan Drake will not be starring in a racing game any time soon as least we hope not. But you never know Unkarted: featuring the Last of Us as guest stars could still turn up at some point. Ratchet and Clank have also managed to avoid a direct racing spin-off but have appeared as secret characters in Jak X and as a download character for ModNation Racers. Last but not least is Little Big Planet who got a decent racing spin-off last year in Little Big Planet Karting. The strange thing here however is the game was developed by United Front Games who also did the far better ModNation Racers in 2010. Why Sony didn’t simply do a sequel to ModNation and include Sackboy and friends like with the first game is a bit of a mystery. Other well known characters which have had racing spin-offs include Bomberman, Megaman, Mortal Kombat and Chocobo from Final Fantasy. Konami also made Krazy Racers for the Game Boy Advance which featured characters from a whole range of their games including, Goemon, Twinbee, and Metal Gear to name but a few. Krazy Racers one of the best Mario Kart clones on GBA and features one crazy mini game were players have to get as close to a cliff edge as possible without fall off! (Bottom right image) Perhaps the best example of a character who has been in some fantasic spin-off games is Kirby, Nintendo Pink blob has been in many games which don’t use the core platform mechanic it’s hard to keep track. The excellent Kirby’s Pinball Land on Gameboy which is one of the best handheld Pinball games you can play. Kirby’s Block Ball was also released later in the Gameboy life this time Kirby was staring in a very good breakout clone. Other Kirby spin-offs include Kirby: Power Paintbrush/Canvas Curse on DS. One of the best games on DS and on of the few games which really used the styles controls to benefit the player. Kirby’s Air Ride on Gamecube is an enjoyable racing game and yet another example of a racing spin-off, but the track design give F-Zero a run for its money. Kirby and Mario aren’t the only mainstay Nintendo series to have constant spin-off either the cast of Pokemon have been in more spin-off games than you can shake a stick at but by far the most amusing has to be “Learn with Pokemon: Typing Adventure” on the Nintendo DS complete with a miniature keyboard. As crazy as it sounds this is a real Nintendo DS release, Pikachu also appears to be training to be a street fighter if that pose is anything to go by. Mario Party is another major example of a spin-off genre with the whole party game setting although it’s fair to say these games have been a very mixed bag over the years. Yet that hasn’t stopped Nintendo from churning them out year after year, although most of the earlier games where developed by the now departed Hudson Soft. Even Sonic not to be out done got in on the party game act with pretty awful Sonic Shuffle on Dreamcast. It has to be said for the whole party games genre that you will likely have more fun however if you invite four friends over and get out a board game or two. As the party game genre really doesn’t compare to the likes of classic board games such as HeroQuest, Descent, Space Crusade, Munckin or even Monopoly. HeroQuest more fun than Mario Party any day of the week and yes even HeroQuest had at least two video games based on it. One last spin-off of merit is Konami, Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventure which took the cast of the Twinbee series which is a excellent series of shoot-em-up’s and put them in a surprisingly good platform game. Only downside side is the western release of Rainbow Bell Adventure was heavily hacked up from the Japanese version but that is a story for another time. Here is some comparison screen shots of Rainbow Bell Adventure on Super Nintendo along side the more traditional playing Pop'n TwinBee also on Super Nintendo. Pop'n TwinBee (Left) Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventure (Right) There are simply too many spin-off titles to cover in one article alone and we could be here till next Christmas if we were to cover them all. To some up however it’s best to say the if a spin-off is made by Nintendo it probably going to be pretty good, if it’s made by another developer then it’s probably best avoided. Feature by: Random Gamer Dragoon
      Last edited by S3M; 22-01-2014, 14:18.

      Comment


        #4
        Review of the entire Sega Wonder Boy series featured on the Sega Ages 2500 collection.

