Necro's game clears and mindless musings

[Black Tiger]

Have you cleared Tadaima Yusha Boshuchu?

I haven't had the patience/free time to figure out and translate a bunch of of it, but it was much more interesting than I expected while kinda brute forcing my way through play sessions.

[Necromancer]

I've not played it; it looks interesting, if a bit heavy on the noodle word menu gaijin protection.  I see there's a SNES version too, but I don't know how similar they are to each other.

[Necromancer]

Clear #107 - Hypernova Blast



More sweet homebrew fun, this time a port of a Defender style shewty on Intellivision called Novablast.  Everyone should have a copy! 

The Good:  kick-ass tunes, which you can shuffle through on pause; different ships to play as, though I can't tell for sure if they are physically different or just aesthetic; fast action and a good challenge, at least on higher levels or higher difficulty settings; and I've yet to sample it with friends, but there's some sort of multiplayer option.

The Bad:  no variety in the graphics or gameplay, just 200 progressively tougher levels; sometimes enemies and bullets get lost in the background due to inadequate contrast; and bombing the water walkers is iffy on hit detection.

The Ugly:  NA

[Necromancer]

Clear #108 - Battle Lode Runner



The Good:  a fun bunch of cute enemies, including random black bombermen swapping in for the usual stage's baddies; sweet tunes, especially the chippy harpsichord in Rumania (their spelling, not mine), which is what I think Dracula X could've sounded like on huey; there are handy save slots, passwords, and stage select options to help you through the oodles of tricksy stages; and in addition to the fine single player game, there's a solid multiplayer mode and the option of creating your own levels.

The Bad:  the annoying stages that require a string of tedious, carefully timed moves, where one little mistake means you have to start the stage over; though better than the earlier pack-in-video game, the scenery is rather bland, basic, and repetitive; and the game ending outro is the same for beating stages 51-101 as it is for 1-50, with no extra reward for beating the second (harder) batch of levels.

The Ugly:  NA

[Necromancer]

Clear #109 - Lode Runner - Lost Labyrinth



An older, more basic version of Lode Runner.  It's inferior in pretty much every way to BLR, but it plays good and is still a decent port.

The Good:  a funky variety of well animated enemies; handy passwords and save system, though unfortunately only one save slot; lots of head scratching levels; and you can again make your own levels.

The Bad:  almost no music, though what little there is is inoffensive; boring and repetitive scenery; too many hidden trap blocks that you must find to finish the level; and a few more of the BS timed ladder stages.

The Ugly:  NA

[Necromancer]

Clear #110 - Bakuretsu Hunter



This one is essentially a literal digital comic, like if they'd scanned in a hand drawn comic and made a slide show.  It splits them into separate panels (not just rectangular), though, and uses some animated transitions to spice it up ever so slightly.

The Good:  some cool art that's nicely detailed, no small feat for a low color monochromatic look, which can be toggled between sepia (best looking one), grays, blues, and greens (GB mode?); the whole thing is read to you via voiceover; some funny bits; and a few sexy T&A scenes at the beach and a half nekkid whip wielding dominatrix.

The Bad:  the complete lack of animated action makes it hard for a gaijin to follow; and it's just a slide show, yawn, with the only interaction being page advance (if not set on auto), bookmarking your current page, and picking a color scheme.

The Ugly:  NA

[Necromancer]

Clear #111 - Shadow of the Beast



Can you tell it's from a British developer?   

The Good:  fluid sprite animation, especially the hero; though awfully short, cut scenes are nicely animated in a 3D pre-rendered look; a creepy atmosphere with a wild cast of weird enemies (the slinky and the coiled snake springing from wall to wall are my favorites); and sweet parallax, at least when you're outside.

The Bad:  bosses barely move and are pretty easy to defeat; it's quite short, easily under a half hour if you know where you're going; too many fast, swarming enemies, forcing you to proceed slowly (step, wait a tick, punch enemy, repeat); and the last boss is dumb - why is he tossing comparatively small rocks when he could just stomp on you?

