Super Metroid

The Short

Pros

- Perhaps the best space exploration game ever made

- Masterful use of sound and graphics create a simultaneous sense of dread and wonder

- Plethora of secrets and power-ups to find encourage replayability and backtracking

- Bosses are exciting and difficult

- Pitch-perfect pacing and level design that pushes you forward without ever actually telling you where to go

- Excellent story that uses less to tell so much more

- Decent length for a first playthrough, and sequence-breaking is easy and fun for replays

Cons

- Wall-jumping in this game is a major pain in the butt

- Weird "anti-piracy" systems can erase your save if your cart's connectors are dirty (even on a legit copy)

- If you don't know there's a "Run" button, you'll get stuck pretty quick.

The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace. 

The Long

It amazes me that I brushed past Super Metroid the first time I played it. Back in my SNES emulator days I had the game, but after about five minutes I gave up on it (probably because the game plays awful on a keyboard). I found a new love for the series through games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Metroid Fusion, eventually bringing me back around to Super Metroid after beating nearly every other Metroid game in existence.

Ho boy, was I stupid for overlooking this game. 

Now, I'm fully aware people "geek out" over games. Hell, I do it all the time. But considering I actually never beat this game until a few short years ago (and haven't played it since, which is weird considering how many times I replayed Metroid Fusion, Zero Mission, and Prime), I'd like to think I'm past the "geeking out" phase (especially since I didn't really like the game the first time I played it). After replaying about 75% of the game last Saturday (yes, in a straight shot, and I forgot all the secrets and even how to beat some bosses, so it felt like a fresh run) I can say this on absolute authority: Super Metroid is one of the finest games I've ever played. Ever.

Man, that sounded like geeking out to me. Let's get on to reasons, shall we?

This game has some phenomenal art design.

The story of Super Metroid is understated, but still worth mentioning. After the events of Metroid II (a little Game Boy game people tend to forget exist), Samus saved the last baby metroid in the galaxy, and turned the little chomper over to the galactic federation. Shortly after doing so, however, the station outputs a distress signal and Samus comes flying back just in time for Ridley of the space pirates to fly off with the metroid. Of course.

Samus flies down to the planet Zebus to pursue the space pirates and save the baby metroid. And that...is pretty much the story. Minus a rather fantastic plot twist near the end of the game, there isn't much story here. OR IS THERE?!

Without bleeding too much into the next review section, Super Metroid has excellent atmosphere, which in turn can be used to imply a story without saying it. As you revisit areas that are repopulated with new monsters or unlock future areas like a derelict ship or areas crawling with space pirates, you start forming a story in your mind. The game never really says anything, but the places you explore obviously have tales to tell. It's understated, and masterfully so, in a way that gets under you skin but still makes you feel like there is some sort of narrative going on. It's quite clever, assuming you have enough of an imagination to get sucked in.

You never get to fly Samus' ship in any of these games. That's too bad. 

Since there's so much I could say about Super Metroid (and so much that has already been said this review seems a bit redundant), I'm going to focus the rest of my gameplay comments on two things that I really think set this game apart and make it shine, even from other games in its own series. First is the absolutely perfect use of atmosphere, and second is the immaculate use of level design to direct the player forward.

Also the use of bubble design to show how many bubbles are in...this joke is over. 

The first will require a bit of hands-on reviewing. First, listen to this song below, and tell me what kind of feelings it invokes.

Fear? Dread, perhaps? Isolation? And when the piano track kicks in, maybe a trickle of hope? that booming bass is certainly ominous, but the rest of the song (especially the whistle) is absolutely harrowing. It's masterful, to say the very least.

These are the feelings Super Metroid wants you to feel. It drops you down on a planet with next to no background, no instructions (more on that later), nothing; just a world to explore and mysteries to uncover. Who knows what lies in the bowels of the planet (but based on Samus' track record: nothing good), but it is up to you and you alone to discover it. There is nobody to talk to, no dialogue, and no other people. The only other sentient creatures are enemies that never talk to you, and none of the old technology ever even conveys text. You are completely alone, fending for yourself on this planet.

It's incredible how well the mood works in this game.

Just you and a host of aliens. 

Rarely do games get under my skin, and when they do it's usually horror games (and ones done well, like Silent Hill 2), but Super Metroid is more ominous than most horror games I've played. It's crazy how well this works with the lights off at night, sitting in the glow of your TV blasting your way through dark depths. Lots of areas in this game don't even have enemies, just places to explore and soak in. It's a slower pace for a game, and one that lends itself well to the feelings they are trying to invoke. 

That, I think, is one of the main reasons people look back on Super Metroid so memorably: the game is damn impactful. While future titles are still excellent, they still feel more like "games" to me than "experiences." That might be a corny way of saying it, but Super Metroid is more about taking you somewhere than having you play a fun game. Yeah, the game beneath is still a blast, but it is never the first thing I think of when looking back at the game. I can't say the same for the other iterations in the series, no matter how good they were (though a few areas in Metroid Fusion, such as the shaft you have to go down after the elevator powers down, did a good job emulating the feeling Super Metroid gave).

Some rooms are almost completely silent. It's harrowing.

The other main thing I absolutely love about Super Metroid is how darn well they designed this game. Let me restate something I said earlier for emphasis: when the game starts, you are thrown into a "prologue" bit of gameplay where you go through the space-station, see Ridley, and evacuate. It's a straight linear shot meant to set up the story, nothing more. After that, the game drops you off on the planet, rain pouring down on your ship and thunder booming in the background.

