Part 3 of my reviews
23. Sega Marine Fishing (Dreamcast): Fishing games are typically not my thing, nor have they ever been, however I remember reading an article in Gamepro Magazine back in the early 2000s at the very end of the Dreamcast's life about games you must play on the console. Sega Marine Fishing was one of those recommended games. Wanting to get all the milage out of my Dreamcast I could I decided to purchase the game and remember being pleasantly surprised by how fun and enjoyable it was. I haven't played Sega Marine Fishing since the early 2000s and my hope was that I'd still have the same high opinion of it now. While I still do find it highly enjoyable, it's just not as fun as I remember it being. Sega Marine Fishing has an incredible soundtrack; nearly every single track in the game is memorable and really makes you wish you were on an exotic fishing trip somewhere warm and tropical. Unfortunately that's the best thing about the game. The visuals in the game are nothing impressive, even for a game from that time, and the limited amount of stages and fish really make this game feel repetitive. However those limited stages and fish do look good despite some visual issues. Gameplay is alright; the fishing line tension meter which gauges how tense or loose the line is is fairly easy to manipulate, even though larger fish are supposed to add increased difficulty. I never had too much trouble bringing in any fish regardless of size. Still, it is exhilarating for a while to bring in a big fish, but unfortunately this novelty wears thin after a few hours. Adding to this game's replayability is the inclusion of Original Mode where you can unlock aquarium items, additional fishermen, additional lures, song remixes, and various other things. There are a lot of these items, however getting them all either means you're willing to replay the same 5 stages over and over again, catching the same 15 or so fish in the game, or you genuinely really like this game. Sega Marine Fishing is definitely a good game, I'm just not sure I agree with 2001 Gamepro's recommendation of this game being a "must play" on the Dreamcast. (5/10/19) [34/50]
24. Star Wars Trilogy Arcade (Arcade): When I was a kid one of my favorite places to go was our local Dave and Busters, and one of the arcade machines I always looked forward to playing the most of Star Wars Trilogy Arcade. Beyond the fact that I've loved Star Wars since Kindergarten, during the late 90s this game was the most authentic Star Wars experience around outside watching the movies. My love for this game was only enhanced by the Special Editions of the original trilogy coming out around this time as well. But regarding the game it is a superb on-rail shooter where you play through the most icon parts of the original three films, including some of the non-space battles such as getting off of Hoth and the forrest battle on Endor. The shooting controls which are mostly the same for both the ship and on foot sections of the game control wonderfully given you are playing a well maintained machine, but more on that in a minute. The part where the controls are somewhat let down are the lightsaber duels, of which there are two. One is against Boba Fett and one against Vader, both requiring you to place the joystick in the correct direction in a short period of time. This works alright when the directions are up, down, left, and right, however the diagonal inputs were always hit or miss, making these duels kind of janky. But overall this is a small gameplay blemish on what is otherwise a solid on-rail arcade game. The sound design is incredible bar some questionable voice acting, and the graphics are of very high quality for this period of time, arcade or otherwise. Despite all this, your mileage will vary depending on the state of the arcade machine you're playing on. The machine I played on tonight had a fairly loose joystick, making it difficult to aim, resulting in some cheap deaths and probably an extra two or three quarters required to beat this game. Not as impairing, but still annoying is that this game is prone to having damaged CRTs with burned Star Wars Trilogy Arcade logos forever etched into the screen. This distorts all the colors and some of the details for the remainder of the game, which on the machine I was playing on didn't distract too much, but it was still very unfortunate. Obviously the state of specific machines is not the fault of the game itself, but unless you've played this game on a very well maintained machine it can negatively impact your experience with this game, which is otherwise a classic from the late 90s. (5/16/19) [39/50]
25. Undertale (Switch): Ever since I first heard of this game I've heard nothing but how it's one of the best indie RPGs ever made, and is frequently praised on Tumblr and Reddit for being this work of genius. I'm always willing to give a game the benefit of the doubt, however from experience very few games live up to the monumental praise that sometimes surrounds them. Sadly, Undertale is no different. For the record, Undertale is not a bad game, it's just...okay. Perhaps my favorite thing about the game was the battle system which combined traditional turn based combat with SHMUP gameplay. In execution, however, this form of gameplay did not always work out, either because your movement speed or the game's tendency to throw way too much at you in order to reasonably dodge everything coming at you. This was especially true towards the end of the game. One other downside to the combat was the lack of emphasis on weapons and armor. The game encourages you to spare your enemies rather than defeat them, which