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Ranma 1/2 (SNES): COMPLETED!

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Another retro game chosen pretty much at random today, but Ranma 1/2 is leagues ahead of Running Battle, despite not being all that fantastic itself.

It’s a one-on-one fighting game, and clearly doesn’t have the depth of anything like Street Fighter II, or even Fatal Fury. You’ve four buttons, light and heavy attacks, jump, and block. Pressing both attack buttons together performs a special move, which for Ranma himself (who I played as) is some sort of whirlwind thing which rarely did anything useful.

ranma

Since I know a little of the original Ranma 1/2 story, having characters I knew elevated it a bit higher than other similar games from the same era. Each foe required different tactics to beat as well, which made it more interesting but looking at it now it seems this was to replace proper reactive AI. I can see it being a lot more fun in two player mode.

In single player though, it was far too easy (I didn’t lose a single round) and so over too quickly. A lack of moves is a minus as well, although since I had no instructions it’s possible there were a load I just didn’t figure out, despite trying Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat style control acrobatics.

Click to view slideshow.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the game is that it came out in the west, as it’s just about the most Japanese thing ever. Mind you, Goeman did too, so who knows.

The post Ranma 1/2 (SNES): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Running Battle (MS): COMPLETED!

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Oh my is this a crap game. I picked it on a whim, expecting (for no real reason) for it to be like Rolling Thunder or possibly Last Battle. In fact, it’s not as good as either of those.

running battle

Starting out more like Streets of Rage but after one level it turns into the most repetitive single-plane side scrolling punchkickjump game ever. Sometimes you get guns which you can’t use when jumping or crouching. Or on bosses. Aside from the first section, all the other levels are virtually identical with a slight change of layout or palette.

There are several bosses, the first of which is near impossible, the second and third are walkovers (just trap them in the corner and keep crouch-punching them), and Milacle Man (no really, that’s his name) can kill you in a single hit but is easily beaten once you know how. Then the final boss, M, is a rehashed Dr Wily machine from one of the Mega Man games.

Running Battle is utterly dire, has no redeeming features, and I completed it so that you don’t have to.

Click to view slideshow.

The post Running Battle (MS): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

StreetPass Slot Racer (3DS): COMPLETED!

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That’s two of five down already! These new StreetPass games seem quite a bit shorter than the previous ones, so far anyway.

StreetPass Slot Racer is basically Scalextric. You play by holding down A to go, and letting go of A to slow down – and you need to time doing this on corners and jumps correctly in order to get the best speed boosts. There are a fair few courses to work up through as you rank up, and the final “boss” is a head to head race with Iceman, the world champion slot car race driver.

streetpass slot car

This final race was actually really easy, but unlocking him was hard as one of the challenges before him needs you to finish in under 46 seconds. THREE TIMES I managed 46.07. So frustrating!

There’s more to do now though, and some new ranks have opened up, so like Trader I’ll keep playing. It’s looking like the next one to be completed might be Explorers, so watch this space.

The post StreetPass Slot Racer (3DS): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

StreetPass Trader (3DS): COMPLETED!

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I have been playing other stuff as well as No Man’s Sky, you know. Including all five new StreetPass games, and the best one, Trader, I completed today.

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It’s pretty simple: You buy stocks when the market is low, and sell when the prices are high. People you have StreetPassed help predict the trends, and different companies have different stock prices. The more times you trade in a certain company, the more expensive their shares become, and so the more you can profit (or lose!). That’s pretty much all there is to it.

It might be the simplest of all the StreetPass titles, but it’s the one out of the new batch of them I’m finding most fun, even though it is the most boring on paper.

Anyway, I’ve completed it by making 100 Million G, but there’s a further goal of 10 Billion G (I’m assuming US Billion otherwise it’ll take forever) which I’m aiming for next.

The post StreetPass Trader (3DS): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Sakura Spirit (Mac): COMPLETED!

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It’s a common story – man enters judo competition, finds shrine, warps to parallel world, meets two boob-woman soldiers obsessed with him, meets two boob-woman fox spirits also obsessed with him, all the women get accidentally naked every seven seconds, and then four bad boob-woman slime spirits turn up and it’s up to you and all the friendly boob-women to save the day!

All interspersed with barely-covered boobs, barely-covered bums, and lots of conversations about knickers.

Sakura Spirit

It sounds like filth, but in actual fact, it’s really very tame. The story is nonsense, the dialogue is full of spelling mistakes and is embarrassing for non-sexy reasons, and it’s not actually much of a game at all. It’s a picture book with one (or maybe two?) decisions that need to be made, neither of which appear to affect anything bar the following couple of sentences.

Sakura Spirit

Having four women constantly undressing for you either accidentally or on purpose but at the same time both they and you are in a state of permanent bashfulness isn’t as sexy as it sounds (not least because nothing is ever actually exposed anyway) and frankly it just gets in the way of the story. Which also isn’t very good. It’s a Carry On film set in ancient Japan, with fox spirits instead of Barbara Windsor.

And no, I didn’t buy it. And neither should you.

Click to view slideshow.

The post Sakura Spirit (Mac): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.