And...that's it. That is literally all the direction you are given. Everything else from there is up to you; the game never tells you where to go, ever.

Though "into the lava" is not suggested. 

Now, a lot of people are a bit confused with how Super Metroid works. They use terms like "non-linear" or "open world," when really the game only gives the illusion of that. What Super Metroid does is gives you slight nudges in the right place to go, down a linear path, while never actually showing you that the line is straight. It does this in very simple ways: by gating your entry to certain rooms with powerups you haven't acquired yet, forcing you down the right passway to said powerup, and then allowing you to backtrack and figure out where you use your newly acquired ability to proceed. Lather, rinse, repeat.

But, like the atmosphere, it's this illusion that makes the game work so incredibly well, because the game never tells you where to go.

I guess it does tell you when to evacuate.

Think of Metroid Fusion. Every few rooms you'd stop at a data console and the game would put a point on your map of where to go next. Yeah, it was your job to figure out how to get there, but really the shot was linear (even if you had to go through vents or whatever). Zero Mission did the same thing with the Chozo statues: telling you where to go next. Super Metroid tells you where to go, but it does it with its gameplay and level design, which means you never break immersion. Let me give an example.

Kaboom.

As you are journeying into the depth of the planet, you stumble across this glass passageway that seems completely out of the blue; it even has its own map section. Above and below you see water and even a door, but you have no idea how to get out there. As you go back and forth across it, getting powerups and revisiting old places, you wonder what might be beyond there.

When you get the Power Bombs, you realize you can break the glass. Now, in any other game it would have been like "SAMUS! You got POWER BOMBS! They are powerful and can blow up glass and stuff! Do you remember any glass you've seen on your adventure? HMM? Maybe I should PUT A POINT ON THE MAP FOR YA!"

Not in Super Metroid, because you don't need it to. You've already ran back and forth through this passageway a half-dozen times, wondering what the heck it does. Of course you are going to go test the power bombs out on it. And even if you don't think of it, you'll at least try blasting it with everything else in your arsenal until you find something that works.

This game is so clever I can't stand it. 

The whole game is like this. You find doors or passages where you can't traverse them yet, but you know there's something beyond that because you can both see it in the distance and your map indicates an extension there (after getting the data from the map room). So every time you get a new powerup it's an exciting experience: now I get to go back and both get the items I passed by because I missed them, and I know where to go because I remember passing that door/passageway/grapple point two or three times and wondering "what's beyond there?" You almost never get stuck because the game guides you with its gameplay, not with a tutorial. How many games in this day and age trust a player enough to do that? Well, considering they are still teaching me to "Look with the right stick" after doing it for eighty trillion other games, I'd say...none of them.

Also I hate this boss. Unrelated to the rest of the review; I just wanted to point that out. 

All this is packaged together with tight controls, awesome gameplay, and excellent graphics. Really, the package here is complete. Though I guess if I had any complaints, it would be these two things: Wall jumping (essential for both sequence breaking and some tricky areas) is extremely difficult and counter intuitive. You have to spin into the wall, press the opposite direction, and then jump. If you press the opposite direction and jump at the same time (like, you know, any other game with wall jumping) it doesn't work. It's frustrating and annoying and BAH, though you do sort of get the hang of it in time.

The other thing is pressing select to cycle through sub-weapons is a pain. It's nice they had one button to deselect whatever sub thing you are on, but you can't ever have both x-ray and missiles equipped, which is kind of lame. I like how in the GBA versions they mapped that to the "R" shoulder button; made weapon swapping much quicker. 

Man that intro music is...chilling.

This review hasn't really gone into any depths regarding the gameplay or mechanics, but I don't think it has to. Odds are you've either played Super Metroid and come to hear me gush, or have never played the game but have at least heard of them. I will say this: Super Metroid is essential gaming. If you have any affinity for games that involve exploration, atmosphere, or platforming you absolutely must play this game. It is easily the top of its class in nearly ever category, and there is a very, very good reason fans still clamor to it after all these years. And, believe it or it, it isn't because of rose-tinted glasses.

It's incredible that a game of this quality has held up so well, and even more so that it outshines all of its sequels without so much as breaking a sweat. At only $8 on the Wii's Virtual Console, you have literally no excuse to not own this game. Seriously. Go get it, right now.

Five out of five stars. 

I love it so much I made this giant perler bead thing in my house. That metroid is bigger than my head!

Earthworm Jim 2

The Short


Pros
- More zany, weird platforming from the guys at Shiny
- Did I say "platforming?" Add on isometric shooting, floating, and catching puppies
- Humor is back and better (and weirder) than ever
- The "snot grapple" adds some new platforming bits to the game

Cons
- Platforming controls as Jim can still be a little floaty
- Jim's idle animation looks...odd
- Some levels feel a bit unfair
- SNES version looks considerably worse than the Genesis version

Pig Slides. I think we're onto something here. 

The Long

As much as I love the first Earthworm Jim, I can't help but feel it was Shiny cutting their teeth on the whole "platforming" business. See, while Earthworm Jim was a good action-platformer that was essentially saved by its silly humor, Earthworm Jim 2 is where Shiny just went completely insane. While I guess I could still label it as a "platforming," Earthworm Jim 2 jumps genres and playstyles so frequently it's hard for me to really nail that down. 

But let's just get into it all, shall we?

It has an isometric shooting stage. 