The Ugly:  NA

PS - no dragons were hurt in the writing of this post.   

[Necromancer]

Clear #112 - Snatcher CD-ROMantic



An iconic digi-comic that borrows heavily from Blade Runner and a bit from Terminator.

The Good:  great, atmospheric chippy tunes and a sweet redbook song at the end; tons of voice work; detailed settings and cutscenes with a gritty, cyberpunk feel and occasional bits of humor (my favorite was Gillian trying to keep up with the moto-unicycle) often coming from the real hero, metal gear; fun if infrequent shooting sequences; and I like how it's more violent, gory, and pervy than most games.  What's wrong with perving on a 14 year old girl?

The Bad:  the cutscenes look nice but are mostly static with small bits of animation; and the third act is kinda boring, essentially just a big long cutscene and lots of blah-blah-blah.... though no doubt it's more entertaining if you know the language.

The Ugly:  NA

[Necromancer]

Clear #112.5 - Snatcher Pilot Disk



Here's a preview disc with five things to whet your whistle for the full game:

1)  play the first two chapters in full, including the gun practice range and a shooting sequence
2)  a lengthy promo trailer cutscene, unfortunately with spoilers that show parts of the end scene
3)  an encyclopedia featuring main character bios (with neato colored pencil-esque portraits) and various gear like your blaster and vehicles
4)  interviews with people that worked on the game (or so I assume) with voice overs and digitized photos
5)  jukebox of three tunes to which metal gear dances

[roflmao]

Wow, Necro. You've been on fire lately! I've tried a couple of times to get into Snatcher, but I haven't gotten very far thanks to the language barrier. Bakuretsu Hunter sounds easy enough to make it through, though sounds like something I'd only do once.

[Keith Courage]

An older, more basic version of Lode Runner.  It's inferior in pretty much every way to BLR, but it plays good and is still a decent port.

The Good:  a funky variety of well animated enemies; handy passwords and save system, though unfortunately only one save slot; lots of head scratching levels; and you can again make your own levels.

The Bad:  almost no music, though what little there is is inoffensive; boring and repetitive scenery; too many hidden trap blocks that you must find to finish the level; and a few more of the BS timed ladder stages.

The Ugly:  NA

I really want to like the PCE version of Lode runner but since I grew up playing the apple II version as a kid, it drives me crazy not being able to see the entire screen at all times. Wish there was a zoom out option. So my favorite console version is the Sega sg-1000, 2nd to that ps1.

[Necromancer]

Zoom out would be cool.  You pan around when paused, but that's not as useful or as quick.

[roflmao]

I introduced my kiddo to Lode Runner and Battle Lode Runner not too long ago and he fell in love with creating custom maps! He eventually paid for a version on his Switch so he could make levels in the comfort of his room, haha.

[Necromancer]

Tangential Clear #112a - Snatcher (Sega CD)



There's minor color differences, a little censoring, and some extra shooting bits near the end, but it's essentially the same game in english.  I don't much like the extra shooting stretch, though, as it's too long compared to earlier ones and rather hard.  It's not terrible and I'm sure it's better with a good sega pad, but my feka pac has shit the bed again, so I got stuck playing via emulator on my PSP Go with a turdy DS3 d-pad.

[Necromancer]

Clear #113 - Space Ava 201



A recent homebrew release with turn based puzzley action.  Give it go!

The Good:  the step by step action is quite unique, unlike anything else I can think of on PCE, and the puzzles offer a fun challenge; the cut scenes are cute, funny, and plentiful; "Yes!  We Have No Bananas" in the end credits, which is especially humorous when one character looks like a banana; several different enemy types and bosses, mixed with varied gameplay styles between stages; and two (maybe more?) endings with a teaser for a sequel.

The Bad:  the tunes aren't offensive, but they are simplistic and there's some abrupt track changes in cutscenes; it's rather short; and it's download only (just for now, I hope!).

The Ugly:  NA