        Format: PlayStation 2 Publisher: Sega Developer: M2 Release year: 2007 (Japan only) Genre: Arcade Collection / Multiple Titles For this review Randomised Gaming reviewed the Sega Ages 2500: Monster World Complete Collection on a Japanese PS2. For the purpose of this review Randomised Gaming will not refer to the Sega Mega Drive as the Sega Genesis (USA Brand name). The Sega Mark III is the Japanese name for the Sega Master System. Where possible the emulated home ports in this collection were compared against the original Sega cartridge release of each game. Sega have a rather chequered history of failing to release many of their games in the west. The Sega Mega Drive, Saturn and even the Dreamcast all featured plenty of Japanese only released Sega games that should have seen a western release, but never did. Sega even kept up with this tradition on the PlayStation 2 with classics like Thunder Force VI and Sega Rally 2006 being denied a western release along with most of the Sega Ages 2500 range. Which it turns out is a huge shame as it prevented western gamers from playing this wonderful range of titles. Actually truth be told however the first 15 volumes of the Sega Ages 2500 series were utter rubbish. They were made by a company called 3D Ages and were ports of existing classic Sega titles but with the graphics upgraded to 3D and with altered gameplay in many places. The result being that all of them played worse than the games they were based on and the series became somewhat of a laughing stock for how not to remake game. Wonder Boy (Arcade) It got so bad that in the end Sega took back the series and completely turned it around, the results being that volumes 16 to 33 were fantastic, featuring perfect ports of games which were packed with exclusive features and extras. The Monster World Complete Collection falls under the latter half of the series being the 29th volume. The PS2 Monster World collection is made up of all six Wonder Boy and Monster World games, including all three arcade games and all of Sega’s various home ports and sequels. It also features plenty of bonus material including a full sound test for every game and a gallery of artwork. One of the highlights on the collection is the Sega Mark III FM soundtrack for Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap which was previously never officially released. Other features include the option to change the resolution for every game, which includes support up to 480p. Arcade titles feature access to their dip-switch settings and for the home ports you have the ability to change the CPU clock speed and reduce sprite flicker. Despite being a Japanese collection it also features a number of English versions of the Wonder Boy games on it. Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Arcade) It’s a very impressive retro collection and its developer M2 should be given a round of applause for all their hard work and effort they have put into making this collection. The Wonder Boy series started off as an arcade platform series with later titles in the franchise adding in RPG elements of gameplay. They were developed by westone bit entertainment and the last game in the series was Monster World IV on the Mega Drive which dropped the Wonder Boy name as it featured a heroine named Asha. It does seem a little odd that Sega didn’t carry over the series branding by changing the name to “Wonder Girl: Monster World IV” instead however. As with so many classic 16-Bit Sega franchises, Sega choose not to carry on the series for the Sega Saturn leaving many fans of the series guessing as to why Sega never did a 32-bit instalment. Monster World IV (Mega Drive) As this is a Sega collection it doesn’t feature any of the various Wonder Boy clones that westone bit entertainment did on other formats. So no Adventure Island games are included on the collection, but if you’re interested in reading up on the whole Wonder Boy series checkout this feature by Hardcore Gaming 101. Without any more delay lets start looking into the games on the collection, as various versions of each game in the series are in the Randomised Gaming draw list. This review will only provide a brief mini-review for each game along with covering the quality of ports and extras for each title on the collection. Wonder Boy (1986) Probably the most well know game in the series, Wonder Boy was an arcade game made in 1986 and during the late 80s was fairly common amongst amusement arcades. Players had to guide Wonder Boy to the end of each level while avoiding the various dangers including Cobras, Snails and Giant Boulders. Added to this was the fact that Wonder Boy’s health bar was constantly decreasing and had to be topped up via collecting fruits that would appear throughout the level. Time was not on your side in Wonder Boy and the fact that the game had a total of 32 stages didn’t make it any easier. Add to this the fact that the game doesn’t let you continue from round 7 (stage 25 onwards), makes this one of the hardest arcade game ever made forget Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Wonder Boy redefines the word frustration in the dictionary. That’s not even discussing trying to find all the hidden dolls needed to access round 8 in the arcade version. Fortunately this collection lets you cheat and use an endless life mode to finish the arcade version, in case you don’t want to spend hundreds of hours perfecting every jump in the game. Our only slight complaint is that it doesn’t include a save state feature and with Wonder Boy taking over an hour to finish even on a speed run, most normal gamers can expect to take 3 to 5 hours to finish the game in full. The arcade emulation of Wonder Boy is nigh on perfect in the collection and this is also the first ever official home release of the arcade version. The only noticeable admission is that it doesn’t feature any of the different arcade revisions. The collection also includes the Master System and Game Gear versions of Wonder Boy, both of which feature an extra two rounds not present in the arcade version. As a secret extra the collection also features the SG-1000 version of Wonder Boy which looks and plays very dated when compared to the Master System port. Wonder Boy in Monster Land / Super Wonder Boy in Monster World (August - 1987) The second arcade game in the series took much of the previous game and throws it out of the window, instead appearing to borrow gameplay elements from the second Legend of Zelda title. The result being possibly the only platform RPG arcade game ever to be released in arcades and while being a very odd mix of genres it works surprisingly well. Wonder Boy travels to Monster Land in order to defeat the dragon that has taken up resident there. The platform mechanics are greatly improved with Wonder Boy now being given the freedom to move around the levels. Along the way you can collect gold and are able to purchase new armour and magic to help you in your quest. Combine this with a number of secrets and you have a very in depth title for arcades. The sword and shield combat is however very basic but it gets the job done. Despite playing more like a home console game it does feature many arcade elements, noticeable a constant timer in the form of a hourglass, every time it runs out of sand the player loses a heart from their heath bar. As with the first game Monster Land doesn’t allow players to continue from the final level in the game making it somewhat tricky to finish. Fortunately the difficulty is far more forgiving in Monster Land than it was in Wonder Boy and it’s a far more fun game to play in the later stages. While Monster Land was the only arcade game to use this gameplay format the later console games in the series would carry on the RPG themes seen in it. The collection also features the Japanese Sega Master System release of Monster Land, but the English version is omitted. The Master System version also features an extra level not found in the arcade release, so it’s well worth a play, even if it is missing most of the arcade’s soundtrack. Be warned however while the stages in this port are slightly easier than the arcade, due to reduced enemy placement on some stages. You are only given one credit to finish the game making it rather harder than the arcade release. Monster Land a place with no alcohol laws! While only the Japanese version of Monster Land is included on the collection it is very easy to play with no language barrier. The only slight issue is that it will be slightly trickier to find a few of the secret shops as you miss out on the hints given by the various shop keepers. Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (1988) The third and final arcade game in the Wonder Boy series is an uneasy mix of gameplay from the previous two arcade games crossed with the shooter genre. To say it is the weakest game in the series is an understatement as it’s an awful game. Boring, overly long and difficult describe the game perfectly, by all accounts it wasn’t a popular title in the arcades either and as a result was rather hard to find in arcade form. The gameplay is very close to the first Wonder Boy with the combat being taken from Monster Land, however you now shoot bullets from your sword and can collect additional weapons that temporarily power you up. To sum up the gameplay very quickly, you just shoot enemies and collect fruits and that’s it, no secrets or extras are hidden in the game either, unlike the previous two games. Ultimately it feels like westone didn’t know which direction to take the series in for the third game, it’s a rare misstep in the series and one that you will likely play only the once as there is little reason to come back to it. The included Mega Drive version improves over the arcade release by having a more balanced difficulty. A decent enough conversion for the time it does suffer from a large amount of slowdown and the graphics are noticeably less detailed than the arcade version. The only point of real interest is that Monster Lair is the only two player simultaneous game in the series, meaning you don’t have to suffer this game alone. Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap / Monster World II: Dragon no Wana (1989) Confusingly Dragon’s Trap was also titled Wonder Boy III for the European and USA Master System release, when it was in fact Wonder Boy IV. Dragon’s Trap, it was also the first game in the series not to receive an arcade release. The story in Dragon’s Trap follows on directly from the arcade release of Monster Land but with one minor change. In this version having defeated Meka Dragon, Wonder Boy is cursed and changed into a Lizard Man. Unable to take on human form Wonder Boy must defeat all the Dragons in order to obtain the Salamander Cross needed to break the curse. Defeating each dragon also changes the curse on Wonder Boy morphing him between a Lizard, Mouse, Piranha, Lion and Hawk. Gameplay is the same as Monster Land with the big change coming in the form of an open world format like Metroid and Castlevania. Each of Wonder Boy’s various new forms allows him to access new areas in the game, that said changing between forms is a bit clumsy and can only be performed in special rooms. Equipment is now also inter changeable and Wonder Boy now has the ability to crouch which makes attacking smaller enemies far easier than previous games. As with Monster Land various NPCs can be found throughout the game selling a variety of equipment upgrades. The game also includes a password system for you to save your progress. Sega Ages owners will also be glad to know however, that the version on the PS2 collection also allows you to do a suspend save, so no need for pen and paper any more. It’s certainly one of the better titles in the series with many fans also arguing that it is the best game in the franchise. Possibly due to its age, Dragon’s Trap hasn’t held up as well as some fans claim the graphics while excellent for a Master System are somewhat bland with many level sections being heavily repeated, this combined with a lack of a map requires the player to navigate the world via memory alone. It’s well worth playing but the follow up Mega Drive games do improve on the Dragon’s Trap formula. Not only was this Monster World collection the first official release of the FM soundtrack for the game, but it was also the first time the Master System version received a Japanese release. The Monster World collection also includes both the Japanese and European Game Gear releases of Dragon’s Trap. Originally only the Game Gear version of Dragon’s Trap had seen a Japanese release and this wasn’t until 1992. This version is considered somewhat of a director’s cut as westone made a number of subtle changes to the gameplay while converting it to the handheld console. This included the redesign of many of the location to better suit the small screen, the removal of the charm point system, item location changes and NPC art changes which included the removal of the now iconic smoking pig character who resided in the church and shop. The password store keeper as seen in both versions Master System (Left) and Game Gear (Right) It’s well worth playing both versions on the Monster World collection to see the various changes, whether they are all for the better is somewhat debatable however. Wonder Boy in Monster World / Wonder Boy V: Monster World III (25th October 1991) The fifth title in the series was released on the Mega Drive in 1991 in Japan with the European and USA releases arriving in 1992. As you can expected for a 1991 Mega Drive title visually it was the most impressive game to date. While the story is little more than a retelling of Monster Land, the gameplay draws from Dragon’s Trap with a number of improvements. This time around Wonder Boy has multiple weapons at his disposal, magic is also now permanent and can be upgraded as you progress through the game. You will also encounter companions who fight with you against the hordes of monsters. All the characters are beautifully drawn and animated, with the game using bright and bold colours to define them. As with Dragon’s Trap the gameplay is open world again with new weapons and items granting access to more areas. Monster Land fans will also be quick to spot the homage to previous games in the series with the opening scene taken from the original Monster Land arcade game. The soundtrack is also a big improvement over previous instalments of the series and helps capture the atmosphere of Monster World far better than Dragon’s Trap soundtrack did. The Monster World collection itself features both the Japanese and English release of Wonder Boy V to play. There are a few minor changes between versions, the main difference being that the Japanese release is slightly easier than the western one. The included Master System version is a novelty at best, due to the fact that it is so heavily cut down from the Mega Drive version. Gameplay remains the same but combat is far more clunky due to the collision for the enemies and your sword being wildly off making the game almost unplayable. Monster World is also quite a bit shorter on the Master System, supporting companions are also missing completely and half the sound track has been cut out. Despite all the negatives when compared to the Mega Drive version, it is however one of the best looking Master System games on the platform. The Master System port itself wasn’t made to 1993 and was only released in Europe, making this collection the first official Japanese release of the port. Monster World IV (1st April 1994) The last title in the series was the first not to use the Wonder Boy title as explained earlier and is the only game not to receive a western release on its original format. Which is a huge shame as it is one of the most impressive Mega Drive titles released, Sega’s years of experience developing for the console by 1994 really show through in Monster World IV. As a result of this and due to the popularity of the Monster World series in the west Monster World IV was one of the more popular import titles on the Mega Drive. This time around you play as a girl named Asha who along the way is joined by her fateful companion Pepelogoo. This small blue creature allows Asha to glide and is often used as a mechanic to solve puzzles these include being used as a platform on lava and getting encased in ice. Poor little fellow doesn’t have it easy at times, but his rapid growth over the course of the game makes for some rather funny character development. While Asha only has a sword at her disposal this time around, sword combat itself is far more versatile than in the previous games with Asha having the ability to attack above and below her. The downward sword strike also allows you to combo some of the enemies in game. The platforming and jumping gameplay is also improved with you having far more control over Asha’s movements than any of the previous heroes in the series. Graphically this is one of the best games on the Mega Drive with the characters and monsters all featuring large amounts of animation. Locations also look stunning with a variety of designs and effects, highlights include the snow falling over the pyramids and the water found dipping in stream sanctuary. Unlikely the previous two games Monster World IV isn’t open world instead its level structure is like the original Monster Land with the player not being able to revisit a location after finishing it, the only exception being the Hub town you return to after every level. One problem with the game however is that all the levels are far too long and become somewhat repetitive. This is a result of Monster World IV only having around six major levels and all the stages apart from the starting location are just far too long for their own good. Certainly it feels like Sega should have doubled the number of levels by cutting the size of the existing one’s in half. ROM constraints are mentioned as a problem in a interview in the Hardcore Gaming 101 book “Sega Arcade Classics” and the overly long level design points to this. As using a new layout in a existing tile set, takes up far less memory on the cartridge than creating a new tile set and a new stage. Regardless it does detract from the game somewhat and some gamers may well chunk in the towel before they reach the end of the longer dungeons. The frozen desert is one of the worse location for this with the player having to navigate three identical looking huge pyramids covered in ice each of which takes about an hour to finish. The soundtrack on the other hand is another highlight of Monster World IV which again pulls out all the stops and really is a joy to listen too while keeping in touch with the feel of the Monster World series. Certainly it’s a toss up between Monster World III & IV for the best game in the series and depending if you prefer the open world structure or not, will likely decide which of the two Mega Drive titles you’ll think is the best in the series. Some fans will however always shout Dragon’s Trap on the Master System. Monster World IV has the weakest emulation on the collection with the soundtrack of the game sounding muffed when directly compared to the original Mega Drive version. It’s not a major issue but fans of the original release may find it slightly annoying. Unlike some of the other titles on the collection Monster World IV has to be finished in order to unlock the art gallery for the game. While the game isn’t too Japanese heavy there are a few puzzles that will cause gamers not fluent in Japanese major problems. Some like the statue placement order puzzle found at the the end of each pyramid will require some major guess work along with trial and error to solve. The section where you have to answer Sphinx’s questions is also a complete nightmare and required the writing down of Japanese symbols and match them to the Yes or No answer. While text and video guides can help with most puzzles, Sphinx’s questions are rather more tricky to pass. It’s unclear why Sega decided not to localise and release a English version on the Mega Drive. However in 2012 a official English translation was released on PSN, XBLA and Wii Virtual Console. So if the thought of playing the Japanese version puts you off , don’t worry you can now play it in English . Is the long journey to Monster World worth it? Yes, to sum it up in a single word this is exactly how retro collections should be made. If you are a fan of even just one of the games in the series it’s worth picking up the Monster World Collection to play. As this collection is currently the best way to sample the entire series on one format.The only real reason to put you off buying this collection is that you need a Japanese PS2 and that Monster Land and Monster World IV are only in Japanese. For those of you who don’t want to splash out for those reasons you will likely be far more interested in getting the XBLA, PSN and Wii Virtual Consoles releases of the games. As English releases of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Monster World IV and Wonder Boy in Monster World are available as separate downloads on PSN and as the Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World on XBLA. Which contains arguable the best three games in the series, well Randomised Gaming thinks so. All the Wonder Boy & Monster World games can also be found on Nintendo Wii Virtual Console, however only the home ports are available for the original Wonder Boy and Wonder Boy III Monster Lair. Some of the PC Engine clones of the Wonder Boy games are also available on Virtual Console. Wonder Boy in Monster World (Mega Drive) In short the Monster World series is a bright bold colourful platform RPG series that has stood the test of time and is a joy to play even today. Hopefully westone and Sega will decided to made a Monster World V at some point in the future to allow future generations to carry on playing this classic series. Sadly Sega of Europe and America only choose to release some of the weaker games from the Sega Ages 2500 range in the west. Picking a selection of the terrible 3D Ages games then bundling them into a rather ironically named PlayStation 2 collection called, Sega Classics Collection. It was anything but classic and many of the ports murdered the heart and soul of the original games, the only reason to pick up a copy is to see how bad the conversions were, ugly 3D graphics any one? Still least they made amends by releasing the later digital versions of Wonder Boy. Sources: Nintendo Wii Virtual Console website Sega Japanese Wii Virtual Console website Sega Ages 2500 website Sega Ages 2500 Monster World Complete Collection vol.29 There is a big selection of videos for the entire Wonder Boy series over at our Youtube channel including a number of comparison between the various versions. Review by Random Gamer Riven. Twitter: RDGamerRiven E.mail: [email protected] Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, for video game, art, reviews, features, videos and more. You can also follow us on twitter and subscribe to us on YouTube for even more Randomised Gaming content.