Earthworm Jim 2 starts out normal enough...as normal as an Earthworm Jim game is, anyway. A "regular" platforming level where you blast your way through enemies, carry pigs and push them down slides, use pigs as weights to solve puzzles, and use snot to climb across the ceilings. You know, usual platforming stuff. 

Then you get to the first boss, who is a fish in a tank. Riveting. 

Hold on to your butts!

The next level begins to show the clever adjustments that Shiny has implemented in the game. Now you are in an ant farm, and you have to shoot dirt down from the ceiling to make ledges and passagesways to get out. It isn't a particularly difficult level, but after a "regular" level it's a bit weird.

Then you are bouncing purple puppies on a giant marshmallow to try and get them to a doghouse unharmed. Man, this game just got weird. 

I'm not kidding. Giant marshmallow. 

Things only get crazier from here. The next level Jim in inexplicably a blind cave salamander who can float/fly, and the stage is a mix between vertical platforming where you have to dodge the walls, a pinball machine, and a quiz show. Next to that is an isometric shooting stage where you have to push a bomb to the end of the level, and in the next you have to carry a cow through a difficult platforming stage. Next is a level where Jim blew his head up and is again another vertical segment, followed normal level where you fight through paperwork, and then Level "Ate," which is exactly what you think.

Pictured: Puns. 

For the ninth and final level you are running from a boss set to the third movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and then you get the suitably weird ending. Seriously...that's, what, three normal levels? Four? Earthworm Jim 2 just keeps mixing things up when you least expect it. While the first was pretty much a straight platformer, Earthworm Jim 2 is far from it.

And I love the game because of it.

I wasn't kidding about the salamander thing, either. 

The random mix-ups in gameplay keep the game interesting and fresh, especially for a first-time player. Unlike Earthworm Jim, where the platforming suffered because of the floaty controls, since you are constantly switching gears the somewhat imprecise controls on each game type are more forgivable. I will admit the isometric shooting stage was by far the most aggravating (having to push a stupid bomb forward while dodging enemies is extremely obnoxious), but there are enough tricks that eventually you'll get it. While the game is completely disjointed by its schizophrenic, ADHD approach to game design, it somehow manages to work. And because of that it's a vastly superior game than its predecessor. 

Just floatin' along. 

Graphically, Earthworm Jim 2 looks just as good at its predecessor, complete with the absolutely incredible animations. The varying stages allow for different art styles and a bizarre mix of real images with the cartoony graphics which, like the game design, somehow meshes together well despite itself. The backgrounds look especially good, with some fantastic vistas that are gorgeous to look at.

Sounds design is also stellar, with all the incredibly weird sound effects fitting in with the insane visuals and gameplay. Voice clips are crisp (or crisper than other games at the time, at least) and add to the oddball presentation. 

And there are cows between each level. Why not. 

There really isn't any other game like Earthworm Jim 2, not even Earthworm Jim. Combining elements from tons of genres and then adding their own touch of weirdness to the mix, Shiny has created something wholly unique. While Earthworm Jim certainly did its own thing, it's Earthworm Jim 2 that I feel the series really found its identity. It's too bad it never really went anywhere after that (Earthworm Jim 3D is...yeah). 

This game is available on the Virtual Console and is absolutely worth picking up. Here's hoping that we'll see a true 2D followup to Earthworm Jim sometime in the near future. If there's any series I'd like to see revived, it would be this one.

Four out of five stars. 

A touching ending to our hero's tale. 

Chrono Trigger

The Short


Pros
- One of the most definitive JRPGs ever made
- Combines the talents of industry greats: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, and artist Akira Toriyama
- Beautiful graphics with a realized art style
- Excellent music throughout full of memorable tracks
- Unique gameplay system mixes the ATB system from Final Fantasy with combo tech attacks
- Charming and interesting story with some genuinely clever reveals
- Fourteen endings; introduced the New Game + system to tackle them all (DS version has seventeen endings)

Cons
- First playthrough is short; only 15-20 hours
- Game is exceptionally easy
- Adventure is linear until the very, very end
- Getting an original cartridge on the SNES can be a bit pricey
- Frog doesn't talk like a weird old English gentleman in the DS re-release. What the heck, guys?

You said it, Lucca

The Long

There is nothing I could say about Chrono Trigger that hasn't already been said, so I won't even try. Chrono Trigger is widely considered to be the definitive JRPG, and I am inclined to agree with that. Five out of five stars, review over. 

...in all seriousness, odds are if you are reading this review you've played or at least heard of Chrono Trigger. If you haven't, then you really need to get on the ball and play this game RIGHT NOW. There's a good reason why it's so revered by fans even to this day. Chrono Trigger is an absolutely incredible experience from beginning to end, and also serves as perhaps the best entry point for anyone into JRPGS. The only downside I could see with that plan is that if this is the first JRPG you ever played, it would be hard for anything else to even compare.

But enough of me rambling vaguely; let's get into gritty specifics. 

Rude, dude. 

Chrono Trigger's story is one part whimsy, one part post-apocalyptic, and one part AWESOME. Ok, I don't know how "awesome" could be a part, but the point still stands: Chrono Trigger has an excellent story. While you could argue it doesn't exactly reach the emotional depths of games like Final Fantasy VI, it's such a cleverly written tale you can't help but love it, and the fact it literally exhumes charm probably doesn't hurt either.

