retro — Page 34

Gauntlet 4 (MD)

Posted on 15/05/2016 Written by deKay

It’s a bit good this, isn’t it? Why i’m asking you, I don’t know. You probably don’t know anyway, and I already know. In fact, it’s my third favourite Mega Drive game. At least, it was a very long time ago and when I started playing it again today for the first time in at least 15 years, I was a little apprehensive that it may have aged badly. Thankfully, I need not have worried: It’s excellent.

Oh but wait – I’m not talking about the main game here. Arcade mode is essentially just the original Gauntlet arcade game, and although that is still an absolutely fantastic thing, the main game mode for me is Quest. Quest is almost an RPG, as your hero navigates four towers with ten levels in each, finding traps to open walls and allow progress to the final floor where a dragon resides. Yes, it has boss battles. As you beat foes, you gain experience which you can spend on improving your stats (shot speed, defence, magic power, etc.), and as you collect treasure you can spend that in shops to gain better equipment (which essentially also just boosts your stats).

So far, I’ve completed the Fire and Water towers, and am about a third of the way through the Earth tower.

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Rainbow Islands (MS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 14/05/2016 Written by deKay

I got very close to completing Rainbow Islands on the Spectrum once. I think I put a cheat mode on and made it to a high level but it crashed. Since then, although I’ve played many versions thoughout the years, I’ve never come close as it’s just too hard.

Or so I thought. I read somewhere that the Master System version was, for whatever reason, quite a lot easier than other versions. Having played it, and (obviously) completed it today, I think whoever wrote that was right because it is. Sure, it’s not a walk in the park, but it was relatively straightforward.

I found that once you have the power-up that gives you a double rainbow (I presume the missing triple rainbow is due to technical issues – the game suffers greatly from flicker and slowdown as it is), providing you’re careful, almost every level is quite easy. All the bosses are pushovers with a double rainbow too, whereas when I’ve played before they were nigh on impossible. Of course, if you die you lose it, but another power-up to give it back tends to come along soon enough.

Another reason it’s so easy is that the water that forever chases you higher, and serves mainly to make you panic and die, takes much, much longer to make an appearance. I saw it just once in the entire game, and that was near the end when I fell about four screens downwards – I still outran it without difficulty though.

However, easiness aside: I didn’t get all the diamonds. That really is too hard. What I did do, though, is complete the seven worlds and then use the code that provides you with to unlock the eighth and final world, and then completed that. I may not have found all the diamonds but I did beat all the levels and bosses, so that’s good enough for me.

Click to view slideshow.

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Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure (MD): COMPLETED!

Posted on 14/05/2016 Written by deKay

Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure (there’s some debate as to the correct order of the words in the title) was always one of my favourite Mega Drive games, and I’m pleased to report it hasn’t aged a bit. It’s still just as good as it ever was, although it seems far easier. Running out of lives was never an issue before as they’re so plentiful, even if you don’t make use of the springy poles that can give you about 15 lives each. Every level has two or three that are easy enough to find, and the bonus levels can net you up to five at a time without much difficulty, and up to 25 if you’re a gambler and are lucky.

All the lives in the world are not much use if the levels are impossible though, but there’s not. Even the bosses, several of which I’m pretty sure were really difficult back in the day, were complete walkovers. I remember I used to same some of my power-up potions for them, as one gives you a homing fireball and another turns you into an invincible rocket-launching mechanical monkey for 15 seconds, but in fact I only bothered with those on two or three of the bosses. I swear this game used to be more difficult. I think I only died twice.

If you’re looking at the screenshots and thinking, “hmm, this looks familiar”, then you may be thinking of either Psycho Fox, which is a similar game by the same development team (which I played recently too), or Decap Attack, which is essentially Magical Flying Hat reskinned for western tastes.

Click to view slideshow.

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Sonic 3 & Knuckles (MD): COMPLETED!

Posted on 08/05/2016 Written by deKay

I’ve completed this many times through the years, but it’s been quite a while since last time, and even longer since a full all-emeralds run. So I did that.

It’s clear that Sonic 3 & Knuckles is still the best Mega Drive game. It looks and sounds incredible, has varied levels, gimmicks and bosses, and is actually huge. Yes, I know it sort of cheats by spanning two cartridges, but that’s irrelevant as far as I’m concerned as together they are the best game. Some people will say Sonic 2 is better. Those people are wrong.

In total, it probably took about four hours. I’d forgotten just how big it was. I only died three times, one death being a Time Over on Flying Battery 2 (I’d spent ages looking for Super Emeralds, and just squeaked past the final lamppost when the time ran out – lucky!), but then the game was never really difficult – especially once you’re able to be be Super or Hyper Sonic. Nor does it matter that it wasn’t hard – it’s just great. Apart from Tails. Oh god does he need to die. He actually killed me on one of the end boss fights as he hit Eggman first and I fell through him instead of bouncing off.

Click to view slideshow.

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Streets of Rage 3 (MD): COMPLETED!

Posted on 07/05/2016 Written by deKay

Streets of Rage 3 is certainly the hardest of the trilogy. As far as I recall, I’ve only completed it once before, and then I don’t think I got the best ending.

And so it is that I didn’t get the best ending this time either, unfortunately. I reached the chief in Stage 6 too late (and only just too late as well), and so Shiva was the final boss for me. It’s frustrating, as I played through the game three times today, and on the second attempt I did save the chief – then died on Stage 7. On my third and final try, I didn’t save him. Annoying.

Click to view slideshow.

Streets of Rage 3 probably isn’t as good as Streets of Rage 2. It has lots more moves, bigger sprites and in some parts (like the disco) some incredible graphics, but SoR2 plays better and has more variety and much, much better music. Also, Zen (in 3) is rubbish. Where has Max gone, anyway?

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