        Comparison video of the Mega Drive and Master System versions of Wonder Boy in Monster World.



        Master System version sure does suck.

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          #5
          Latest review is up for Namco Museum Vol.3 and it's fair to say Pole Position II does not play that well today.

          Did anyone here ever play The Tower of Duraga back in the 1980's, very odd game.

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            #6
            Yes, although moreso through the Japanese GameCube port of the game.
            Lie with passion and be forever damned...

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Mayhem View Post
              Yes, although moreso through the Japanese GameCube port of the game.
              Interesting didn't know it got a Gamecube release, but see it was a Baten Kaitos pre-order bonus in Japan might have to find a copy. Is it a port of the NES or arcade version?

              What did you think Mayhem did you enjoy it?

              Why oh why do we never get pre-order bonus like this in the UK.

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                #8
                I remember Kevin Gifford talking a lot about Druaga on 8-4 one time - here's the link, actually

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                  #9
                  There's a decent Druaga anim? adaptation/sequel. Quite liked the PS2 game as well.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by S3M View Post
                    Interesting didn't know it got a Gamecube release, but see it was a Baten Kaitos pre-order bonus in Japan might have to find a copy. Is it a port of the NES or arcade version?
                    I believe it's a port of the NES version. Wasn't the only one, there's a GameCube version of the original Metal Gear included with the MGS: Twin Snakes Cube pack from Japan.

                    Having read up on the game, you really need the guide to find the items hah hah... a bit tricky in Japanese, so I relied on a translation!
                    Lie with passion and be forever damned...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Mayhem View Post
                      I believe it's a port of the NES version. Wasn't the only one, there's a GameCube version of the original Metal Gear included with the MGS: Twin Snakes Cube pack from Japan.

                      Having read up on the game, you really need the guide to find the items hah hah... a bit tricky in Japanese, so I relied on a translation!
                      That's what the internet is for these days:

                      http://strategywiki.org/wiki/The_Tower_of_Druaga (Covers all versions of the game included the Namco Museum extra dungeons.)

                      Metal Gear (NES) Gamecube port is quite well know it was even featured in a few of the UK games magazines at the time, but Tower of Druaga doesn't appear to have many fans in the west.

                      It's arcade sequel was The Return of Ishtar which features on Namco Museum Vol.4 on PS1 and requires the game be played with two players.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Just finished another retro review this time in the form of WWF WrestleMania Challenge on the NES which is made by Rare.