is a net concept, but one I thought was slightly annoying. Outside of combat there are various puzzles you need to complete to progress, however all of them were very easy, offering little more than an unnecessary obstacle rather than a stimulating challenge. Undertale's story is fairly unique, as is the setting, characters, writing, and overall plot which throws you through a loop several times throughout the game to keep things interesting. Also, this is a very short game; I beat it in under 10-hours, which is more of a good thing as far as I'm concerned since most modern RPGs can be very longwinded and outstay their welcome by 20 or 30 hours sometimes. The music in this game was very nice too, as was the majority of the sound direction including the comical noises enemies made then their dialogue appeared on screen. Perhaps the thing I didn't like the most about Undertale were its visuals; the game was visually all over the place in terms of art direction and graphics, however it appears it was going for an old 1980s PC RPG look, which is a look a lot of modern retro-styled games don't go for. In addition to the visuals, the game came across as very pretentious sometimes, as was its copious use of quirkiness for the sake of being quirky. Overall, Undertale was far from being a bad game, in fact I'd say it was closer to being a pretty good game rather that a bad one, but for me it fell very firmly in that middle ground where it was something I mostly enjoyed while playing it, but likely will never play it again, nor will I remember much about it in several months. At least I can say I've played Undertale now lol. (5/27/19) [32/50]
26. Samurai Aces (Switch): When I bought the Psikyo Shooting Collections I knew full well that I wasn't the biggest fan of Psikyo developed shooters. Many of their shooters use a generic template that they simply reskinned for many of their top down shooters, and each one felt very similar to the previous one. And it all started with this game, Samurai Aces. The game is a decent looking shooter from a graphical and art style perspective; I really liked the hand drawn sprites and the industrialized mecha depiction of feudal Japan. However, my praise essentially ends there. The soundtrack, while not horrible, is very generic, and doesn't do anything to enhance your experience while playing. The gameplay is definitely below average, with very floating, delayed controls, and a bomb mechanic that still leaves you vulnerable about a second after deploying it, resulting it some cheap, frustrating deaths. On top of that, this is a very short game, even for a shooter; it took me under 20-minutes to beat the 7 stages in the game despite having to retry several times as a result of running out of continues. For a shooter, and especially for a video game in general, Samurai Aces is not that great. I've certainly played worse SHMUPs, but that's still not saying much. (6/1/19) [22/50]
27. Strikers 1945 (Switch): Often when playing shooters for the first time I'll automatically make comparisons to other shooters I've played that remind me of the game I'm playing in terms of style, mechanics, and just overall enjoyability. While playing the aforementioned Samurai Aces, my experience of it was so dull I thought I'd see how it compared to the second worst shooter I've ever played which also happens to be on the same Psikyo Shooting Collection volume as that game, Strikers 1945. I played Strikers 1945 on the PS1 several years ago during a SHMUP renaissance I went through about 3-years ago. I absolutely hated it in almost every possible way, however wanting to see how much better (or worse) Samurai Aces was, I decided to replay through it again. Occasionally I'll replay a game and think to myself, "what the hell was I thinking?" in terms of my initial impression of the game. Sometimes this means I think way less of a game when revisiting it, but often it means I actually have a way better time with it the second time around. I've attributed this to maybe my mood at the time I originally played it or some other factor that probably has less to do with the game and more to do with me. But anyhow, I certainly don't think Strikers 1945 is a masterpiece now, however I no longer believe it to be the abysmal piece of crap I've considered it to be for the last 3-years. Strikers 1945 is an okay shooter; the gameplay is certainly an improvement over Samurai Aces, especially in the first 5 stages or so where your ships movement is well balanced with the flow of enemy projectiles coming in your direction. The graphics are pretty cool, with large bosses that sometimes have multiple forms. The sound is still very meh, but I certainly have a better impression of it than I did the last time I played it. Where this game loses major points, and was probably a huge influence on my very low opinion of Strikers 1945 are the last few stages that take place in space; they are wildly imbalanced and essentially come down to you spamming all you bombs on the bosses because there is little chance you'll be able to beat them otherwise given how insanely fast and frequent the bullets are. It was this part of the game that really decreased my enthusiasm while playing since up until this point I was thinking my previous review was grossly inaccurate with how much fun I was having this time around with the game. Replaying Strikers 1945 taught me two things; one is that Samurai Aces is definitely an inferior game, and also that Strikers 1945 is not a terrible game, which is in my opinion the most valuable thing I picked up after playing both. (6/1/19) [24/50]
