Super Metroid. A game that comes from Metroid on the NES. A classic on the NES, Metroid was set up to the massive classic that Super Metroid would then become on the SNES and pave the way for the fanatical following of it afterward. Super Metroid is also, after going through Google, Wikipedia and YouTube, a speed runner's dream. It's also got accolades. Electronic Gaming Monthly in 2004 called it the Greatest Game ever made at the time, a feature that would possibly hold today if not in the top 5 or 10. To me, it's the most fun game I have ever played. It boasts a great challenge without being too grind heavy. It allows for a break in the story as the story isn't linear and you don't have to do one thing to do another to do that other thing, hence why the speed runners are so good at this. So what does this game do well? And why was it known for being the greatest ever made? Let's look below.
Positives:
1. The power-ups: They do not just pop up all the time right away. They progress over time. This makes this RPG so much fun. You have to have some strategy, even when speed running, to go through this game. The bosses are very much a challenge so you have to accord your power ups as you can.
2. The graphics: Needless to say, the graphics are badass. They hold up today and they were done amazingly throughout. There is no level that makes you think, "Well, these were done terribly." Nintendo was simply fantastic during the graphics phase of the game.
3. The non-linear story: There are a few games that a non-linear plot works fantastically. Among those: Final Fantasy VII, The 7th Saga, and this game, Super Metroid. You know the road probably leads to Mother Brain (oh come on, you know this isn't too much of a spoiler.) However, what you don't know is the road to get there. You have to do a bunch of things to get there. When you are finally there, there is a couple of stunning things that make you think it wasn't her that you truly face. So the winding story is something that is awesome.
4. Various things to do: From wall jumping, to bomb jumping, sprint jumping, this game has everything. You also have to do a lot of these things to be successful at the game in order to get the power ups. The most important of the things you have to learn is shine spriting. Essentially is when you get the speed booster to help it then you stop and launch up to a different floor or to a power up or different things. The other may be the screw attack as it becomes super easy then to beat enemies.
5. The music: Simply put, the music is absolutely incredible. Every part of the game has absolutely brilliant music to it. You cannot go wrong at Crateria, the Sunken Ship or anywhere else.
6. It's a challenge: You'll likely die if you haven't played in a long time. I did on more than one occasion. That doesn't make this game bad by any stretch. If you know the SNES, there are a LOT of challenging games out there. This is one of them. Super Metroid will challenge you in so many ways and you will be a better RPG player for it. Every step is a challenge in this game but you are better for that challenge afterward.
7. The Battle System: It's a continuous flow for Super Metroid, unlike Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger, which makes it why I said the most fun I have had playing a game. You have to think all the time, instead of what you are going to do on a turn. The battle system is incredible and makes for a very awesome game.
8. Different Endings: This all preludes what you do for a time. There are three different endings assorted by if you finish the game under a certain amount of time and if you complete 100 percent of the game (including a different rescue at the end.) It's another added plus.
Negatives:
Literally, nothing. The graphics for the time were fantastic, as well as the music, the battle system and much more. This game was perfect for Nintendo.
Grade, where does it rank all-time?
The grade is easy. It's 10/10 and easily the best game Nintendo made for the SNES. As far as all-time rank, to me it is #3. Note this: My top 4 games all time are all rated 10/10 and it is very hard to say and is interchangeable. I happen to own and am in the process of completing what I think is the second best game on the SNES. If noted by #1, which was Chrono Trigger, you could take a guess at #2. However, Super Metroid is very deserving of all the accolades that it has gotten over the years. It is the most fun I had with an SNES game.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Sunday, March 10, 2019
SNES Game Review: NCAA Football
If there is one thing to know about me, I like sports video games on most consoles. That includes the Super Nintendo, even though most of them (not including Tecmo) are massively below average. NCAA Football is a game that the producers from Mindscape that I try to believe wanted to at least be as decent as Bill Walsh College Football for the SNES. However.. as you'll read.. it doesn't really come close. There are some positives, so let's dive into those first.
Positives:
1. Field graphics: These are quite done well in my opinion. They aren't choppy, they aren't plastered on there at all and they look pretty decent for an SNES game made by a company most haven't heard of today. So this is a pretty solid starting point.
2. Offense/defense mix: The offenses aren't too overpowering (see Tecmo) and defenses aren't world-beaters (See Madden on SNES) so they both have a good flow to them on both sides of the ball. This was a good point for me while playing it.
3. Team uniforms: I believe for the most part, Mindscape got those right. Wisconsin's colors were good, same with Stanford, Syracuse, and so on. Not an overtly great positive, but one that'll work when you at least are knowledgeable about the sport of football.
4. NCAA license: Not sure how the NCAA licensed this game but not Bill Walsh. Sort of mystified, but at least they got colleges instead of random city names.
Negatives:
1. No regular season: Yep, like I said it doesn't get much better than the four listed above. The way to beat this game is go through a 16 team tournament and you are good. No regular season like actual college football You can do just one of the decades because otherwise it's just repeating itself through decades.
