Master System — Page 3

Running Battle (MS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 18/09/2016 Written by deKay

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.

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.

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The Lucky Dime Caper (MS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 12/06/2016 Written by deKay

Since I’m currently loving Master System platformers, I decided to give The Lucky Dime Caper a go. I don’t think I’ve ever really properly played it before, certainly not past the first couple of levels, anyway.

Of course, it’s going to be compared to Castle of Illusion and sadly it isn’t as good as that. Donald’s levels aren’t as well designed, mainly having more straightforward platforming than the odd puzzle bit Castle of Illusion had. Donald’s main attack, usually a mallet, is tricky to time as enemies have to be really close for it to connect, and the frisbee he sometimes picks up is better but I found quite a few baddies – mainly bosses – it didn’t damage.

Speaking of bosses, they’re all very easy with the final boss being the easiest boss in any game ever. You literally jump on one spot for three seconds, before she can even properly start attacking you, and that’s it – you’ve beaten her. Pretty disappointing. The other bosses are more taxing, although not much more, but annoyed me as there’s no way of knowing how much damage you’ve done to them, or in some cases, if you’re even damaging them at all.

The levels themselves were standard platform faire – forest, ice, volcano, water, Egypt, castle… in fact, some of the graphics seem to be ripped directly from the Illusion games. Or maybe the other way round, I suppose – I didn’t check the release order!

That said, The Lucky Dime Caper isn’t a bad game, it just isn’t as good as the Mickey Mouse titles or Asterix. It’s better than Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars though!

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Asterix (MS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 11/06/2016 Written by deKay

Yes, it’s another 8bit platformer. But you know what? It’s another good one! When I originally played Asterix on an actual Master System (actually, that’s not true – I played it on a Mega Drive with a Power Base Convertor) I remember it being very easy, once you knew the levels, up until the section near the end of the game with the leaf ride in the wind and the spikes. Imagine my surprise when I realised my brain had totally made that level up and it didn’t appear anywhere in my playthrough.

How had I remembered something that didn’t exist? It’s my main memory of the game! That part was so hard that it’s stuck in my head for ever more, and yet it isn’t there. Bizarre.

For this play, I went through entirely as Asterix (aside from level 1-1 where you have to play through as both him and Obelix) as I seem to recall it’s easier and more fun. Mind you, I’d already misremembered a whole level so who knows.

I’m pleased to say that, a bit of slowdown aside, Asterix is still a pretty good platformer. Some levels – mainly forced scrolling ones – are less fun than others, but there’s a lot of secret areas to find and a few levels have alternate routes. It’s very much like the Mickey Mouse …of Illusion games, which I’d not really noticed before, but that’s no bad thing.

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Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (MS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 04/06/2016 Written by deKay

I’ve completed two Alex Kidd games before – Miracle World on the Master System, and The Enchanted Castle (which is essentially a remake) on the Mega Drive. Neither were anything special, but they were both reasonably good platformers. I’ve briefly played some other Alex Kidd titles, but never finished them. However, I’d never played The Lost Stars before today.

Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars — A couple of pointers

It’s a very simple platformer. Alex Kidd doesn’t have his big punch move, the collision detection is ropey and although the levels are varied none of them are particularly impressive. The graphics are big and chunky and very colourful, so I expect this was a decent show-off title to NES owners back in the day even though it’s nowhere near the same level as things like Super Mario Bros or Duck Tales gameplay-wise. It also suffers from flicker and slowdown a little, although not so much that it bothered me.

Alex runs and jumps through the levels (and swims, in one of them) from left to right mainly avoiding enemies although he can fire a limited number of whirlwinds at them with the right power-up. Other power-ups include a time-limited higher jump and an item that replenishes the health/time bar. Yes, just like Wonder Boy, The Lost Stars has a stupid combined bar which slowly depletes by itself, buy also loses a chunk when you get hit. It was rubbish in Wonder Boy and it’s rubbish here.

Speaking of Wonder Boy, at least one of the levels here appears to be a homage to it. Some of the other levels also seem to borrow from other Sega games – I’m pretty sure there’s a Zillion themed area for one, and there’s an Opa-Opa hiding one of the “miracle balls” you have to collect.

On the final level, which has very low gravity making all the jumps incredibly easy, there’s no miracle ball, but completing it throws you back at the start of the game again. Only, unlike Teddy Boy, the levels become harder and there’s a second set of miracle balls to collect. Only by running through all the levels again (which I did) do you get the True Ending: a black screen with the words “The End” on it. That’s it. Thanks, Sega!

Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars is a mediocre game with very little in common with the other Alex Kidd games, it would seem. There are plenty of better Master System platformers (Miracle World, Sonic, Asterix, The Lucky Dime Caper, Castle of Illusion… the list goes on) so there’s very little here to recommend it. Still, it wasn’t terrible, so that’s something? Oh, and the FM sound is lovely, so make sure you use an emulator with that turned on if you do play it.

I’m still confused as to why it’s called The Lost Stars when it’s actually Miracle Balls you have to collect, though.

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Teddy Boy (MS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 04/06/2016 Written by deKay

Teddy Boy was one of the first Master System games I owned, mainly because it was under ten quid new, but I actually quite liked it. I’d never completed it though, and in fact I didn’t think you could complete it – I just thought it went on forever like arcade games of this sort generally did. However, over on RetroCollect someone posted they’d just completed it and I asked how – and it turns out the levels just loop round after level 50. Technically beating that level would count (to me) as completing the game then.

Way back when, I think a level somewhere in the 40s was about as far as I ever reached, so imagine my surprise when I managed to reach – and finish – level 50 on just my second attempt. On the first attempt I only made it to level 12 or so, but I quickly learned to be slow and cautious where possible, keep an eye out for the crocodiles especially, and always collect the little token things that come out of the baddies when shot otherwise they gobble up the time after a while. And the yellow bread things? You can’t take on more than one at a time.

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I found Teddy Boy to still be fun game, much to my surprise. It’s very jolly and cute, even if very simple.

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