                        Format: Nintendo Entertainment System Publisher: LJN Developer: Rare Release year: 1990 (USA) 1991 (Europe and Japan) Genre: Sports / Wrestling Randomised Gaming reviewed the PAL version of WWF WrestleMania Challenge on an original Nintendo Entertainment System console. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s professional wrestling had a huge boom in popularity that became known as a golden era. Hulk Hogan was one of the many wrestlers who helped the boom of the era having already had a successful wrestling career and even appearing in films such as Rocky III and the somewhat dubious Suburban Commando. This Hollywood style status helped insure that children all around the world would be glued to their TV sets every Saturday night. To watch six feet tall men beat the living daylights out of one another, of course it was all fake but back then you didn’t know or care even if it was. Video game spin-offs were as inevitable as the sun rising and setting, however the big trick was getting the feel of a wrestling match on to a limited size NES cartridge. British developer Rare were tasked with the making the first NES WWF game way back in 1989. Unfortunately Rare’s first attempt left a lot to be desired and played more like a kick boxing game instead of a wrestling one. Certainly WWF fans may have been concerned when they heard Rare were developing the sequel back in 1990. Fortunately Rare learned from their mistakes of the first game and ended up delivering one of the better WWF based wrestling game on the NES second time around. Which considering the hardware limitation at the time is quite an impressive feat. 8-Bit WWF wrestling at its very finest As you boot up the game you are greeted with some 8-bit music and a image of the Ultimate Warrior holding the title belt. The game itself features a decent selection of modes to keep you entertained with the single player modes alone including Single Match, Tag Match and Survivor series. There is also an arcade mode in the form of Super Challenge, however you can only select it if you choose to play as the character named “yourself” who is supposed to be you the player. It’s not the smartest move as the player character is very uninteresting and most gamers would rather be playing as their favourite wrestler battling for or defending the title. He can’t be customised either so you’re stuck with a bland looking male character, leaving the game without a single playable female character. WWF WrestleMania Challenge also gives you a wide range of two player options including verse and co-op modes to choose from. With the co-op mode seeing you face off against the A.I. in a tag match. Verse mode gives you the same modes as single player, so you and your buddy have plenty of ways to wrestle each other. WWF WrestleMania Challenge includes nine wrestlers in total with players getting to chose from Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Macho King Randy Savage, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Big Boss Man, Ravishing Rick Rude, Andre The Giant with the last slot reserved for the already discussed player character. While the roster could be bigger it decent enough for the time and larger than what Microsoft deemed appropriate for the launch of Killer Instinct 3 on the Xbox One. As with most sports games there isn’t any story to worry about and the objective here is purely to win each match by count out either via pin, hold or ring out disqualification. Controls are decent enough with the “B” button used for throws and holds while the “A” Button causes your wrestle to punch and kick. While there isn’t a great selection of moves on offer it’s a nice enough selection to get by and each wrestler has a unique move or two. There’s a variety of throws, grapples, stomps and drops at your disposal, added to that you can climb the turnbuckle or even jump out of the ring. One of the most interesting aspects of the game in tag matches is where players can call their tag partner into the ring to help beat up their opponent or tell their partner to sneak round the side of the ring to beat up your opponent’s partner. In two player co-op as the other player controls the partner in the mode you soon find that both players end up cheating like mad using these tricks. It’s nice to see this type of wrestling action as it often wasn’t featured in other home or arcade ports at the time. If all else fails cheat and call in your tag partner to lend a hand as cheaters always prosper Even if said features do cause a issues in two player tag mode, as we found a bug where if the tag partner is under A.I. Control when you tag out. Which is caused when the player who is outside the ring spends too long fighting the other tag partner to avoid count out the A.I take controls and walks them back to your side of the ring. However if the player in the ring tags out while this is happening, the player tagged in can’t be controlled once they enter the ring. This is what we call a class “A” bug in the industry oops. Controls could be slightly tighter as they don’t feel as responsive as they should be and some of the attacks are hard to judge if they will connect or not, sledge hammers and drop kicks are particular poor for this with the collision detection on these moves not being 100% perfect nor are they helped by the isometric view. Throws on the other hand work perfectly in fact they work a little too well as throws have priority over punches and kicks. So as soon as an A.I. player performs a punch, if you respond with a throw you’re guaranteed a counter throw. Making most of the A.I. matches a fairly easy task, only the last three matches offer any real challenge. The A.I. is fairly easy to beat and each run at the titles gives you two additional rematches before you have to start over. While the single player will keep you entertained for a little while most of the fun and last ability will come from the multiplayer modes. Graphics are fairly decent for a NES game with all the wrestlers looking recognisable and wearing their respective outfits. The animation for the characters is also fairly smooth, the crowd also bring some life to the event as they clap their hands and take pictures as the match unfolds. The isometric view used for the game work very well as it gives a clear definition of ring size and scale, something lacking in the 2D side view often used in wrestling games. With only one background ring design for the entire game don’t expect any cages matches or ring variants for each wrestler. I can’t help but wonder is someone at Rare had being playing the1989 PC Engine release of Fire Pro Wrestling as there are a few similarity between both games the isometric view being one of them. The HUD design however could do with some improvement as the player health bars are rather awkwardly placed on the side of the ring. They aren’t fixed to the screen so as you move around the ring so do the health bars, problems arise if you’re at the far extremes of the ring. As then you can’t see either health bars correctly making it somewhat of a guessing game if you should pin your opponent or tag out to recover health. It’s not a major problem but it can get a bit annoying in the heat of a match as you have to run back into the centre of the ring to check on your health. There’s no referee or commentator during a match either just an image of a bell which appears when you attempt to pin your opponent making the ring feel a little empty at times. Referees and commentators do however feature in other NES wrestling games such as Tecmo World Wrestling and Pro Wrestling. Health bar hide and seek is a unexpected bonus mini-game in every match The sprite flicker on the other hand players will notice as there is a lot of it. Even with just two wrestlers fighting it out sprite flicker often occurs. In tag matches you’ll noticed your partner is also constantly flickering, however in this case it’s likely some clever trick by Rare to keep the game running smoothly during tag matches. WrestleMania Challenge only ever has a maximum of four sprites on screen at once, so in the survivor series matches which are three verses three the characters rotate on tagging out. All in all it may not be the prettiest looking NES game out there but it does do what it said on the box. As a result WWF WrestleMania Challenge succeeds in bring across the Saturday Night Main Event wrestling feel on your NES, fortunately without the part of a large six foot man about to stomp on you. It may be only 8-Bit but it still looks like it’s going to hurt Both the music and sound effects are of a fairly high 8-bit standard, while there aren’t any voice samples and the crowd is rather quiet. The music is catchy enough to not get on your nerves, each wrestler has their match theme from the era and the game swaps between the various songs as the match progresses. Macho Man’s entrance music “Land of hope and glory” and Hulk Hogan “Real American” are just some of the recognisable tunes that sound surprising good on the 8-bit system. Did he make the three count? I was pleasantly surprised by just how enjoyable WWF WrestleMania Challenge is and remains even so today twenty plus years after its release. Sure it isn’t the most in depth wrestling game ever and Fire Pro Wrestling D out classes it in every way, but that’s a whole different era in gaming. While Technōs 1991 game WWF WrestleFest may have ruled the roost in the arcades at the time there was no way the home consoles could compete with that type of hardware. A perfect home port of WrestleFest would likely not have been able to appear till the Sega Saturn and PlayStation arrived in the mid 90’s. Which is interesting as Rare’s WWF WrestleMania Challenge holds up well enough against the arcade wrestling releases. Gameplay from the classic arcade WWF WrestleFest Against its NES peers however it stands up very well and is certainly the best of the WWF games on the NES, with the two later games Steel Cage Challenge and King of the Ring both being a bit underwhelming. WrestleMania Challenge is not without it’s flaws and while it has a big variety of available options and modes, Tecmo World Wrestling is by far the best playing and looking wrestling game on the NES. While Tecmo World Wrestling doesn’t feature tag matches the single matches are excellent and if given the choice I’d say Tecmo World Wrestling is the one I would go for over the two. If you must have a WWF / WWE game however then WWF WrestleMania Challenge is the best of the bunch and offers a better multiplayer experience over Tecmo World Wrestling due to the extra modes it contains. Tecmo World Wrestling makes impressive use of the NES hardware Finally there goes the bell the pin is in and the match is over. Review by Random Gamer Riven. Twitter: RDGamerRiven E.mail: [email protected] Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, for video game, art, reviews, features, videos and more. You can also follow us on twitter and subscribe to us on YouTube for even more Randomised Gaming content.




                        Some classic wrestlers on the cover artwork to.



                        The randomiser is freaking me out some what as a couple of days after selecting this Utimate Warrior passes away.

                        Also just seen that Masato Masuda the creator of the Fire Pro Wrestling series also passed away earlier this month.

