Connor Nichols's Reviews
The Lost RPGs should be a good pair: a very average, but common for the time Dragon Quest clone, and a solid Zelda-like action RPG that would be well worth your time. Unfortunately, the sheer stupidity of such a major bug in The Golden Castle completely soured my mood for this pair of games, since I cannot fathom why such a core part of the game would be bugged in such a way that nobody seemingly caught onto it.
Still, while the other Toaplan games I covered may be known names and classics, titles like OutZone prove that even the obscurities deserve to have a light shined on them, and can even be better than you may expect, if you dive in and take up arms...
Even if that meme of an intro is planned to be added in the future, I really can only recommend you dive into this one if you buy the other three in the bundle: good weaponry, music and QOL still can’t do much to save an otherwise average shooter from developers who could do so much more.
Make no mistake, this reimagining is easily the definitive take on Akka Arrh, especially if you compare this modern entry to the original in Atari 50 and see just how much Minter was able to evolve the concept test marketed all those decades ago, and finally realizing it in an addictive fashion that modernizes the game a while also adding great scorechasing elements, just like he did with Tempest before.
Unfortunately, while the emulation is generally pretty good, there’s barely any features to speak of, with a confusing save state system that does nobody any sort of favors, and the NES game being left completely as is without so much of a manual or any other QOL mechanics, with the obscure, decent gem of a Game Boy title ported over without freaking Game Boy palette options or a LCD filter.
Whichever regional variant you decide to try, I can safely say Twin Cobra is definitely worth a full playthrough, port quirks aside, and this game is especially suited for those handy online leaderboards.
Still solidly made with a few hours of fun to kill if you don’t mind the excessive fetch quests, but nothing that’ll impress fans of platformers or help get non-fans like me into the series.
Definitely a solid port all around, and I desperately hope the sequel comes along solely for the sake of the great accessibility options making Truxton II close to a more playable, fair experience. Not bad for a starting effort!
It isn’t a bad game by any means, and once you get past the tutorial growing pains, it’s a cute game that kids and animal lovers wanting a game to go “aw” to will definitely enjoy, but I definitely feel the pacing could have been smoothed out just a little bit to make this a more easygoing experience.
While it’s an absolute stunner of a game presentation wise, looks aren’t everything, and I really do hope they eventually nail that sweet arcade-style gameplay loop the devs clearly wanted to pull off, perhaps by making it a bit speedier and faster paced to get a better rhythm in. Sadly, it just didn’t quite nail it here, and that hook never showed up for me.
So, was the Anniversary Collection a good celebration of the series in the end? Well, thankfully it still is, so if you didn’t buy that prior set or have no knowledge of the series, even this steep $50 pricetag is worth spending to nab this set and get hooked, as it is indeed definitive and includes pretty much everything you could hope for outside of the Hudson-made ports.
As it stands right now you just have a 3 hour, phenominal retro adventure to slash through that you’ll enjoy every second of, and arguably exceeds the great retro balance found in Blazing Chrome, nearing outright perfection in several aspects. The ultimate definition of short and sweet.
Still, there are a few quirks in Breakers Collection that need ironing out, and at the end of the day these are two pretty tough Neo Geo fighting games that can be outright hair-pulling in single player, and while the training mode is immensely helpful, I still advise newcomers to approach with some level of caution, and to be wary of how these games will break you until you learn the crazy combo system.
Alas, Water Margin is an average game thrown into a bad wrapper, put out into the stores with little historical context or really any reason to know anything about it. Decent afternoon fun with a friend in local co-op, but not engaging for any other reason, since the repetitiveness will set in really, really fast if you play this by yourself.
As a VR showpiece, and when played with a Dualshock 4 in the headset, it’s a pretty clever reinvention of the Puzzle Bobble style that’ll give you a few afternoons of fun before drying up, but playing without PSVR, I honestly can’t recommend Vacation Odyssey just due to how light and plain it is. Truly, the PSVR is what the game was made for in mind, and with that much fun, I can easily recommend it for the price if you have one of those lying around, but for those without PSVR, you may want to wait with caution.
Outside of the unavoidable roadblock of no Warner Bros titles, Atari 50 is a godly compilation that couldn’t have been more lovingly curated, and just like how I sung the praises of SNK 40th for years to come, I’ll no doubt be doing this for Atari 50 and hoping this is a template for future compilations, from all over the world.
Ultimately, Run Box Run is just an experience I felt empty inside playing, and outside of tight jumping controls, there’s not much else I can compliment it for. Just as soulless as the boxed vessels you play as.
I don’t know how Gust managed to go from one style of Atelier game to another in the span of a year, but they managed to pull off quite the fun adventure, one that manages to refine the alchemy mechanics to make them more addicting, and being a perfect game that works great for getting back into no matter how long you take a break or get distracted from it!
Everything came together in a great playing package, with tons of bonuses, enhancements, quality of life, and 13 fun games to enjoy, and for that, I am definitely proud to declare myself a turtle fan now… At least, of the video game variety.
Nitrome definitely did a good job at making a fun gameplay loop, and with all the different options and modes to tinker with, fans of the original game will certainly enjoy this roguelike twist. Dig to it!