It starts out simple: while attending a millennial fair, you (the mute protagonist "Chrono" [or "Brono" if you are GiantBomb]) mess up your sciency friend Lucca's teleporter and TRAVEL BACK IN TIME! After screwing up the timeline in a plot somewhat similar to Back to the Future (except with less mother/son creepy incest stuff) you have to set things right, only for things to go wrong again. Eventually you discover a rather shocking truth: in the year 1999, a creature called Lavos emerges from within the bowels of the planet and essentially blows everything up. It's up to you and your time-travelling pals from throughout history to find the truth behind Lavos, his origins, and how to stop him before he blows up the world. Pretty good stuff, eh?

My name is Gato/I have metal joints/Beat me up/And earn fifteen silver points! 

As a whole, the overarching story is reasonably compelling, but where Chrono Trigger shines is in its little, character driven moments. Your cast of characters is as diverse as as it weird: you have three "normal" people from your time, but you also pick up a robot, a cavewoman, an anthropomorphic frog, and even an optional bad guy turned good. What makes Chrono Trigger fascinating is the fact that each of these characters have deep and interesting backstories, which are often explained as you time travel around the world. I don't want to spoil anything in particular (though seriously...everybody's played this game) but visiting one particular villain as a child and realizing exactly why he's such a jerk was one of the most rewarding and incredible twists in the game. Because of the time-travel element, you can actually visit moments from character's pasts, finally seeing things the characters allude to throughout the whole story.

And don't even get me started on Lucca's optional visit to her past. That's "Cyan and the Phantom Train" levels of emotional insides-pulling. 

Oh bugger.

If there's only one real complaint I can lobby against the story, its that the protagonist (Chrono) is woefully underdeveloped. They went for the "silent protagonist" route here, which is a cheap trick used to have the player project themselves onto the character, and it works out...ok here. I mean, Chrono has a nice mom, I have a nice mom. Chrono has a cat, I had a cat. I'm feelin' it. But when compared to the other characters, who feel exceptionally fleshed out and interesting (with maybe the exception of Magus, though you do get a large chunk of his past revealed), Chrono is completely stale.

Not to mention a rather large twist at about the 3/4 mark involving Chrono completely shatters the idea of self projection onto the character and makes me wonder exactly what they were thinking with him. I mean, I liked the twist. It was shocking and there was no way I saw it coming. But in terms of blending narrative, gameplay, and player experience...it felt a bit out of place.

All this aside, I will say this final bit about the story: it does the little things right. Frog talking in old English even though nobody else in his time period does, and even he didn't talk in old English before he came a frog is a hilarious touch that might have not been intentional, but I don't care. Having Ozzie, the comical villain who looks more than a little bit like Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z, be defeated by a cat. Leaving Robo, because he's a robot, four hundred years in the past and then simply zipping forward and picking him up after his centuries-long task is complete. There are just too many fantastic, little things about Chrono Trigger that make it charming, heartbreaking, and captivating to mention. It isn't really some sweeping, broad melodrama, but it doesn't have to be. It's more like if Final Fantasy had a baby with Mario RPG, and I love it.

Oh Spekkio, you have beaten me far too many times. 

Beyond the story, the gameplay mechanics in Chrono Trigger are a blast. The first thing you'll notice when engaging in a battle is that it doesn't fade out into some side battle screen; when you see enemies while running around, touching them engages in a battle then and there. Enemies wander around during the battles, and their positions relative to each other affect certain area-of-effect moves your characters can pull off. While this isn't exactly novel now in a world where western action RPGs are the norm, for JRPGs past and present this concept of a hybrid battle system is unique. 

The system plays a lot like the SNES and PS1 Final Fantasy games: you have a bar that gradually fills (based on your Speed stat), and when it maxes out that character can take his or her turn. The enemies also have bars (which you don't see), so executing commands quickly and skillfully is key. The trick here is that while in most Final Fantasy games you have to order commands one at a time for each character, taking turns. Not so in Chrono Trigger! The other unique twist is the idea of Duel- and Triple-Techs. Essentially combining magic moves, as characters level up and learn new abilities they also learn ways to combine these abilities with those of other characters. For example, while Chrono and Frog will both learn moves involving slashes, having both characters ready to go at the same time will allow a combined X-Slash for much more damage. Things really get crazy with Triple-Techs, where all three party members unleash devastating magics/skills at the same time. Pretty cool.

Arial robot strike!

Perhaps my only complaint regarding the battles are that they tend to be too easy. If you aren't a MP hog and know how to ration it out (and use items to decrease costs), you can easily breeze through this game with your powerful abilities. I only died once during my playthrough, and that was against an optional boss that I hadn't bothered leveling for (or even equipping the right party members). While for the JRPG newbie it might provide a little difficulty, any vet of the genre will easily breeze through Chrono Trigger.

Another complaint one might lobby is the fact that Chrono Trigger is incredibly linear the first playthrough. Now, I'm not saying you don't have freedom. Yes, you technically can warp around time and do some weird stuff, but in truth the game is designed to send you down a straight path all the way until you get the flying time machine ship...thing. Once you hit that point there's a limited selection of side quests you can do right before the final dungeon. It actually reminded me a lot of how Final Fantasy X is set up, with the game nudging you along the right path until you get to the end and saying "Oh, right...nonlinear. Here, have some sidequests."

