The graphics are nothing special nowadays but they still hold up and have moments of charm and character to them, the backgrounds are all pretty interesting and they manage to look better than some of the character models. However the real star of the show here is the catchy soundtrack which still keeps my head banging whilst playing after all of these years, it is so good that I’m going to leave a link to a youtube video of it at the bottom of this review for your listening discretion. The whole package comes together to make a well polished fighter that may be a bit rough around the edges but is worth playing and it will keep you going for a long time if you attempt to do everything in the game, it’s sequel Street Fighter Ex2 seems to be more popular than the first one and is still played competitively today however if you look at this as the framework for the sequel and subsequent Arika fighters it gives you insight into how they work and it's always fun to see the progression of the designers ideas in action. The push for 3D from sony in the early days of the playstation usually led to disaster but in this case it was well handled and created an under appreciated spin off to an already brilliant series.
I want to go more into the fighting as that is what you will be doing for most of your time in this game, it feels exactly like the Yakuza series but with the added charm of Hokuto No Ken. You can parry, counter or just go all out on attack. The fighting evolves steadily as Kenshiro gains levels and it almost always feels like a meaningful upgrade when you level up. This is done by using a skill tree that let's you choose from different principles of martial arts, this lets the player build up Kenshiro to suit their own fighting style. Once again this is very similar to Yakuza and that isn't a bad thing. One thing that is missing during combat is the use of items in the battlefield, unlike the Yakuza series that would have bikes and street signs laying around for you to pummel your opponents with, this game has a distinct shortage of them and it's not really clear as to why that is the case, I guess one possibility is that live in the nuclear wasteland has ended up with people being less interested in material possessions? who knows! All I know is that you can find a Sega SG-1000 and that's pretty rad.
I'm still playing through the amazing Final Fantasy 6 and working my way towards the end whilst writing the rest of my play through. At the moment progress is pretty slow since I am in the world of ruin and I need to grind a lot to level up my characters before I can take on the tougher side stories and eventually the final boss! So progress is unfortunately slow since grinding can be a painfully slow process but I'm getting there bit by bit and I am still enjoying the ride , considering that I missed this game when I was a kid and I didn't get into Final Fantasy until the release of FF7! it's been interesting to play something that has been in my backlog for way too long now, I attempted to play the Playstation One release of FF6(it came with a demo of FFX!) but for some reason my copy of the game had a weird glitch in it which cut the game dead just after you meet Sabin when you fight Vargis, for some reason the Blitz button combination never worked!! So I couldn't finish the fight.
I've recently purchased a copy of this fantastic early Fire Emblem title, The vintage does show a bit within the game but it is mostly small things that are missing such as a visual grid on the battlefield instead you have to check your enemies and allies move and attack ranges yourself and plan accordingly. The other changes in this early title are pretty big departures from future games such as Archers being able to attack at point blank range and mages using up their own health points instead of magic points to use attack magic or heal their comrades, There is also no currency system and a few other oddities! Even with all of these changes it still plays well and is a pretty decent strategy game but since I have knowledge of the later games in the series this still feels very much like a prototype instead of a fully formed piece of work, it is still an interesting game to look back on but it is a shame that I can't follow the story at all! I'm pretty sure it'd be interesting and I'd like to see why I'm fighting certain enemies. I'll be writing an article on this fantastic SRPG in the near future.
Yet Another import Japanese exclusive and one I sadly don't own a physical copy of but Iinstead saved hundreds of pounds and bought it from the Japanese PSN store, It's a really fun game that reminds me of the Konami classic Cute-em'up Parodious at times, All of the weapons are dessert and sweet based so you attack with jelly beans, trifles, ice lollies and other assorted treats it's an insane ride through a theme park gone insane but one I always want to stay on just to witness the chaotic spectacle! This game has become a cult classic and for good reason, for some of the most veteran Shmup players it can be a bit too easy but the insanity of it and the detailed backgrounds is what keeps me coming back for more.
This compilation is full of classic Konami arcade Shmup's plus Haunted Castle .... which is a pretty terrible pseudo- prototype for Castlevania, it's pretty interesting to play, as a huge Castlevania fan it's an exciting premise to be able to play it but ultimately an infuriating experience, it isn't anywhere near as polished as the console versions of later Castlevania games but if you treat it as an early idea for the series then it is more compelling when attemping a playthrough. The rest of the collection is taken up by a vast array of classic Shmup's that are A-Jax(Typhoon) - Gradius (Nemesis) - Gradius 2 ( Vulcan Venture) - Salamander (Life Force) - Thunder Cross - Twin Bee and Scramble. so far Thunder Cross and the Gradius titles are my most played games out of the bunch but I'm spending time playing all of them in an attempt to beat them! Since they are arcade ports they have the same level of coin guzzling that you would expect for Shmups of this vintage. I'm going to write a review on this collection when I have spent more time playing it.
Baroque is a truly unique experience with wonderful world building and a host of strange characters all with their own troubles and histories. I've been playing the Japanese original release of this game and my Japanese is nowhere near good enough for me to play this without the aid of a handy dandy guide, that I will leave a link to if you are interested in this weird but wonderful title. I think this game has built up quite a cult following over the years and hopefully it will become even more popular with the Nintendo Switch receiving a remake of this version of the game. Whether it is released outside of Japan this time round is unknown but the one way to play it without the use of guides to help with the language barrier is to just play the western Wii and Playstation 2 releases, the main change between them is that the remake isn't in first person unlike the Playstation one and Saturn original.