                        Not a good month for wrestling in the games industry.
                        Last edited by S3M; 21-04-2014, 14:37.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Another retro review up this one is for King of Fighters R-1 for the NeoGeo Pocket.



                          Format: NeoGeo Pocket Publisher: SNK Developer: SNK Release year: 1998 Genre: Versus Fighting Randomised Gaming reviewed the Japanese release of King of Fighters R-1 on a European NeoGeo Pocket Color. We are unable to review the multiplayer for the game due to Randomised Gaming only having one copy of the game and one console. Capcom are well known for milking their cash cow franchises, but they have nothing on SNK who carried on milking it long after the cow was passed its best. With the NeoGeo arcade hardware looking increasingly dated in 1998 and with both the NeoGeo CD and Hyper NeoGeo 64 arcade board failing to set the world of gaming alight. SNK turned to the handheld console market to try and turn their fortunes around and created the NeoGeo Pocket. While the NeoGeo Pocket may have failed to turn the tide for SNK who filed for bankruptcy in 2001, it did go down as one of the best arcade style handheld consoles ever made. The unit itself featured a eight way digital arcade stick that was perfect for arcade fighting games. Which as it happens was a very good thing as the NeoGeo Pocket had plenty of arcade versus fighting games released on it, well this is SNK we are talking about here. Some of the lovely scenes shown in the opening intro King of Fighters R-1 was one of the earliest fighting games to be released on the system and while it may now be over ten years old it’s still a treat to play. If I was doing a casual review I could just write this off as a cut down version of the NEO GEO release of King of Fighters ‘97. However, if I’d said that, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly. As King of Fighters R-1 is a game built and designed from the ground up to fit the handheld system perfectly. At this moment in time I’m reminded of Rare Software’s, Donkey Kong Land 2 port for the Game Boy, which is put to shame by SNK’s efforts here. The character sprites have been designed to fit the monochrome screen perfectly as has the characters theme music, which is still very recognisable from the King of Fighters series. The controls are also tight and responsive, what you have here is a master class in how to convert a game to the small screen. I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, so let me start by staying that King of Fighters R-1 is based on the story of King of Fighters '97. The plot itself was the conclusion of the Orochi story arc which officially started in King of Fighters '95. However, aside from a few vague lines in Kyo ending there wasn’t much of a link to the story in the later games and it was left to King of Fighters '96 to link the story of all three games properly. It did so by introducing us to Goenitz as the final boss, who was the villain responsible for removing the right eye of Rugal the final boss from '95. This all leads to a defeated Goenitz claiming that Orochi would soon be resuscitated, after making this statement Goenitz passes away. King of Fighters '97 deals with the return of Orochi who plays the role of the final boss in both the arcade version and the R-1 spin off on the NeoGeo Pocket. Does any of the story really matter, I hear you ask? Not really as the plots are laughably thin with the English translation of the story making about as much sense as a website translated by Google. King of Fighters R-1 gives you the choice between fourteen different characters with a further six as unlockable extras. Just over half the cast of the NeoGeo version have made the jump to the small screen with most of the main story characters and the fan favourites being included. Unfortunately not everyone did make it across with Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi being two of the better known SNK characters not included in this version. Mai, Kyo and Andy are just three of the returning cast from previous games While the controls are cut down to a single button for both punch and kick from the NeoGeo’s four buttoned arcade stick. The smooth gameplay of the arcade version and the tight controls remain. The design of the NeoGeo Pocket thumb stick makes pulling off quarter circle and half circle motions just as easy as the arcade release. The NeoGeo Pocket even today still outshines the more recent handheld consoles such as the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo 3DS in terms of how responsive the digital thumb stick is. Meaning that both veteran players and newcomers alike will have no problems in throwing fireballs and super moves at one another. All character special moves also remain intact with the only lost being to a few of the basic punches and kicks as mentioned. For the graphics SNK chose to redraw all the characters for the small screen using a cutesy art style with all the characters having overly large heads and extended limbs. While that may sound like they all look like strange alien creatures, the style works perfectly for the NeoGeo Pocket with all the characters retaining their trademark looks. The animation is clear and concise, allowing you to see each and every attack the opponent uses. While the animation isn’t as fluid as the arcade version due to King of Fighters R-1 using considerably less frames of animation, this is a minor nitpick that doesn’t affect the gameplay. R-1 featuring two fighting systems Extra & Advanced. While Extra is the manual charge bar system used in the previous titles in the series. Advanced is the newer system which causes the super bar to charge as you rain down attacks on your opponent Unlike previous handheld fighting game efforts that were released on the Game Boy, SNK got the hit detection and collision spot on for all the character moves. While this may sound like the core games design element for any fighting games, readers may be surprised by how many versus fighting game didn’t do this during the 16-Bit and 32-Bit gaming era. A quick play of Super Nintendo games such as Clayfighter, WeaponLord and Shaq Fu will have you crying for all the wrong reasons due to the terrible hit detection. Even the Game Boy ports of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat were far from an enjoyable experience on the system. Japanese company Takara even ported King of Fighters '95 and '96 to the Game Boy and while they were impressive efforts the collision and gameplay speed still left a lot to be desired. In game cutscenes and character art picture faces has also been lovingly redrawn in the new style. The only element that doesn’t appear to have been redrawn that well are the stage backgrounds. Which appear to be resized versions of the arcade artwork with all the detail and animation removed. If the backgrounds had just been a white screen you wouldn’t notice much difference from what’s actually in game as the backgrounds are dull and lifeless in R-1, an issue SNK addressed in later NeoGeo Pocket games. As with the characters a few of the arcade backgrounds have also gone missing, but most players are unlikely to notice this unless they have previously played the arcade release. Orochi and Orochi Iori are just two of the boss characters players must face in order to win the tournament Overall audio is somewhat of a mixed bag in terms of quality. For the music SNK have taken all the character music tracks from King of Fighters 96 and converted them to the Pocket. This can’t have been an easy task seeing as King of Fighters '96 was the only game in the series to lead on CD audio. Despite the change in hardware all the tunes are very recognisable with Kyo “Esaka” and Chizuru “Fairy” still sounding good enough to rock your head to. King of Fighters '97 itself featured very little music as SNK chose to use an atmospheric soundtrack for each stage instead of the usual character music. Sound effects on the other hand are all but the bare minimum, all vocal calls and shouts have been removed from King of Fighters R-1. Instead, fight introductions and win quotes just use subtitles at the bottom of the screen. With a small selection of rather tinny sounding effects for when you land a punch and/or kicks on your opponent, along with a muffed fire noise for some of the special attacks. The only positive thing I can say about them is that they don’t drown out the excellent music. Overpowered bosses and story cutscenes are two stable of the King of Fighters series and R-1 includes both In terms of single player content you can select two different arcade modes in the form of team and single. Team mode is the traditional three on three affair where as single mode allows you to pick one character and opt for the best of three rounds. Both modes are also available in multiplayer, but that’s it for game modes apart from a small selection of options. There isn’t anything in the way of time attack or survival mode to keep you entertained. King of Fighters R-1 does however, offer a fair amount of unlockable characters to find, which will keep you playing solidly for the first few days, after that it’s great for a quick fighting blast now and again. As one of only a handful of original NeoGeo Pocket games it doesn’t feature any colour enhancement for the later colour model of the system. Still the game looks great on either system and SNK clearly love the character design too as they reused the sprite artwork for all their later games on the system. Can the king still be found in your pocket? King of Fighters R-1 is and remains a perfectly balanced fighting game on the go. SNK proved with the NeoGeo Pocket that you could create a fighting game for the handheld system that plays just like its arcade counterpart. If you own a NeoGeo Pocket it’s well worth tracking down a copy, especially if you plan on taking any long journeys in the near future. That’s all that needs to be said really, buy it, buy it now. King of Fighters other handheld options to chose from While NeoGeo Pocket games where exclusively designed for the system. If you’re after some King of Fighters gaming on a more recent portable console. You will be glad to hear that some of the original NeoGeo arcade games have been re-released in recent years. One option is to spend your money on a NeoGeo X for a selection of NeoGeo arcade games on a pocket sized system. You would be wasting your money on this monster however as it’s nothing more than a Chinese bootleg emulation console with a nice plastic case, the emulation of the included games is also rather poor. Added to that the overpriced cost of the NeoGeo X and it’s cheaper to track down a NeoGeo Pocket with games instead. A better option however, is to pick up either a PlayStation Portable or a PlayStation Vita as King of Fighter '94, '95 & '96 can be downloaded via the NeoGeo Station on PlayStation Network. The main negative being that neither portable PlayStation consoles d-pad is that good for fighting games as the broken triangle design doesn’t register diagonal inputs smoothly. There’s also a couple of NeoGeo collections released at retail on PSP. As nice as the main King of Fighters games are on PSP, I can’t help, but feel that they are intended for the big screen and not the small screen. Making King of Fighters R-1 a better travel companion than say King of Fighter '97, which is best enjoyed with a friend and some arcade sticks on a home console. Review by Random Gamer Riven. Twitter: RDGamerRiven E.mail: [email protected] Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, for video game, art, reviews, features, videos and more. You can also follow us on twitter and subscribe to us on YouTube for even more Randomised Gaming content.