I'd normally complain about this (especially because Final Fantasy XIII does it poorly and it drives me crazy), but I really...can't. This is because Chrono Trigger is such a tightly designed system around its linear(esque) pathway. Story beats hit at exactly the right moment, the pacing such that you feel rewarded at exactly the right intervals with a big plot reveal or event. It's immaculately timed from beginning to end, fusing it's solid (if easy) gameplay with story elements to keep things rewarding. I really can't hate on it at all, because as an experience it's solid. And if a game is linear but the experience solid, then it worked. Chrono Trigger works. 

And oh man...the soundtrack...

Graphically, Chrono Trigger is delightful. Akira Toriyama (the artist behind Dragon Ball Z and the Dragon Quest games) is at his best here, with wacky and charming character designs that are translated perfectly into their 16-bit sprites. The game has a warm color pallet, even in the darker areas, and everything blends together exceptionally well. And while it does use some Mode-7 trickery, it never looks corny or forced (even the "space-car race"). It's rare that sprites can have both a wide range of emotions and look unique and great doing it, but Chrono Trigger is a cut above the rest in that department. 

If I only have one complaint it's that Ayla's character design looks a little stupid, but she's a cavewoman so...I guess I'll survive. Besides, Frog's general awesomeness makes up for it.

More music!

The soundtrack is exceptional, to say the very least. Many consider it the best video game soundtrack ever; I personally put it just inches behind Final Fantasy VI, but that is hardly an insult. Every song on the soundtrack is memorable, which is something you can rarely say for any album, video game or otherwise. What I especially enjoy is the shift in tones between time periods. In the prehistoric period the music is more chaotic and drum reliant, while as you travel forward in time it fits the unique themes of where you are, all the way up to the funky kickin' rock beats of the future. I just...can't describe it any more. Go find a playlist on youtube and listen to them all. Seriously. It's incredible. 

Yes, more. Get over it. 

Chrono Trigger is a bonified masterpiece. There's just no question about it. Even today, where JRPGs are a dime a dozen, Chrono Trigger still stands out amongst the throng as the definitive JRPG experience. I replayed it on my original Super Nintendo cart a few months ago in preparation for a review, just to see if it really held up when compared to modern games. Guess what? It absolutely does. There's a reason they can keep re-releasing this game on the DS and PS3 and Wii Virtual Console and even the freaking iPhone without making any changes: Chrono Trigger is solid to this day. And not just solid, fantastic.

As I said before, if you haven't played Chrono Trigger and you are reading this blog...what is wrong with you? Clearly you love video games, how on earth did you miss this game?! Run (don't walk) to your local gaming store, or to your PS3 or Wii or iPhone or whatever the heck you own and get this game. Seriously. You will not regret it. 

I already gave a star score, but what the heck...here it is again: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS. 

I liked it so much I made this awesome perler bead creation for my wall. See more at my wife's blog. 

Bonus: The most badass scene in the game.

Klax

The Short


Pros
- Fun, unique arcade puzzle game involving stacking three-in-a-row blocks of the same color
- Lots of scenarios and switching objectives keep each level fresh
- Tight controls and two-player support make it very addicting

Cons
- Colors (especially on the NES version) can be difficult to tell apart
- The NES version is also hideous compared to other (Genesis, SNES) ports
- Game can get really hard really quickly
- Never got a modern re-release
- Music is pretty mediocre

Pokemon! Wait...

The Long

I love Klax. Unlike Loopz, where my nostalgia betrayed me, Klax is a solid action-puzzler that is arcade-fast and is still a load of fun to play. I originally played this at the same nickelcade that I burned so much time in Donkey Kong Jr. at, while this one I spent playing with my wife. The arcade unit for Klax had weird discoloration that made it almost impossible to play, but I still persevered because I liked the game so much. When I heard they ported the game to NES and Genesis, I had to give it a shot. After playing Klax on both systems, I'm ready to give an accessible (and a system comparison)

This is the arcade version of Klax. 

The overarching goal of Klax is simple: make three (or more) of the same color in a row. This can be done vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, with the latter two netting more points. Pieces of various colors always roll down from the top, and if you allow too many pieces to fall without catching them (five in the arcade, three on home consoles) you'll lose a life and have to restart the stage. 

The trick is, of course, that you can catch multiple tiles (up to four). You always have to flip off the last one you caught, meaning you can get overwhelmed if you don't plan ahead. You can also toss tiles back up the conveyor belt if things get too hectic on your catchy-thing, but they'll just roll back down in a few seconds so you have to act fast. 

Here's the Genesis version. Pretty faithful, yes?  The SNES version  is almost completely identical.

What makes Klax unique is it has stages with varying objectives. Some are simple point attack modes. Others require you to make a set number of diagonals. Other ask you to survive a certain number of tiles rolling out (basically a time trial), and so on. These varying objectives give a solid sense of progression, and also make it so the relatively simple concept doesn't get monotonous (again, look at Loopz for a bad example of this). 

Colors are added the further along you play, the game getting quite difficult after a while. However, the "learning curve" is near perfect if you start from the beginning, and the addicting quality of just "one more try" on a stage is extremely prevalent here. Because the concept is so simple, you just can't stop.

The addition of side-by-side multiplayer (where you just go through the same stages independently) is a nice touch, and since you aren't competing you both basically just go until your skill fails you and you run out of continues. 

And the NES version which...isn't quite as good looking. 

So, if you don't have this game in the arcade, which version should you grab? Personally, I've found the SNES and Genesis versions to be the most faithful home ports. They graphically look very similar, the colors are vibrant and the Klax are large and easy to identify. 

