Game Boy Color #3: Dracula: Crazy Vampire

 Developer: Planet Interactive Development

Publisher: DreamCatcher Interactive Inc.

Release Date: 2001

 

Here’s one for the dumb name file. It does star Dracula, and he is a vampire, but I would call him far from crazy. He looks a bit silly in cutscenes, but he is otherwise quite sensible and is trying the save the world. I guess Dracula: Sensible Hero doesn’t have the same ring to it, but I am the truthful sort so that’s what I would’ve called it. At first I thought it was part of a “crazy monster” series and was hoping for Crazy Wolfman and Crazy Frankenstein, but it’s just a one-off by a short lived developer who didn’t do anything notably positive. For a GBC action game, however, you could do a lot worse.

(Does he look crazy to you?)

Dracula: Crazy Vampire is typical of an action platform game in the wake of the 3D revolution. It’s a top-down adventure with large, open-ended levels. Typically Dracula has to find an item or lever to move from one section to another. This is a kid’s game so he doesn’t suck blood. Instead he drains essence from villains. This is good because to properly win the level he has to have more than half of his energy to get other vampires to join him. Also, being in the sun will drain Drac’s energy so you have to find shadows to hide in. This sounds annoying, but it was actually fun and made for a good level of challenge. It was fun plotting out the levels. The enemies don’t respawn which made the sun penalty a much needed challenge.

(It's gotta be good if it has a vampire fighting a skeleton)

 I am so spoiled by modern games that it’s a little hard for me to play older ones like this. The levels can be very long and confusing, and the only way to save is by getting a password between levels. I am so used to being able to stop playing a game at any moment and come right back to it later. As I said before, the levels themselves are fun, but I think it can still be considered a flaw that they take so long to finish. Any older handheld game could be dicey if they made you play for too long at once. You might be on your way to the store and only have a few minutes. Saves within the levels would’ve been much better, especially since some of them are split up into multiple parts. It’s not the biggest Game Boy offender, but it still bothered me a little.

This is an enjoyable little game however. It doesn’t particularly stand out, but it’s well made and fairly fun. Surprisingly I am ranking it into the green section just below Gopher. Usually when I find a forgotten handheld game it doesn’t end up being worth much, but this one’s worth a playthrough. Just don’t let the goofy title scare you away.

 

Game Boy Color Quality Percentage: 3/3 

NES #20: Super Mario Bros. 2

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: October 1988

You have to admit, this is some beautiful box art

 Ah Super Mario Bros. 2, the game that made my dad’s shoes explode. As the story goes he was fighting the second Mouser when he exclaimed “If I beat this boss my shoes will explode” or something to that effect. Sure enough that’s exactly what happened. The good old 80’s: when people used to buy shoes inflated like tires that were prone to blowouts and when people would readily accept sequels that played like complete inversions of the original game. Hey why not? Dig Dug 2 moved above ground and Super Pac-Man had Pac moving through tunnels within a maze. Inversions weren’t that uncommon at the time. Of course everyone now knows the true reason for this is because the actual Super Mario Bros. 2 was deemed too difficult for American audience so we actually got a re-skinned version of a game called Doki Doki Panic. It’s ironic because I think our SMB2 might actually be harder than the original SMB2. At the very least it doesn’t have unlimited continues and therefore is the last game in the main Mario series with permadeath. It’s strange to think of a Mario game that is actually difficult, but everything about this game defies expectations.

Can you see this without hearing the music?

 The first notable change from the previous title is the ability to choose characters before every level. Mario, Luigi, Princess, and Toad all have their strengths and weaknesses which will be useful in certain levels. Oddly though there aren’t any levels that specifically call for Mario. He’s decent at everything, but he doesn’t excel at any one skill. I think most people play as Luigi in most levels. This is a Mario game that can be played without using Mario. The first game was all about breaking blocks and collecting coins. In the second game you pull up vegetables and only collect coins to play a bonus slot machine game. The whole concept of collecting 100 coins is one that went obsolete generations ago, but they still keep it around. It’s only in this one odd game that coins are relegated to cameo status. Even the enemies from the first game are gone. There’s nothing familiar except the occasional koopa shell. Mario can’t even jump on enemies to defeat them. Nintendo changed very little to make this feel like a Mario game. They changed a few sprites but mostly kept it intact and unleashed it onto an unsuspecting American audience expecting more flagpoles and lava pits.

