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Metroid Fusion (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Like Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion is a GBA game I haven’t played for a very, very long time. Also like Minish Cap, I have it on my 3DS, also unplayed. But let me not talk of what I haven’t played, for this appeared on Switch Online and I did play it.

Metroid Fusion is a more linear than usual Metroid title. That’s not to say there isn’t any backtracking or hidden things, more that it’s very hand-holdy and you’re told where to go (usually exactly) frequently, and sometimes even how to get there, so random exploration isn’t really a part of it. What is a part of it, however, is often getting stuck somewhere with seemingly no way of getting out, and it is only by bombing and shooting everything in sight and trying to climb into walls which don’t obviously show they’re hollow, that you escape. Or at least, that’s what happened to me. A lot.

Wonder what ate that?

It’s also quite a lot easier than most Metroid games, and certainly easier than I remember it being. Apart from Nightmare, who was a right old pain and I’m pretty sure I fluked it past him. Oh yes, I knew how to hit him, but avoiding him seemed completely impossible to plan for and somersaulting around him (shades of one of the Dread bosses there) was tricky because of his erratic movement and the lack of space. Those Core-X things that come out after bosses that also need defeating caught me out a few times too.

Nightmare. And he was.

I can never remember if it’s Fusion or Zero that is supposed to be the “good” one. I thought they both were, but one was more loved than the other? Well, this is certainly excellent so if Zero is better, I can’t wait for that to appear on the Switch Online service at some point.

Final Fight (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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You know, I’ve realised there’s a flaw in playing arcade games on a non-arcade device. You just keep piling virtual coins in until you win. Sure, you can do this on MAME, and yes, the EXP does have a credit limit option, but still – completing a game is as much an exercise in pressing “insert coin” as it pressing punch and kick. Because ain’t nobody limiting themselves to 3 credits unless they’re masochists.

The game is as it ever was. I played as Haggar and punched more people called Bred and Poison than you could ever imagine existed before reaching the final fight (oh-ho!) and punching wheelchair-guy out the window. Yes, I put a lot of electronic coins in the slot. But it’s fun and the graphics are huge and it hasn’t really aged badly. Providing you ignore all the stuff about Poison’s backstory, anyway. Which isn’t mentioned here, so you can!

MERCS (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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Is it MERCS not Mercs? Everywhere seems to say it in all-caps, but why? It’s not an acronym. In this TED Talk I’ll be explor…

Not really. I don’t care. What I do care about, however, is that this, a three-player game, is one of the Capcom games built into the strictly single player Evercade EXP. Seems an odd choice to me, but then I suppose it’s another title to show off the EXP’s tate (or TATE? Answers in the comments, please) mode. Which it does, and it’s just as well because oh my is everything tiny when round the “normal” way.

MERCS/Mercs is the sort-of sequel to the similar Commando game, only it’s a lot easier (you have a health bar instead of insta-death, and when you die you just carry on rather than go back to a checkpoint) and, from what I remember from the much-played Spectrum Commando, it’s a lot shorter too. Very, very short in fact.

It was mindless fun though, and the flamethrower weapon is just glorious.

Lightning Swords (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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Oh would you look at that. My Limited Edition Evercade EXP finally arrived! And with it, a bgt pile of games – some built-in, and two Arcade cartridges. So, what will I play? Why, Lightning Swords, a game I’ve never heard of, of course!

Imagine if Revenge of Shinobi was Rolling Thunder, and you’re most of the way towards what Lightning Swords is. A sideways scrolling swordy-slashy game with hundreds of identical foes and a few bosses. You can pick up powerups which appear to do nothing, and you can do special attacks by holding down the slash button for a bit. It’s not bad, but you can see how it’s designed to chew through all your 10ps.

Bafflingly, to jump you press up. Why? This isn’t an 8-bit computer game with a one-button Quickshot II – it’s an arcade game with as many buttons as you want! They could easily have made the Evercade version respond to a second button for jump, even if that were as well as up, but no. Feels unnecessarily fiddly.

But anyway. Done. It’s not the best game in the world but it was fine.

Note: screenshot isn’t mine, it’s from the Evercade site. Would be nice if you could screenshot on an Evercade!

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Another Nintendo Online Service game. I have played this before, but maybe only once? I didn’t remember any of it apart from the bunny ears and the deformed Wario sprites.

It was so, so easy though! I didn’t die at all! Every boss was easy. Every level a cinch. I ended up with more lives than it’s possible to ever use.

But, it was enjoyable. A bit jerky, but very impressive when you consider this was a Game Boy game and so the same hardware as the good but obviously reduced-to-fit original Super Mario Land. Big, clear graphics, nice tunes and plenty of level variety.