The NES port still works fine, but keep in mind the graphics are substantially downgraded. The Klax are also thicker for some reason (something with screen real estate) which doesn't seem like that big of a deal but kind of messes with my brain. It's still totally playable (and fun!) but if you have a Genesis or SNES, grab those versions instead. 

An issue across all three versions (except the arcade) is tile color confusion. It's by far the worst in the NES, with the small tiles and limited color pallet making it hard to discern them as they fall down the belt. The Genesis and SNES fare a bit better, but when you have the full array of colors dropping down it can be a bit difficult to discern similar shades. You'll get used to it after playing through it enough, but it can provide some initial frustrations.

Port this sucker to everything, guys!

It's a pity Klax has never seen a modern re-release, as the game remains one of my favorite puzzlers to date. With addicting yet simple gameplay, actual objectives (in a puzzle game! Gasp!) and a great aesthetic, sound, and music, Klax is certainly worth picking up if you own any retro home consoles. It plays even better with a friend, racing to beat objectives and high scores, and with most versions you can set the number of credits you have as well as run a sound-test mode (I love it when games include this) and everything.

It is no longer the nineties, but it is still time for Klax. Four out of five stars.

Just don't try and do that hand thing unless you have a double-jointed thumb. 

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

The Short


Pros
- Easy "entry-level role-playing adventure."
- Graphics are decent, with enemies having multiple stages before dying
- Large variety of weapons that differ in use in battle
- Music is pretty great
- Ability to jump and interact with objects in the world with different weapons is unique to the Final Fantasy world to this day

Cons
- Extremely easy
- Also extremely tedious
- Dungeons can drag on and on
- Some dungeon puzzles are obscure and frustrating
- Story is boring and stupid
- Only have two people in your party at once, and playing with the AI is awful

It ain't Final Fantasy without crystals

The Long

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest's history is relatively well documented, so I'll only need go over it in brief here. Similar to Mario 2 back in the NES days, Square got the idea that Americans were dumb and couldn't handle actual hard JRPGs (similar to them releasing the "Easytype" Final Fantasy II/IV in the US as the only version), so instead of giving us Final Fantasy V with it's job system that was clearly over our heads, they released an "entry-level rpg" in an attempt to both bait newcomers into the genre and...make a really easy RPG, I guess.

But in the case of Mario 2 we actually got the better of the two options (screw Japanese Mario 2/The Lost Levels), so what about Mystic Quest? I mean, it's Final Fantasy, right? Does it live up to expectations?

In some ways, yes. Mystic Quest actually pioneered some neat concepts that were never seen again in Square's beloved series (though they did show up in some other games), but as a whole the game sort of collapsed on its "entry-level" design philosophy.

Choppin' down all the trees. 

At its core, Mystic Quest is an extremely simple turn-based RPG. Gone is the Active Time Battle of Final Fantasy II, returning to the core idea that nobody does anything until commands are issued. It's a tried-and-true concept, one that plenty of modern games (Final Fantasy X, Breath of Death VII, Lost Odyssey) utilize. You also get a wide variety of weapons that you can easily cycle through on the fly, as well as a rather large arsenal of magic to nuke your enemies with. Mana is done in original Final Fantasy style, with a set number of spells per category per day rather than the MP system of later games.

The variety in the weapons is actually the strongest point of Mystic Quest, if only for one key reason: you can use them outside of battle, and with varying effects. Axes can be swung to chop down trees or other small objects. Bombs can clear rubble from pathways to find secrets. Claws can be used to scale rock wall faces to reach other inaccessible areas. Also, when walking around the world, you can jump. I know! Since when has any Final Fantasy game since then allowed jumping? This allowed for a few unique puzzles and secrets, and is a really cool idea to mix up the boring "just walk around everywhere" idea. 

Battles are simple but have a distinct art style. 

Another neat idea is the fact that you can switch your character's weapons on the fly (your companions, who switch out frequently, are locked to their main weapon), which in turn offers more strategy. Some enemies are weak to certain weapons, so matching that weakness up can do fat damage. All weapons are broken into categories, and when you buy a new one it replaces your weapon in that category with a better one. There's no armor to equip or summons to...summon, so the game keeps itself simple.

So far you're probably saying "Hey, this sounds pretty good! The mechanics aren't deep but they're certainly there, with weapon swapping and jumping and all that. I bet this game is awesome!"

Well, unknown person who talks to himself (or herself) while reading this review, I have some bad news for you. All these mechanics are for not, because you never, ever have to use them. Because Mystic Quest is so much of a cakewalk your feet would be covered in frosting after the first dungeon. Yeah, the extension of that expression didn't really work, but bear with me here.

"Fireberg? Is this where the ice temple is?"

Mystic Quest is easy to the point of tedious. Nearly every battle (including bosses) can be beaten by simply spamming whatever attack is convenient. Enemies, while visible on the world map, are plentiful and offer lots of XP and gold, but in truth it only serves to make the game more boring. On top of that, losing in battle has no penalty whatsoever: you can simply hit "retry" and continue button mashing until you win again. While I appreciate the option to restart battles should you fail (hey, Final Fantasy XIII did it) rather than hard-loading my save, paired with the fact that no strategy has to be employed whatsoever makes Mystic Quest almost pointless to "play."

It gets even worse for the "Arena" events. Rather than an actual world map, you walk between areas in a straight line (kind of like the world map in Mario World or Mario 3) and then go into your location. I'm fine with this; saves me time running around or trying to find a Chocobo or Airship or whatever. But anyway, between most cities and temples are "Arenas," where you fight 10 battles to clear out the monsters. Which you do by mashing A. Fun times. 