 But of course in 1988 everybody loved it. I was very little back then, but I don’t remember anyone complaining that it was different. That’s probably because it’s a great game in its own right. The original SMB came out in 1985, but it was probably a couple years later when most people played it. That means the gap between the first and second game was very short. It was stunning how much the graphics were improved between games. The world of Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of vibrant color and wonderful abstraction. Everything fits into place even if it doesn’t seem quite right. It’s a game that moves up and down as well as left and right. It has great environments that are much more interactive than in the previous games. Who doesn’t love getting to dig in the desert levels, or blow up walls to reveal secret areas, or riding on the water from the whales’ blowholes? The levels are bigger and more mysterious than the first game, and this time time around they are not restricted by time limits. You are somewhat free to wander around and try different techniques. I always loved being able to trap all the shy guys in the wrong path in the desert levels. That’s the kind of thing you couldn’t do in the first game, and it’s what really makes the second game stand out.

 

However the openness of the levels can also be a challenge. The game is wonderfully balanced through the first four worlds and then the difficulty ramps up too much. There’s a reason it took me until I was in college to beat this game. It gets really hard really fast, and that makes some of the charm melt away just a little. Mario games are typically more about having fun than being challenged. Of course I love a good challenge so I see it as only a minor flaw. Still, it’s going to take many tries going through the same levels over and over before it is completed, and this might turn some people off.

Even with its minor flaws it is going to be ranked very high. Every time I play this game I have fun, and the years haven’t dulled it much. Maybe it’s because I have such fond childhood memories of it, but it’s going right up to number six. It’s not quite as good as Donkey Kong, but I will give it the edge over the fun but harder to play Ultima: Exodus. I have now ranked twenty NES games so that’s a nice little milestone. I still have no idea what the overall quality is going to be like though. I am tempted to do all the fun classics first because I always want to play them again. The end of this blog might see one bad obscure game after another. Stick around to find out. It should be a wild ride.

 

NES Quality Percentage: 11/20 or 55%

1.  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

2. Super Mario Odyssey

3. The Legend of Zelda

4. Galaga

5. Donkey Kong

6. Super Mario Bros. 2

7. Exodus: Ultima III

8. Pac-Mania

9. Wrecking Crew

10. Super Pac-Man

11. Pac-Man

12. Viva Pinata

13. Dragon View

14. Excitebike

15. Drakkhen

16. Todd’s Adventures in Slime World

17. Arc the Lad

18. Clu Clu Land

19. Tails’ Adventures

(images from mobygames.com)

Sega Genesis #1: Splatterhouse 2

Developer: Now Production

Publisher: Namco

Release Date: 9-3-92

Splatterhouse 2 is one of those games that many people are going to like without even playing it. Just the thought of playing as a Jason stand-in who violently kills monsters is enough to garner some fans. It’s certainly one of the bloodiest Genesis games and also one that is hard to imagine appearing on Super Nintendo. Its setup can make it a little hard to analyse. Unlike most gamers I am not a huge fan of horror movies, so objectivity shouldn’t be too difficult for me. This is also a sequel that has an original on an odd system. Just like with Street Fighter, the original is on Turbografx-16 so nobody has ever played it. I remember looking for the original when I was a kid and never being able to find it at the rental stores. So what is Splatterhouse 2 really like?

