Moon has been one of my holy grail games for PS1, one which I desired to own and play, but was just a tad pricey for my liking. Thanks to a surprising, but welcome announcement that Moon is coming to Switch, I finally had my chance to tear this thing open and experience it for myself.
And boy, was it worth the wait. Not totally what I was expecting, but delightfully whimsical.
Earlier this year the minds behind one of the most manly and greatest game series in history, Ryu ga Gotoku / Yakuza, released their take on on of the most manly and greatest pieces of entertainment in history: Hokuto no Ken / Fist of the North Star. It was going to be the most perfect combo ever since Silent Hills (RIK (Rest in Konami)). So, I got my hands on it and dived right into the world of martial arts ruling the apocalypse, men shedding tears for men, and shredded muscles around every corner.
The end result was pretty much just Yakuza-lite with a Hokuto face.
Siren had always been this game I needed to get revenge on. I had tried it on the PS2 and it kicked my ass all the way to Detroit, where horrors even worse than Siren awaited me. Then on PS3, when the remake/reimagined Siren: New Translation came out, I enjoyed the heck out of it all the way to the very last level, where my file got corrupted. It was like my fate to forever be bodyslammed by this series.
When I saw the game on the PS2 classics for PS4, I decided I would defeat the beast at long last, and end my own curse.
Shadow Brain is a little known game made by a little known company with a stupid or awesome name (dunno yet) called Pony Canyon. I stumbled upon this homie purely through searching the Famicom library for something obscure and possibly funky. There are not many games like it on the system that aren’t called Megami Tensei, and is a game that requires a similar pain threshold – it’s hard. It also seems complex but is also a bit shallow.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a NES game whose very existance is baffling. Why does this exist? Who thought, hmmm, let’s make a game based on this old story – but not even follow the book at all? And then who decided to make it one of the most brutal games in history?
This title has some infamy thanks to the Angry Video Game Nerd who extensively raged on it, and honestly that does paint a decent picture of the game and its frustrations. But I am going to go through my personal experience, and how I have seen hell, and am a different man for it. This will probably turn super ranty, but it needs to come out while the horror is still fresh in my mind.
I know now, after completing Bats and Terry, that it is based off a manga of the same name. However, that didn’t help it make anymore sense. Instead it’s everybody’s favorite Purgatory Loop: Bats and Terry vs the Dragons of their Inner Hell.
Also known as Vaccine in the west, this is something I’ve had my eye on for a while. In a sea of games replicating NES, SNES, etc., it was nice to see a game inspired by old PS1 games – and one of the grandest genres to come out of the PS1: the survival horror.
Luckily Dead House wears its love on its sleeve, and adds an interesting element that I would like to see utilized again. Dead House has good things going for it that make it a recommendable title if ya got the cheese to spare.
I mean the title in the nicest way possible, I swear!
I bought the Mercenaries Saga Chronicles collection off the Switch eShop which includes all three titles in this series I had never heard of prior. Scouring the internet, there were results for 2 and 3 but seemingly nothing for 1 outside of Japanese sites. Seems like 1 gets the least love, so I’ma give it some time today.
R?MJ : The Mystery Hospital is one of the many games to come out of Japan – or rather, stay in Japan – during the rise of the PS1 and 3D graphics that tried to be a “cinematic experience”, blurring the lines between movies and games. While games these days still try to do that for some reason, it was rampant in the PS1 area with lots of hallway walking simulators with ridiculously bad CGI cutscenes and minimalist gameplay (Vampire Detective, Maria, many glorified visual novels, etc, are some derp examples). What resulted were a bunch of games nobody remembers, despite their efforts to be amazing. In reality, were these done because they were easier to do? No real gameplay necessary! Get your brother-in-law Ricky to do the cutscenes, he likes computers right?
R?MJ (what a catchy acronym, but pronounced just “MJ”) is one of the kings of derp in this genre. There may be “worse” games technically speaking, but this one is so absolutely silly and stupid it has become one of my most beloved of the “kusoge” niche. It has been some time since I played it, but hopefully the memories burned into my psyche will help guide me along.
After letting my Switch chill all by its lonesome for far too long (I love the thing, but PS4 games always had a way of drawin me away), I’ve recently begun downloading all sorts of shiz that interests me to see what sticks, because one thing I love about the Switch is it’s all about dem games.
One that immediately caught my eye was Mighty Gunvolt Burst, the whacky crossover between Inticreates’ Armed Blue Gunvolt series and Inafune’s baby Mighty No 9. The Gunvolt games are solid as hell, reminiscent of the Rockman Zero games that Inticreates previously did for Capcom. Mighty No. 9 was the promised return to Rockman roots that local madman and self-titled father of the universe Inafune promised to fans worldwide, and, well, pretty much everyone knows how that turned out. Mighty No. 9 wasn’t horrible by any stretch, but it was definitely a big letdown, especially in the visuals and charm department. Wily ol’ Inafune, up to his tricks again!
But for Mighty Gunvolt Burst, the most tl;dr review I could give it is: this is the game Mighty No. 9 should have been, and with a tighter budget to boot.
Hondoori Game Center 