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                            #14
                            Next up is the awesome Kolibri on the Sega 32X.



                            Certainly one of the few games worth playing on a 32X.

                            Format: Sega 32X Publisher: Sega Developer: Novotrade International Release year: 1995 Genre: Shoot ‘em up Randomised Gaming reviewed the European PAL release of Kolibri on a European Sega MegaDrive and Sega 32X. Oh to be a hummingbird, life would be a lot simpler if all you had to do was drink nectar all day, unless of course you’re named Kolibri in which case you have the small task of saving the world, life isn’t easy for every hummingbird it would seem. Kolibri on the Sega 32X features a hummingbird as the unlikely saviour of the world. Developed by Novotrade International who also did the Ecco the Dolphin games. Where as the Ecco games followed the life of creatures that live underwater, Kolibri featured creatures that live on the land and in the sky. Kolibri itself is a rather original mix of arcade shooter and puzzle gameplay. While the main focus of the gameplay is on the shooting elements, the puzzles the player encounters from time to time add in a welcome break. Graphically Kolibri puts even the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to shame with its rich and colourful art style. Kolibri features no cutscenes either instead the story is very loosely explained in the manual and the first level after that the game solely relies on the gameplay to tell the rest of the story. In fact, Kolibri mainly relies on its gameplay and graphics to sell itself to the player both of which do this very well. Graphically Kolibri is one of the very best 2D games on the 32X, it is stunning to look at and takes full advantage of the 32X enhanced colour palette for the Sega MegaDrive. The pixel art is incredibly detailed with many of the sprites such as the Frog and Chameleon looking photo realistic, possibly due to Novotrade copying real life images of said creatures before adding them into the game. Kolibri himself is also beautifully drawn as are the various insects, bugs and dragon flies, he faces. Only the lack of animation on the various creatures and insects let it down a little, with most creatures only having a few frames of animation on their wings. Backgrounds are also amazing to look at, with the various plants and trees helping to bring the forest setting of the early stages to life. Later stages feature equally good background designs with effects such as the waterfall and the arid glass land bring a nice change of scenery. The cave designs also managed to add in a sense of being sealed inside one, but they take out to much colour and as a result feel very copy and paste design in how they look. There’s also a fantastic use of parallax scrolling in Kolibri with some of the backgrounds using five or more scrolling layers on a single stage. Novotrade have also taken a leaf out of Éric Chahi’s classic video game, Another World by not including any form of HUD in-game. It’s a brilliant design decision and allows the graphics to be shown off without some nasty HUD getting in the way. The only element the player needs to keep track of is the remaining number of lives Kolibri has left. This is very cleverly done by having multiple hummingbirds appear around Kolibri whenever you take a hit or gain an extra life ranging from one to four depending on how close to death you are. So graphically it’s exceptional, but the big question is of course how does it play, as great graphics don’t always make for a good game. Fortunately, Novotrade have delivered a very solid shooter, it’s not perfect, but it is a very good game. As you would expect from a Sega title the controls are sharp and responsive with Kolibri reacting to your every input, which comes in handy when you’re trying to dodge a barrage of bullets coming your way. Kolibri also only makes use of three buttons, with the first two reserved for special attack and shoot. The final button is for the burst flight which allows Kolibri to dash forward for a few seconds it’s a very handy feature and if used wisely can save you from taking damage, being drowned by a rain drop or becoming a frog’s dinner if used correctly. For Kolibri even the smallest of creatures poses a serious threat One of the more unusual elements of Kolibri is that unlike most shooters, you don’t just follow a preset path to the end of the level, many of the stages are an open world affair. With the player required to complete various objectives ranging from, killing all the enemies in the stage, finding ways to open blocked or locked passages or navigating maze like areas to the exit. As you would expect from a game that heavily relies on arcade style shooting gameplay, enemies come thick and fast at you, and your choice of weapon really does may a big difference. So much so that a few of the weapons aren’t worth using. As on almost every level apart from the preset scrolling stages where the player is pushed along a pre-defined path. The player is usually attacked from all directions as a result it’s only worth taking one of the three homing weapons, the weapon that bounces off walls is great for cave stages, but all the other weapons that fire on a fixed path should be avoided. Unless you want to make the game harder while playing it. More example of the stunning background design and art used in this game The game also supports a welcome two player mode, so you and a friend can undertake Kolibri’s quest together. It certainly helps to brighten up some of the more longer boring levels and makes the game a fraction easier. As unlike in single player, if one player dies the other can revived them by finding a hummingbird pod. That said, there were one or two levels which don’t seem to have been developed with two players in mind, as some of the pre-scripted chase events are rather tricky to avoid. Mainly this is down to the fact that both players appear on the same screen together (no split-screen mode) and have to fly together in order to explore an area. Of course this might cause a few problems if your co-op partner decides to do their own thing, as this will cause you to end up fighting for control of the screen movement. So not a game to play with your five year old brother or sister if all they want to do is explore the pretty looking sky in the game. The music and sound effects are without a doubt the weakest part of the game, they do their job, but are instantly forgettable once you switch off the 32X. The background music seems to change from stage to stage, some use music where as others relies mainly on the ambiance of the background environment. It’s not a great mix and Novotrade should have just stuck with one rather than chopping and changing between them. However even Novotrade seem to have had a hard time deciding this, as you can turn off the music and/or the sound effects in the option menu. Kolibri is not a game for you if you hate either spiders or snakes, as both are very happy to dine on Hummingbird The level design as a whole is pretty good with a nice mix of variety in how they play and look. Towards the end of the game however, it did start to look like the designers had run out of steam a little. Certainly the cave levels are all very similar long narrow tunnels mazes compared to the shorter more open levels seen at the start of the game. The final level is also incredibly long, it’s about five times the size of any other level in the game and gets rather boring, so boring in fact that I nearly fell asleep while trying to finish it. The only saving grace of the last level, being the climactic final boss battle at the end. To put this into perspective the final level itself took thirty minutes to finish and the whole game in total, took less than two hours to complete. Which also brings me to the other big problem with the game, which is its short length. While it may be a very enjoyable experience it’s not a very long one. The game only takes a few hours to finish depending on the player’s skill level. As there is no scoring system there is little reason to replay it once you have finished it. So don’t pick up Kolibri if you are expecting either a lengthy experience or one where you can keep improving your high score. The game isn’t that tricky either with even the larger and more powerful enemies dying after only a few hits. The game also gives you a password at the start of every level giving you little reason to fear death, some of the longer levels even include mid level reset points. (Left) An example of how the HUD less health meter seamlessly fits into game Kolibri is a one-time only experience, so even if you finish the game on hard don’t expect any extra bonuses or a hidden ending. It’s a bit like attending a rock concert you have a great time while there, but once it’s over all you have left is the memories. So do bare this mind if you plan on tracking down a retail copy, as the PAL retail version is likely to set you back more money now than it did on its original release. One thing that did strike me as odd is there are a couple of elements in the game, that appear to serve little or no purpose. Like the ability to drink nectar from plants, it’s seen in a few early levels then after that, you don’t find any more plants to drink from. It seems odd to include such an ability if you take it away from the player after they have played the first ten minutes of the game. Another point of interest is that I can’t help, but wonder if Kolibri was partly inspired by the Amiga game Agony made by Psygnosis. As both game feature similar gameplay, art styles and include a bird as the player’s character. While they may have been designed by two different developer studios, at their heart both games are very much alike Is this Hummingbird a Nectar drinker or Hawk food Novotrade International deserved a lot of credit for the design of Kolibri. As Kolibri isn’t just an impressive Sega 32X game it is in fact one of the best titles the system has to offer, if not the best game on the system. It’s certainly the best looking 2D game on the system, even if the 32X game Tempo has more animated graphics and some people may prefer it’s cartoon style animation to the serious art of Kolibri. Kolibri is an enjoyable shooter and a beautiful game to look at, more so than the Ecco the Dolphin games, which I was never a huge fan of. Mainly due to them being so open world, as it was often rather hard to workout how you finished a level. Kolibri is a more balanced game with a great mix of puzzle and action. In the end Kolibri, ends up as an excellent follow up to Ecco the Dolphin on the Sega MegaDrive. While Ecco fans will also likely enjoy Kolibri a few may dislike the more action driven gameplay. The bottom line is that if you own a 32X, then you can’t avoid picking up this game. The 32X isn’t known for it huge library of video games and unless you don’t think a hummingbird shooter that takes a few hours to finish is for you. You don’t really have a reason to not own this gem of a game. As you can tell from the screenshots that accompany this review, Kolibri truly is a work of art, which deserves much praise. Review by Random Gamer Riven. Twitter: RDGamerRiven E.mail: [email protected] Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, for video game, art, reviews, features, videos and more. You can also follow us on twitter and subscribe to us on YouTube for even more Randomised Gaming content.

