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Mega-lo-Mania (MD): COMPLETED!

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Yes, this again. Seems I didn’t play it at all in 2023! How did that happen?

Anyhoo, this time through I played as Caesar (the green one), and for the first time I can remember, I wasn’t asked to form an alliance at all for the whole game. Normally at least someone panics and tries to get me to join with them, although I almost always decline.

As usual, I reached the Mother of All Battles as the end of the game as the only god who remembered to stash away some humans, so naturally I won that by default.

Psycho Soldier (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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Another game off that SNK 40th Anniversary Collection thing I found Prehistoric Isle on. The game title really doesn’t match anything in the game itself, which is a platform shooter starring Athena (the SNK girl who is in a few of their games) and there aren’t any soldiers, psycho or otherwise. And you know what? I really enjoyed it!

It’s quirky, very different to other superficially similar titles from the same era, and Athena sings her theme tune as you play. Incredible work on a system which presumably had a pretty simple sound chip that plays samples rather than the ability to play back digital audio files like you’d get today. You also turn into a dragon for some reason every now and then.

Surprisingly, Psycho Soldier wasn’t impossible without infinite credits. In fact, I even managed to complete a few levels without dying at all. Unheard of for an arcade game, especially one I’d never played.

Prehistoric Isle (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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I totally forgot (again, I expect) that I had access to that SNK game collection on my Steam Deck. I think it came from Amazon original, so isn’t Steam-native, so maybe that’s why. Anyway, stumbled across it again and had a look, and Prehistoric Isle caught my eye. So I completed it.

Standard Arcade Shooter Disclaimer applies: yes, I used All The Credits. These games are designed to swallow 10ps, so I’ve no shame in pumping it full of virtual coinage in order to progress. Especially in a game which, although not bad, isn’t really good enough for me to spend long enough Gitting Gud on so that the not-real money I’m spending on extra continues can be saved.

As you’ve probably guessed, Prehistoric Isle is a side scrolling shooter in the vein of Gradius and R-Type only this time most of the baddies are dinosaurs and, Flintstones historical accuracy style, cavemen. Which means, realistically, the majority are some sort of pterosaur because none of the others can fly. Bosses are big ol’ dinos as you’d expect.

Shooty-wise, you get a few powerups with the usual Option-like orbiting thingie, which you can – if you’re able to do so without dying – rotate around your plane in order to shoot in different directions or with different attack types and arcs. Apart from a couple of vertically scrolling sections I found this more trouble than it’s worth so just left it at “forwards”.

I’ve said before that except in rare circumstances, shoot ’em ups aren’t really for me, and although this one is fine – and I liked the change in setting to the usual space/WWII stuff – it’s nothing fantastic.

Golden Sun (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Many years ago, so long ago that my Gaming Diary didn’t even exist, I played Golden Sun on my Game Boy Advance. It was great. At least, I remember it being great, but I remember very little about the actual events in the game. I recall the catastrophe at the start, and the village you’re in, and that your friend goes missing and it turns out later on he’s working with (under duress) the bad guys. I remember there was a lighthouse. And I remember the djinn – sort of like little dragons – you can find and add to your character to buff your stats, give you new moves, and unleash on baddies. Mainly I remember them because they were in Shining The Holy Ark on the Sega Saturn though, not that they were in Golden Sun.

With very little remembered of the game, it was almost like playing an entirely new Camelot RPG just with the odd sensation that it was all a bit familiar. But being able to replay a great RPG, especially one from the likes of Camelot (who were the late 90s/early 2000s kings of the genre) without knowing everything is a Fine Thing Indeed.

Off I went then, with my guy Isaac and his chums, through the usual overworlds and dungeons and towns and, yes, lighthouses (there are two, or three, sort of) fighting random battles and watching the numbers go up as a charming story unfolds.

Being a GBA game with really detailed 32 bit sprite graphics (with loads of Mode-7 type backgrounds and maps), it looks amazing on a tiny handheld screen but blown up to fifty imperial inches it feels really messy. Older games, like those on the SNES and earlier, seem to come out OK at that size, probably due to less cluttered backgrounds and more obvious sprite edge definition, but here there are too many colours and too few pixels and it becomes hard to see what things are. Until, for some reason, it doesn’t. I struggled for a while, trying the (limited) screen rendering options, but got used to it and actually, it’s fine.

I don’t remember how hard the game was when I played it before, but I found it very easy this time through. Well, in terms of the actual fights and so on, anyway. Perhaps it’s because I did plenty of levelling up, or maybe I was just cautious, or I completed most of the side quests or something. The final boss battle was a walkover. What was difficult, however, was knowing what to do next. Even chatting to everyone in the towns (as is de rigour for JRPGs) didn’t always make it clear where I was supposed to go next, at least in terms of direction. I was nudged towards a new town or dungeon via the dialogue, but very rarely was it made clear where I might find such a place, so much wandering ensued. Perhaps another reason why I levelled up a lot, I suppose.

What I’d also forgotten about the game is how it ends. Because, well, it sort of doesn’t. You beat the boss, there’s an event, and then it’s straight into the sequel to actually finish off the story. Only two of the four lighthouses the game tells you need to be (or shouldn’t be, depending who you ask) lighting are in Golden Sun. A bit of an anti-climax and seemingly hurried end, if you were not aware of the follow-up title, Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Which, luckily, appeared on the Switch Game Boy Advance service at the same time as Golden Sun. Phew, eh?

Castlevania Legends (Switch): COMPLETED!

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I always thought that Castlevania Legends was actually the same game as either of the Game Boy Castlevania Adventure games, just named differently in a other regions. So imagine my surprise when I discovered it wasn’t, and not only that, it’s better than either of them. How have I not played this before?

OK, I should clarify that it still isn’t great. It’s pretty short, has a really restrictive time limit on each level which pretty much guarantees at least one death, and is still a bit clunky. But! It is more fun, slicker, and more playable than the others.

Apparently, until the terrible Lament of Innocence on the PS2, this was chronologically the first game in the series, although when the PS2 game was released Legends became, well, a legend. Shame, as this is a better game than that. Hell, most games are a better game than Lament of Innocence.

There’s not much else to say here. It’s a reasonable Castlevania with nothing really new for anyone who has played any of the original non-Metroidvania style ones before. And it’s free to play if you have the Nintendo Online subscription.