"Windia? I'm SURE the fire temple is here!"

This tedium only escalates in later dungeons/temples. While the first are reasonably straightforward, the later ones are massive to a fault, with multiple levels populated with tons of weak, boring battles and lame puzzles. The worst part is that enemies (and treasure boxes, so it isn't all bad) respawn everytime you step out of the dungeon, so if you need to restart or accidentally leave, guess what? All the boring battles are back! Not to mention several dungeons (like the awful fire one, and the ice/crystal one with multiple floors) can take an absurdly long time to burn through with little or no reward. And don't you love it when games have you get to the end, fight a boss, and then have to walk back out? No? Well, my non-easytype RPG player, clearly you don't understand simplified JRPGs!

Your party is capped out at two, and the game decides who is in your party when, which is based on the story. You can have your companion fight automatically (the default) if you want to watch him/her waste all your spells, or you can manually control them. This only makes an already easy game easier, and since your companion is locked to a certain weapon there isn't really any strategy for them at all aside from mashing whatever weapon they have. Boooooring. 

This game loves its pallet swapping. 

I think my main issue is that its just bad design. Dungeons could have been made to be interesting and fun: you have a wide array of items that interact with the world, and you can jump. But instead they took the laziest possible route: make them long and tedious, because "time spent = value." The battles could have been complex and required on-the-fly weapon swapping to defeat certain enemies. Sure, that wouldn't have been deep or even that great, but it would have added some tactics. Instead, they just made hordes of easy enemies and put tons of them everywhere to waste your time, because "time spent = value." It's obnoxious, especially since the first few dungeons are actually quite enjoyable, albeit short, so they could have made this work. But instead they just got lazy. There's even some cool touches, like how enemies have a second image for when they are below half-health to show battle progression (a really neat idea that I wish they'd brought back for future Final Fantasy games) and bosses have 3-4 of these, but it's all moot because the game behind it is dull.

The story is on par with Final Fantasy. As in, the NES original. You know, the one with next to no story. The crystals have been blown up or stolen or something, and you have to go kill monsters to restore the land. Every city you go to has been wallowing in misery waiting for somebody to come fix their massive problems, so you go fix their massive problems (with your new companion) and then move on to the next (picking up a different companion). You are the "Chosen Knight" or something, which is also typical JRPG fare, proving once and for all Mystic Quest is completely phoning this one in. 

The boss song is one of my favorite boss songs in the series. 

That being said, Square's reputation of crazy production values is still in place here, at least...sort of. Graphics are in a similar vein to Final Fantasy IV, though the game is far less rich and colorful. However, the muted pallet grew on me, everything fitting a charming theme that, while never really making me think I was part of some bigger world, was substantial and looked fine.

The music is excellent throughout, with a few tracks being standout. You'll grow sick of the battle song after the thousandth easy battle, but the boss music is great and each town's song variate off of a same theme, which I thought was a cool touch.

Ah, here's the Sand Temple! Or..."SandTempl."

All in all, Mystic Quest isn't a bad JRPG, it's just a boring one. While there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with the game (indeed, the first couple of hours are a blast) it just has no ambition. In an attempt to streamline the JRPG to bring in a wider audience, Square inadvertently broke it down to such a level it revealed all of the genre's flaws. Level grinding isn't fun if you aren't also working towards something else, like an obvious stats boost or a enough money for new gear. Dungeons and battles aren't fun if there's no strategy and progression feel laborious. And if you don't at least give a compelling reason (aka the story) to push through all the genre weaknesses to the end, people are going to put your game down. 

Which is exactly what happened with Mystic Quest, so much so that both me and my wife tried burning through this game before quitting and playing something else (granted, she got farther, but I switched to Final Fantasy II/IV and she to Final Fantasy III/VI pretty shortly after). 

In an age where we have JRPGs coming out of our ears, Mystic Quest is an interesting bit of history but hardly worth playing anymore. There are decades of superior offerings available, and to be honest I'd rather play the original Final Fantasy, with all its flaws, rather than Mystic Quest again. If you really want and entry level JRPG, Final Fantasy XIII's thirty hour tutorial I'm sure has you covered. 

While collectors should probably consider it (or those with nostalgia), newcomers need not bother. Two out of five stars. 

Plus you can kill the final boss by just casting "heal" on him over and over, making all that leveling totally useless. 

Sunset Riders

The Short


Pros


- Fast paced arcade shooting action across eight stages
- Colorful, comical graphics that carry over nicely into the SNES version
- Four players in arcade, two on the SNES make this a blast co-op
- SNES has a difficulty scale and up to 25 lives that makes it much more tolerable when you die
- Fun mix between on foot vs horseback stages

Cons
- Genesis version is garbage
- Having 25 lives is nice, but why not unlimited lives, SNES?
- Was supposed to come to Xbox's Game Room as the arcade version with four player support, but never showed up. Come on, re-release this game already!
- Some of the final bosses/stages can get pretty ridiculous with the number of bullets on the screen
- Bosses are borderline racist, but I guess it fits the western genre

Time for an arcade classic. 

The Long

Sunset Riders comes with a story. Way back when I was a Boy Scout, my brother and I would frequently go with our troop to a favorite campout by a hot springs. In the area leading into the hotsprings itself, they had a few arcade games (a trackball bowling game and a copy of Gradius III, if I remember correctly) but the standout was the bright and colorful, four-player Sunset Riders. Despite begging my father every time we went for quarters, I'm pretty sure we only played the game maybe four times over the multiple visits to this particular campout, and while other arcade machines came and went the Sunset Riders machine persevered.