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                              #15
                              Seem to be only getting retro games chosen at the moment, next up is the excellent Royal Stone on the Sega Game Gear nice little tactical RPG



                              Review is here:

                              Format: Sega Game Gear Publisher: Sega Developer: Sega Release year: 1995 Genre: Tactical RPG Randomised Gaming reviewed the Japanese NTSC release of Royal Stone on a European Sega Game Gear. Note the Sega Game Gear was a region free, hand held console. Sometimes you get a good feeling from a game just from the packaging alone. Aside from the lovely hand drawn cover art by the Japanese artist Kugatsuhime. Royal Stone includes a lovely full colour manual along with an A3 sized paper map of the world. I also couldn’t help notice the weight of the cartridge when compared to the first Sonic the Hedgehog game on Game Gear, it felt noticeably heavier. This is likely mainly down to the internal cartridge battery weight, needed for the save feature, but some of it will be down to the increased memory size. As this is one Game Gear title that puts, Game Boy Advance games to shame, as it looks, sounds and plays that good. Like so many Sega games, Royal Stone was only released in Japan. This is most likely down to Royal Stone being released late into the life of the Game Gear. Its prequel did, however, receive a western release in 1991/1992 under the name Crystal Warriors. Although Royal Stone’s story is set many years after the events in Crystal Warriors and shares few ties with its predecessor. Its main connection is the excellent turn based role playing game (RPG) combat which largely remains unchanged from the previous game. Royal Stone features some excellent pixel art Royal Stone is a tactical turn based RPG in the same style as Fire Emblem, Shining Force and Tactics Ogre. Based on the classic board game of chess, tactical RPGs involve players moving a series of turn based pieces, characters or units to take control of a map. Usually it involves for filling a preset objective, such as escaping from the battlefield, rescuing a captured character or defeating the enemy general to finish a mission. In Royal Stone’s case however, despite playing quite a long way into the game so far the only objective I been given to win a map, is to defeat the enemy general. Each time you control a character you get the option to move, before you can attack or cast a magic spell which ends that character’s turn. What you can’t do is move after you launch either a spell or an attack, so you have to keep this in mind when ever you plan to move a character. Once you have finish moving all the player characters, it’s time for the enemy turn. For those familiar with the genre, gameplay wise Royal Stone is a sort of cross between Fire Emblem and Shining Force in how it plays. Like Fire Emblem if a character is killed on the battlefield they are dead for good and cannot be revived. Certainly early on, when you only have four or five team members this is something to be very aware of, as one wrong move and you could end up with only two team members for the next battle. If that lost is the cleric, who at first is the only character available with a healing spell, then you could be in for some real trouble come the next battle. First time players may well find this somewhat daunting, but fortunately the game is reasonably balanced so unless you make a series of bad moves you won’t lose characters that easily, at least not early on. It is something that the player needs to keep in mind as the game progresses especially with the unique character element system the game has, as losing all characters of one element can cause a serious difficulty spike to occur in battle. The town sections are a major change of pace from the hectic battles Two of Royal Stone’s unique game mechanics that set it apart from its contemporaries are the element system and the shroud of battle. The element system, works by assigning each character one of four elements, water, fire, wind or earth. Each element, is both strong and weak to one another, so water is strong to fire, fire is strong to wind and wind is strong to water. Where as earth acts as a neutral element and is neither strong nor weak to any other element. Fire Emblem and Shining Force did something similar with a sword, axe and lance system, that did not affect all character classes in the game however, so didn’t impact combat hugely. The element system does however, and charging a fire class hero into a group of water enemies will spell certain doom for that character. Element classes are also affected by terrain so, water characters for example can move fastest in rivers than on dry land, but have their movement heavily reduced when moving in a forest. The shroud of battle system works by hiding the nature and status of the enemies on the map, when the battle starts you can see every enemy starting position on the map, but you can’t tell what type of unit they are. The only way to reveal them is to either directly attack or cast the identify magic spell on them. Combined with the element system this really makes for a game where you need to plan out every move, as sending a unit out on their own to try and commando the battlefield is asking for serious trouble. Unidentified enemies are a real danger if you don’t tread carefully The battlefields are reasonably sized for a handheld console with it normally taking you three to four movement turns to reach the enemy. Each map usually has a minimum of around nine enemies on it, while some also contain wandering wild monsters such as Dragons and Griffins. Graphically the map screens are decent enough and each map has a range of terrain to be found on it. By and large however most of the maps are a fairly standard open field affair, with the odd forest and lone mountain chucked in for good measures. A few of the more, interesting maps include rivers, desert and bridges to battle over, but these are few and far between. The battle maps also feel somewhat repetitive, there isn’t much difference between them and you don’t get a chance to battle inside terrain such as caves, castles, ancient temples or snow filled mountains. Combat itself is the most impressive looking part of Royal Stone, with the game zooming in on the action to show beautifully drawn character art as they proceed to battle it out. Battles themselves are a bit more tactical than most turn based RPGs. As both attacker and defender get to perform two actions during a single round of combat, the attacker takes the first action then the defender gets an action, this is then followed up by a second action for both characters in the same order. For each action you can choose to attack, cast magic or defend and retreat. While only very limited choices it does make you think, do you attack twice, knowing that you will almost certainly take counter damage or do you retreat after you strike your first blow. Retreating certainly comes in handy if your character runs into another with a stronger element or if you foolishly decide to take on the map boss without backup. Some characters also have special abilities available for selection as well. From sword fighting to dragon’s breath, you had better be prepared for what ever the enemy throws at you Mages have a much easier time of combat as while defensive magic has to be cast in battle, most attacking spells can be cast on the map, they also have a huge casting range. Add to this the fact, that there aren’t any ranged units like archers and such like to counter magic users. Then, as a result mage characters don’t need to worry about ranged counter attacks from enemies, unless they are standing directly next to them, giving them almost free rein of any battlefield. While the first mage character doesn’t join your party until you’re quite a way into the game, it’s clear the magic system is rather unbalanced. Magic spells seem to also have an almost infinite usage per battle, just to make mages even more unstoppable. Supposedly the game has a mind/mana point system, but it seems almost impossible to deplete them for any character. Nor does it show your current mind points score in the status screen, raising the question if Sega slipped in a bug or two without noticing. In one battle I watched as a rather stupid AI Mage would cast a lightning spell on my leader every turn. Each time this happened I would have the cleric cast heal on my leader in response, this went on for about eight turns till the enemy mage was killed and at no point did either magic user look like they were going to run out of mind points any time soon. That cleric even cast heal for most of the remaining battle without ever running out, making it seem like an endless supply of mana was raining down from the skies. Magic is without a doubt the most destructive force on the battlefield As with any good RPG you have a level up system and killing enemies on the battlefield will reward the victorious character with some experience points. Gain enough points and the character levels up and in doing so, gains a random increase to their basic stats such as attack and defence. The somewhat major flaw in this system is that characters only get experience points for defeating an enemy, so nothing for casting heal or inflicting damage on the enemy. Which makes trying to level up the not so battle hardened Cleric characters not the easiest of tasks. The best solution being you end up having to slowly whittle down the health of an enemy with a fighter class character then send in the cleric for the killer blow. Not ideal in the slightest and often this type of move doesn’t go to plan, usually going wrong when the fighter scores an unexpected critical hit, killing the chosen enemy outright before the cleric arrives. In between the battle maps the player has a chance to put their feet up and wander around the local town. Aside from being able to purchase new equipment, recruit characters and save the game, these sections also help push the story of the game forward. (left) Ida’s failed execution at the start of the game (right) Ida telling Cocotto about the the death of her father While the story text is all in Japanese, the in game cutscenes still do a surprisingly good job of explaining the plot to none Japanese natives. The plot follows the plight of Ida (some translation call her Eve) a knight of her home city who starts the game imprisoned for murdering her father and betraying her fellow knights on the battlefield. Sentenced to death she soon finds herself tied to a cross before being dropped hundred of feet into the water below. Fortunately, Ida gets a visit from a magic sage and an angel named Cocotto the night before her execution and survives her encounter with the deep blue ocean. Aided by her new friend Cocotto, Ida spends her time in exiled banding together a small group of mercenaries to help clear her name. As Ida has of course been framed for the crimes she has been falsely accused of. It’s not long before Ida catches up with the character, involved in the death of her father and fellow knights with Ida dispatching quick justice to clear her name. Unfortunately she arrives a little too late to save her home city which has been burned to the ground. As the rest of the plot unfolds it is soon revealed that some ancient evil from a thousand years ago is all behind it and Ida sets off with her army to do battle with it. It’s typical RPG stuff with our heroine setting off to save the world from a great evil. (left) One of the main villains in the game and (right) the remains of your home city after he has burned it to the ground. He’s not a nice fellow. The town sections and cutscenes where most of the story takes place are well done with impressive visuals for the Game Gear. The art direction and character models bare a resemblance to Secret of Mana during these parts with plenty of big and bold sprites wandering around each town. During these sections you actually play as Cocotto, who has to run around town like an errand boy while Ida sits around planning for the next battle. Earning as much gold as possible in battle is a must, as each town offers plenty of ways to spend it. While most English speakers will likely give the Japanese fortune teller a miss, upgrading weapons and armour for each character is a must however. The weapon shop is also another big gripe I have with the game as it features blind buying which means that it doesn’t show if the equipment you are buying is better or worse than what you currently have equipped. You can check the stats of the equipment you buy in the equipment menu, but you have to purchase it, in order for it to appear in this menu. So you end up, having to save just before you buy anything and then check and reload the save game if the new sword you just bought, turns out to be rubbish. As this is an issue that most RPGs solved in the late 1980s for it to turn up in a 1995 released game is a bit of an oversight on behalf of the game’s designers. From shops to sells swords, towns have plenty of ways to part you with your hard earn gold. The big question, however, is why is a character in a fantasy game wearing futuristic purple shades? Related to Horatio Caine perhaps? New Magic spells also have to be purchased from shops and very early on in the game, it’s a bit of a toss up for what to buy with the limited funds you had available. Do you buy a new spell for the cleric or do you give the fighter a brand new sword with your last 100 gold? Later on in the game the gold comes rolling in and this becomes much less of a problem. While the local Inn acts as the save point between missions, it’s also a great place to recruit the odd mercenary or two, just so long as you fork out the 1000 gold for their upfront fee. Many characters also join Ida as part of the story and you can usually pick up at least one extra party member in each town. On top of that Ida can also recruit wandering monsters by defeating them on the battlefield. While it’s only a random chance they join you, it’s rather nice to be able to add a dragon to your party. As mentioned previously graphically Royal Stone looks better than some Game Boy Advance games and really shows off the power of Sega’s handheld wonder. The Kugatsuhime drawn character portraits are also wonderfully detailed and help bring each character to life. Wild monsters once recruited by Ida are a powerful ally The music is also rather enjoyable to listen to and benefits from being a late Sega Game Gear title. Sega have clearly tried to squeeze out the best music they can with the limited sound chip of the system. The music itself is surprisingly catchy and battle music uses a noticeably faster tempo to the more laid-back tunes used for wandering around town. With that in mind you will find each music track was repeated a little to often in game. There’s not a great deal in the way of sound effects, it’s all pretty much bog standard effects for combat and navigating menus. With very little in the way of atmospheric sound effects Royal Stone replies primarily on its music to bring the world to life. Which for a late Game Gear title it does very well. I can also think of a couple of Game Boy Advance games where Royal Stone’s music is head over heels better than. A Royal Jewel for the Game Gear Royal Stone is certainly one of the most impressive looking and playing tactical RPGs. However should it be your first port of call, if you haven’t played the genre before? If you played and enjoyed Crystal Warriors, then this is a must buy, Royal Stone isn’t an expensive game and can be sourced for less than an English copy of Crystal Warriors. Unlike some RPGs, Royal Stone doesn’t have a major language barrier issue and there isn’t any mind bending Japanese puzzles, making it very easy to play without being able to understand a word in Japanese. Nintendo Fire Emblem fans will also really enjoy Royal Stone, as its game design makes it noticeably closer to Nintendo’s RPG series than it does Sega’s own Shining Force series. However, it’s also very unforgiving if you haven’t played the genre before and in that respect if you are new to tactical RPGs you may find the three Shining Force Gaiden games are better introductions to the genre on the system. As Royal Stone can put you in position, where you have an unwinnable battle if you lose too many units in a previous battle. (left) Are futuristic shades wearing elf ally, receives a healing spell from the cleric (right) Cocotto recruiting a new ally in town Shining Force uses a far easier system and also allows the player to retreat from battle, to level up if needed. Shining Force Gaiden II was also released in English, but only in the US, the other two games remain Japanese only. Crystal Warriors did however, get a European release and isn’t that expensive to pick up. Royal Stone is an excellent example of the genre, ticking all the right boxes where it needs to. It isn’t Shining Force III however, which pushed the genre hugely forward in design and gameplay terms. So it’s the type of game that’s well worth owning if you have a Game Gear, but it’s not worth solely purchasing a Game Gear for. All in all Royal Stone is an excellent title for the Game Gear and shows that the system was more than a rival for the original Game Boy, just don’t mention the battery life of the Game Gear. Ida having a flashback to the death of her father Is it the best tactical RPG on the system, well that’s a close one to call. While I’ve not yet finished all the tactical RPG on the Game Gear. There is no denying this is one of the best RPGs on the system, but it’s biggest rival is probably Shining Force Gaiden III: Final Conflict which was also released in 1995. Both games really show off the system and while Royal Stone is better looking, Final Conflict has the edge on gameplay. I’ll give you the final verdict when I get around to finishing them both. The real tragedy here is the fact that Royal Stone never received an English release. It’s the type of game that if Sega were to translate now, it could easily be re-released on a modern system like the Nintendo 3DS. In fact, 3DS owners would do well to check out the Game Gear digital download releases of Crystal Warriors and Shining Force Gaiden II: The Sword of Hajya if you want some tactical RPGs action. Now if only Sega would translate and release Royal Stone for the 3DS. Review by Random Gamer Riven. Twitter: RDGamerRiven E.mail: [email protected] Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, for video game, art, reviews, features, videos and more. You can also follow us on twitter and subscribe to us on YouTube for even more Randomised Gaming content.


                              Also is it me or is the mage portrait below showing a dodgy hand gesture?



                              No fantasy game is complete without someone wearing shades either?????

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