Much like every other Genesis game in 1992 it is a brawler. Brawlers came in many flavors back then, and this one is more the slower side-scrolling type. It doesn’t have the constantly freezing screens like Double Dragon, but that doesn’t mean you can skip anything. Splatterhouse 2 is incredibly difficult. It does have continues and passwords which is a good thing because I don’t see anyone finishing it otherwise. Some of the levels take dozens of tries and absolute precision to get past. They all lead to insanely hard bosses that, if playing on an emulator, are the hit once and then save type. They have some very difficult patterns that are easy to mess up even when you know what you are doing. Still, I feel like this is a game I could beat on the original hardware if I had the time. It’s the fun type of difficult for the most part.

(I sure hated this boss!)

The biggest flaw is the control. I know that you are supposed to be a hulking Jason expy, but that’s no reason to make everything so sluggish. The protagonist moves very slowly to begin with, and the slow movement makes everything more difficult. Why do these old brawlers so often have bad controls? Sometimes you have to turn quickly, or duck and then jump, or jump over obstacles and then quickly attack. It’s made almost impossible to do this without taking damage. It’s a game full of cheap hits and unfair deaths which could’ve been avoided with a little tweaking of the controls. There’s no rule that says a man possessed by an evil mask has to move like he’s walking in glue. It’s frustrating because everything else is good in this game, but I can’t rate it as high because of the sluggish control. Nothing knocks down a game on my list more than bad controls. It’s like a movie with a bad screenplay. Some flaws are just harder to overcome than others.

 

Still, it is going to make it slightly into the good section. I have several Atari 2600 games together near the bottom of my good rankings, and I think I am going to put Splatterhouse 2 just a hair above them at #35. It certainly isn’t as good as Ninja Golf which I realize is another old brawler with sketchy controls. Seriously, how hard was it to make a character turn around and jump? Still it’s a good way to start out with Genesis. I can’t believe it took me 76 games to get around to Genesis. I am a big fan and have many games for it so hopefully I will write about it more in the future. It might even get a few views. You never know.

(images are from thecoverproject.net and mobygames.com)

Sega Master System #4: Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega

Release Date: July 1988

By 1988 the covers were at least getting better. This really does happen in the game

 At first glance it looks like Sega played it safer in the second Alex Kidd game. The puzzles and randomness are gone replaced with more traditional levels. There are no items or horizontal sections either. It’s pure side-scrolling. However, it’s still a delightfully strange game. The simpler setup allows for the strangeness to shine without getting in the way of the gameplay itself. For once it’s a sequel where the developers learned from the mistakes of the previous game and actually improved on the formula.

Just like on the cover!

 One thing that makes this game different than most SMS games is that there are actually continues. There is an unlimited amount of them as far as I can tell. Yes it’s a Master System than anyone can beat. You don’t have to become a super player through hours of memorization to become a Lost Stars master. All you need are a couple hours on a leisurely weekend. That is almost enough to put it ahead of Miracle World already. In another interesting twist the game uses a timer instead of typical hit points. Deaths don’t end the game just lose time. There are typically powerups along the way which add time so I never felt like I was going to lose. That kind of positivity is rare in retro gaming. Everything was always stacked against the player. It’s nice playing a game that is challenging but very winable.

For once it's a game where vine swinging isn't that intimidating. If you fail you can just try again with slightly less time.

 Of course the games best part is its weird and wonderful levels. I”m not sure that there was ever a console as bright and colorful as Sega Master System, and they almost went overboard with the Alex Kidd games. The screenshots can’t capture how vibrant it is. It almost hurts my eyes. Within all this color is clever levels filled with strange enemies. The same game has cute dogs shooting the word “bow” at you and naked punks who fart out skulls. The game has you go through all the levels twice, but the levels are fun enough that it isn’t a bad thing. I wanted to experience all the levels more than once. They were that fun.

Just in case you didn't believe me

 So with Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars we have another low-key winner on Master System. It’s definitely the best of the four I have played so far. Of course I know I have some better games to come, but it’s exciting knowing that there can be mostly forgotten 35 year old games out there that are still fun. I am ranking this one a respectable #22 right ahead of the classic Metro Cross. If you have a Master System you should give this one a try. It’s a classic 8-bit side scroller.

 

SMS quality percentage: 3/4 or 75%