Then we found out it had been ported to the SNES so all our troubles were over. So the point is that for this review I'll be writing as someone who played a ton of the SNES port, a decent amount of the arcade game, and as much of the Genesis version I could tolerate before quitting (read: the first stage).

I want these to be my final words, too.

Sunset Riders is an arcade shooter with a western theme. It's pretty basic: run from left to right while blasting everything in sight and not getting shot yourself. Your bullets are fast and explosive while all the enemies are stuck in the Matrix and shoot obscenely slow-moving projectiles. They'll also come at you with dynamite, burning lanterns, and other nasties later on, but for the most part you'll be gunning down hapless, woefully underequipped cowboys.

What sets this game apart is its colorful visuals, hilarious scenarios and bosses, and sense of style. For example, most levels have two planes of fighting (upper and lower), but whenever you jump to the higher balcony your guy doesn't just jump, he does this badass flip thing that sends his hair flying (if you are playing Bob, who is the best character because his horse is pink and has green hair). Your character always has a classy smirk on his face while he's making mad cash gunning down everybody, and the death animations are goofy and earn a smile. One downside of the SNES version is they got rid of a lot of these animations (flattening, burning, etc.) and replaced it with the enemy just falling over to the generic "Aaugh!" sound that you'll get sick of very quickly. But listen: there's a part where you run on the backs of cows during a stampede. And this is the first level. How awesome is that?!

The arcade version also had an awesome opening movie, that didn't make it to the SNES version

There are four characters, though really only two playstyles. You can play as either a cowboy with revolvers who shoots in a wider arch but with less projectiles, or a character with shotguns who shoots tons of bullets directly ahead but without the wide spread. There are two forms of powerups as well: double guns (which doubles the bullets) and a "gold badge," which basically just acts as if you had a turbo button on your controller. Death makes you lose these powerups, which sucks, but on the on-foot levels they are plentiful so long as you share with your co-op buddy.

Speaking of co-op, that's where this game shines. The arcade version had up to four players at once, which is absolutely awesome, while the SNES only supported two. That being said, while the game is loads of arcade-blasting fun single player, it's in multiplayer that it really shines. While you do have to share the powerups, the game is considerably easier with two players if only because there are so many projectiles being fired, and working together to take out the bosses and their henchmen is easier and funner with a friend. It also has the benefit of the SNES version of letting you continue exactly where you left off, where if you lose all your lives in single player and continue you have to start the whole stage over, which sucks.

This game's presentation of Native American's isn't exactly PC, but whatever...

The great part about the SNES game is that it's an almost exact port from the arcade, with a few exceptions. Aside from only supporting two instead of four players, the graphics are a little more pixelated but still look fine (except the dynamite explosions, which look absolutely horrible with massive pixels on the SNES). All the stages are ported over exactly the same and with all the bosses from the arcades, and the addition of a difficulty scale is appreciated.

One really annoying change, however, is the removal of the "questionable" content. Often in the game you can go into bars and taverns to get powerups, resulting in a fun scene. My favorite is the first bar, where your cowboy takes a long drink of whiskey and then breaks the bottle over his head (or hat). In the SNES version this was apparently bad, so your guy just runs in, and then runs out pumping his arms in the air. Ok?

The other thing they changed was the women. In other taverns you'd go in then pop out with a bar wench (as is standard for Westerns) wrapped around you. She'd give you a kiss and a powerup and off you'd go. Apparently this was too "edgy" for the SNES, so they replaced the "immodestly" dressed barmaids with what could only be described as good puritan women, who show less skin than a nun. That's not how westerns work!

The last addition is the grenade-throwers in the arcade were women (the only women enemies in the game) but they have been replaced by red-headed guys (racism!). I guess shooting the women is out, too.

But saving them is ok. 

I'll give a brief blurb for the Genesis game: rather than actually port the arcade version, the Genesis game was essentially remade for the system. It only has two of the four cowboys, the stages are completely different (the first one doesn't even have a boss), the music sounds way worse, it has half the number of stages, and looks...pretty awful. I know a lot of people prefer it because it was the one they played growing up, but I can't fathom how you'd look back now after playing both versions and not see how incredibly inferior it was. However, I suppose I have to admit that they probably shouldn't be compared too heavily since the Genesis version is so completely different from the Arcade and SNES versions, but I didn't enjoy the time I spent with it so I'd suggest skipping that version.

But it did keep the hookers. Genesis does what Nintendon't. 

Sunset Riders (Arcade and SNES versions) is awesome. It's one of my favorite arcade games, and the excellent SNES port makes it easy to play it at home. There is only one big issue: this game has never been re-released past that. Despite being promised in Xbox's now-defunct "Game Room" program, it never saw the light of day. So currently the only way to play the original Sunset Riders is either finding it in an arcade somewhere or grabbing the SNES cart. It's a relatively rare SNES game, so it'll run you around $40-55 over eBay (I was lucky enough to find a cart at a local game store for only $30) but I'd say it's worth the cost. If you have a friend who loves arcade shooters and want to have a great time blasting cowboys and running atop a stampede, you could do a lot worse than Sunset Riders.

Four out of five stars. (SNES version. Genesis version would get two out of five stars)

RUN, YOU FOOL, RUN!