So I just got this game on GOG, beat it in one night and well... IT WAS AMAZING! It's one of the best remakes I've ever played, way up there with the likes of Metroid Zero Mission and Super Mario Allstars!
I'd call it more than a remake, it replaces the original in my eyes!
The original, not Dragon's Curse... I still think Dragon's Curse has the better soundtrack, but I gotta give it credit where it's due, the music in this version is good, a lot better in-game than I thought it was outside of the game, but no, it's not gonna beat Dragon's Curse in that regard...
As for everything else, well, it's all better here! The graphics are GORGEOUS! If more modern games looked like this I'd have nothing to complain about (other than my tight budget) I generally prefer 16 bit 240p graphics, but let's be honest here, Dragon's Curse is far from the best-looking TurboGrafx-16 game, it looks good, as does the SMS original, but this one is a massive improvement in the graphics, no question about it!
And the controls, while they're virtually the same, they just feel so much better in here because of the bouncy and snappy animations! These new animations are AMAZING and they compliment the game's movement incredibly well, it just feels great to play!
I've played it using my SNES USB controller and it felt like a natural fit for it, I've mapped the L and R buttons to toggle my sub-weapon, A to Jump, B to Attack, (yes I prefer to use A and B instead of B and Y like most other people seem to) X to use the sub-weapon, Y to open my inventory (but later on I switched X and Y around because I didn't use sub-weapons very often and was accidentally wasting them while trying to open my inventory), Start to open the Pause Menu and Select to toggle between Retro and Modern modes, but I almost never switched back to the Retro mode, and even when I did it was only for a couple of seconds at a time at most, not only because I've already played through both the SMS and the TurboGrafx-16 versions multiple times so I already know them like the back of my hand and would rather replay it with the new graphics so that I can get a new experience, but also because the new graphics are just SO much better... Now if only I could play this with the new graphics and the TurboGrafx-16 music... Does anyone know if this game's been modded for that purpose yet? If not, I totally want to do it! But I have no idea how...