Connor Nichols's Reviews
You’ll still have a great time playing Wonder Boy V and Monster World IV if you haven’t already done so, and the original Monster Land is a decent time, but at the end of the day, Wonder Boy Collection just feels strangely disjointed.
Really, when the only gripe here is the fact that these are split into two volumes, I still found revisiting the Turrican games in this collection to be a whole lot of fun, with Mega Turrican Score Attack being the surprise winner of the bundle: definitely a great remix, and a glimmer that shows that perhaps a brand new Turrican game could be worth a shot in this modern age. For those who bought Flashback and don’t really care about the additions here, the second volume is the one to get for sure, but for retro fans who’ve waited so long, I’m happy to say this first volume is an excellent starting point for the franchise, or even as a way to resist some old classics.
The second volume of the Turrican Anthologies didn’t hit as well for me as the first, which is surprising as I fully expected the opposite due to it containing an exclusive game! Yet, said game isn’t nearly as fun as the others, and as much as I love it, having three versions of Mega Turrican here is a bit overkill, even if I get why they included them. The Super Turrican Score Attack being a bit weaker also stings, and I ultimately feel that a combined SKU would have been better at the end of the day.
The sheer variety of levels, choosing your own route, the differing playstyles, and the online leaderboards easily make Cotton Fantasy one of the best modern shmups available on the Nintendo Switch, with the lack of a dedicated Caravan Mode being my only real gripe here. Still, thanks to online leaderboards and good character variety, this is a shooter that’ll keep any scorechaser fan in bliss.
However, as it stands now on Switch, Ganryu 2 isn’t in a good shape at all, even with the recent patch: more balancing needs to be done, and that framerate needs stabilization. No longer a chaotic mess like it used to be, and it has glimmers of a fun gameplay loop, but alas, this quest for revenge should be held off on, for the time being at least
Thankfully, with online and local options, those with friends and the game should be able to get that done with little hassle, and if you don’t mind lengthy stage gauntlets without the option to pause and pick it back up later, then this is a super fun tower defense that’ll keep you busy for a long while. Unfortunately for me, I found myself preferring the 3DS one just a bit more, as that felt far better for pick up and play purposes and seemed to be made with solo play in mind, unlike Cart of Darkness.
The Immortal was a weird choice to start this line of retro classics with: neither version of the game is particularly a classic by any means, and while I do find the NES version to be a legitimate gem worth trying out at least until you get stuck, the basic wrapper, the frustrating guide game nature of both versions, (but especially the Genesis one) and the lack of QOL stuff like a rewind feature does lead to this tedious experience not being brought back in the most polished of ways.
Unfortunately, the general package leaves a lot to be desired, as a good shooter is dragged down by a lack of options, with no local co-op, (despite the original game having it, oddly the only major thing from the OG game to not be improved on here) no border options, no visual display modes, and most disappointingly, no online leaderboards, which for a shooter in 2022 is a sad exclusion. Yeah, the main game has some minor frustrations such as enemies that surprise you from behind, and the latter half of the game leaning a bit too hard in the Bullet Hell realm, but all in all, you’ll still have a fun time with Andro Dunos II, and if you somehow grew up with the first game, this absolutely surpasses it in every possible way!
Considering that even Konami’s collection had an exclusive interview section in it, Taito Milestones feels incredibly barren as can be: hopefully future volumes add some more bonuses such as key art and the such.
I am confident in saying that River City Girls Zero and the Carbon Engine used to power this game is an immensely promising sign of future things to come: spectacular emulation quality, plenty of options to mess with, an improved gallery, and two great english translations on offer lead to River City Girls Zero being an outstanding package for both RCG and Kunio fans alike!
At the end of the day, Moto Roader MC is clearly a game meant to be played with friends, and while Switch is the only version that will allow for local 5 player racing, there’s sadly not that much to do solo, even though the mechanics are a lot of fun to mess around with.
While it may not be as event or anime-focused as the other two YGO games, this is definitely a very well polished duel simulator I plan on playing off and on for many months to come, and even if I find myself sucking at ranked matches, taking notes from those battles and seeing myself slowly improve with card types I used to think were too complex to ever understand was the best aspect of the experience by far, and cross-save makes it the best kind of game to literally play on anything, so for the cost of nothing, all versions are equally worth a go, especially with the Solo Mode being a fine introduction.
At the end of the day, the game is just a purely solid Metroidvania: outside of the titular mechanic, it won’t do much to reinvent the wheel, just stick to solid traditions, but either way, you’ll have plenty of fun whichever mode you choose to play the game, and honestly? I ultimately found this to be far more engaging than Unepic, which is a lot harder for old me to come back to. And that says quite a lot about this game’s quality, if it can outdo the nostalgic game made to be a nostalgic throwback to begin with: double nostalgia!
Still, if you enjoyed the original, especially from a multiplayer standpoint, then this is an absolute must-have, since the online multiplayer is stellar and the new mechanics do just enough to add extra layers of fun to an already great sports title.
Nevertheless, Speed Limit was a pretty charming experience that definitely left an impression on me, and even if things don’t feel quite balanced in some ways, I can at least give this a solid recommendation to those willing to take up the challenge, even if just to see the cool ways in which the game shifts genre.
Unfortunately, Moero Chronicle doesn’t exactly have much merit to it outside of the eye candy, with the dungeon crawling feeling very, very shoehorned in and everything but the suggestive parts seeming like the afterthought here, and I could only stand around two hours before I realized that there wasn’t much of a enjoyable game here.
Unfortunately, the constant slowdown from loading dungeon floors is enough of a pace breaker to drive me absolutely insane, and I'm not gonna lie when I also point out that this sort of game has been done many of time before. Still, you have a solid foundation, a fun gameplay loop, and a great pick up and play experience, so if you can get this on sale and really do not mind the agonizing floor loading, you may have a good amount of fun going on runs with this!
Honestly, the amount of attention to detail and hidden touches is enough to make me recommend this game to platformer fans, but I reckon you may wanna go for the physical edition with extra goodies or wait for a digital sale if you want to check this out. Otherwise, this is a whimsical adventure that you’ll have a fun weekend with.
Potata is a middle of the road puzzle platformer. Yes, it provides puzzling entertainment, and the solutions can be clever enough to make you crack a smile, but when the game is bogged down by a lot of genericness and frustrating moments, along with just how dull the experience is as a whole, I honestly can’t really recommend this at the usual MSRP: it controls fine enough to get you some entertainment if you pick it up on sale, but for the $12 MSRP, this is a puzzler that just doesn’t have the full magic.
While I wish this package could have done even more cool stuff such as throw in old trailers and prototypes, what we have here is excellently presented by the folks at D4 Enterprise (Wii U Virtual Console TG16 + Project EGG emulators), and I’m super excited that Edia is actually doing something with the Telenet properties, and something fun at that. Here’s hoping we see the Valis series come back with a new game, in as great of a way as Blaster Master Zero!