28. Forza Motorsport 4 (360): I am not ashamed to say that I am a Gran Turismo guy and have been since the second installment on the PS1. When Forza game along and claimed to be better than Gran Turismo I was highly skeptical, and it wasn't until Forza 2 that I put this claim to the test and found Microsoft's racing series to be severely wanting despite having many cars that the GT games didn't. While it has been a long time since playing Forza 2 and I'm fuzzy on what I didn't like about it, one thing I do remember is that I quit after about 10-hours with it out of boredom. Fast forward and I recently got the car bug again after a fairly long haitus, and my research led me to Forza 4 as the best in the series and one of the best racing sims ever created, supposedly. I have to say my impressions of Forza 4 are overall about the same as they were for Forza 2; initially I was enthralled by the great graphics, respectable roster of cars, and the great sounds the cars made, but as the luster of these things began to dull I was left with gameplay that felt a lot more arcade-like than it should have and a progression system that just felt lifeless, dull, and way too easy. I love how in Gran Turismo 4 you have to be careful about how you spend you money while progressing, and that every race feels challenging. In contrast Forza 4 just feels mundane and perfunctory as you progress. I played Forza 4 for about 10-hours before giving up on it, just like the 2nd one. Perhaps someday I'll give one of the XBONE titles a go, but for now i'll stick to Gran Turismo. (6/8/19) [35/50]
29. Banjo-Kazooie (N64): Banjo-Kazooie takes the solid groundwork that Super Mario 64 laid out by revolutionizing the 3D platformer genre and improves upon it in almost every way. The controls are just as solid, and you are given way more to collect and do throughout the game, as well as having more secrets to uncover makes exploring the game more of a treat. In terms of graphics, presentation, and art style I have to really give it to Banjo for one uping Super Mario 64 with its incredibly varied levels with their own themes, characters, enemies, and objectives; no two areas look alike and each level is memorable and fun in its own way. The only part of Banjo Kazooie I don't like as much as Super Mario 64 is its OST, which is a very hard act to follow given how timeless Super Mario 64's soundtrack is. Despite this, Banjo Kazooie makes up for not having as good of a soundtrack by giving characters hilarious, non sensical voices when they talk which add to the game's copious charm and charisma. With all of that you'd think I liked Banjo Kazooie more than Super Mario 64, and honestly they are incredibly close in my book, but Super Mario 64 just barely edges it out for me. I have nostalgia for both games as I owned and played both growing up, however super Mario 64 holds an incredibly special place in my heart as the game that transformed my interest in gaming from something I just did to something that defined me. And it is because of this that Super Mario 64 beats out Banjo Kazooie by only a hair. Still, Banjo Kazooie is an absolute classic and not just one of the finest 3D platformers ever made, but also one of the best games ever made, most certainly from its era. (6/21/19) [43/50]
30. Cruisn' USA (N64): More than any other arcade racing game I spent the most time as a kid with Cruisn' USA and its sequel Cruisn' World. A local Pizza Hut had a cab and I remember dropping a ton of change into it every time I'd go there with my mom. So when I found out one of my favorite arcade game was coming to home console I naturally was super excited. Shortly after getting my N64 I got Cruisn' USA and despite its shortcomings compared to the arcade version I absolutely loved playing it, and spent countless hours during the summer of 1997 playing this game with my friend Evan. Since then I haven't played the N64 version in quite some time, and even more so with the arcade version which I surprisingly don't see very often anymore. But given my memories of playing Cruisn' USA during the summer when I was 10, I thought it would be fun to play it again for old times sake. I do not say this about retro games often, but Cruisn' USA has not aged that well, in fact it's aged pretty bad. For starters the objects in the background and foreground in the stages look like cardboard cutouts, and everything else looks somewhat bland and pixelated as well. In terms of gameplay you mostly just dodge cars and the occasional obstacle in the road, but little else. At the time this game came out it wasn't that impressive either, especially since games like Outrun had been doing this well before Cruisn', just in 2D. The music is the same four or five tracks that are okay for the most part, but there is little various in the music Speaking of lack of variety, half the tracks in this stage take place in California, while some of the others are quite puzzling considering they had so many cool places in the US to create stages; why anyone would get excited about racing across Iowa or Indiana is beyond me. Luckily the gameplay is pretty good, with the controls being mostly accurate and tight, allowing you to easily dodge traffic and other hazards. Unfortunately going back and replaying Cruisn' USA was a little sobering as it really showed this games age and how it has essentially been made obsolete by far greater arcade style racers, some that even came out in the 90s. Still, I have a significant amount of nostalgia for this game, both in the arcades and on the N64, and that nostalgia certainly allows me to appreciate this game way more than someone who played this game long after this game came out originally. (6/22/19) [27/50]