2. Slow pace: The time is slow, the players are slow and the running/passing are slow. In all, this is just a slow game. I'll emphasize that it isn't blocky. It's just slow. While most games are only around 30 minutes, you also burn a lot of time in the playbook, which leads me to..
3. Playbook clunk: This is very clunky. And also slow as well, because it takes forever to get to the play you want and you risk a delay of game penalty a lot of the time. If Mindscape and refined this, it would have been a lot better. However, it's very difficult to navigate within a 25 second frame for a play.
4. Passing game: This is a major downfall. It's difficult to complete passes. It is something in the mechanics of the game that make it a rough thing to come up with as an answer because it would be a more polished game with a better passing game. A real shame considering the passing game is so brutal and it is hard to complete passes. A product of that is...
5. Controls: Yep, the first time I will complain about the controls of a game. These were just so nonsensical it is hilarious. The controls to kick are so wonky, same with toggling for a receiver and passing. For rushing and defense it is easy to do. But otherwise, it's a mess of the controls all around.
6. Map on the field: Now you can toggle the map off, but it brings up a point. Why is there a map anyway when you can turn it off? It doesn't make much sense to me at all.
Analysis:
There weren't many college games made for the SNES, but Bill Walsh is better by far than this game. There were a couple more games made but I haven't played them at all. NCAA Football had some good moments to it, but there were far too many negatives for it to be considered even an average game at best.
Grade, Where does it rank all-time?
The grade is somewhere around a 4 out of 10. Mindscape did the fundamentals of offense/defense right. They also had the NCAA license to build themselves upon, but they fell well short. If they cleaned up the game's clunky features, slow gameplay and made it close to a Tecmo-esque game, they would have been so much better than Bill Walsh's College Football. However, they had a game that was far too slow, too clunky, and too uncontrollable. For a rank, I have to put it around 540th, or there about. It's not the worst of the worst, and it's far from the worst sports game. However it's not a good game either and doesn't deserve to be in the top half.
Positives:
1. Field graphics: These are quite done well in my opinion. They aren't choppy, they aren't plastered on there at all and they look pretty decent for an SNES game made by a company most haven't heard of today. So this is a pretty solid starting point.
2. Offense/defense mix: The offenses aren't too overpowering (see Tecmo) and defenses aren't world-beaters (See Madden on SNES) so they both have a good flow to them on both sides of the ball. This was a good point for me while playing it.
3. Team uniforms: I believe for the most part, Mindscape got those right. Wisconsin's colors were good, same with Stanford, Syracuse, and so on. Not an overtly great positive, but one that'll work when you at least are knowledgeable about the sport of football.
4. NCAA license: Not sure how the NCAA licensed this game but not Bill Walsh. Sort of mystified, but at least they got colleges instead of random city names.
Negatives:
1. No regular season: Yep, like I said it doesn't get much better than the four listed above. The way to beat this game is go through a 16 team tournament and you are good. No regular season like actual college football You can do just one of the decades because otherwise it's just repeating itself through decades.
2. Slow pace: The time is slow, the players are slow and the running/passing are slow. In all, this is just a slow game. I'll emphasize that it isn't blocky. It's just slow. While most games are only around 30 minutes, you also burn a lot of time in the playbook, which leads me to..
3. Playbook clunk: This is very clunky. And also slow as well, because it takes forever to get to the play you want and you risk a delay of game penalty a lot of the time. If Mindscape and refined this, it would have been a lot better. However, it's very difficult to navigate within a 25 second frame for a play.
4. Passing game: This is a major downfall. It's difficult to complete passes. It is something in the mechanics of the game that make it a rough thing to come up with as an answer because it would be a more polished game with a better passing game. A real shame considering the passing game is so brutal and it is hard to complete passes. A product of that is...
5. Controls: Yep, the first time I will complain about the controls of a game. These were just so nonsensical it is hilarious. The controls to kick are so wonky, same with toggling for a receiver and passing. For rushing and defense it is easy to do. But otherwise, it's a mess of the controls all around.
6. Map on the field: Now you can toggle the map off, but it brings up a point. Why is there a map anyway when you can turn it off? It doesn't make much sense to me at all.
Analysis:
There weren't many college games made for the SNES, but Bill Walsh is better by far than this game. There were a couple more games made but I haven't played them at all. NCAA Football had some good moments to it, but there were far too many negatives for it to be considered even an average game at best.
Grade, Where does it rank all-time?
The grade is somewhere around a 4 out of 10. Mindscape did the fundamentals of offense/defense right. They also had the NCAA license to build themselves upon, but they fell well short. If they cleaned up the game's clunky features, slow gameplay and made it close to a Tecmo-esque game, they would have been so much better than Bill Walsh's College Football. However, they had a game that was far too slow, too clunky, and too uncontrollable. For a rank, I have to put it around 540th, or there about. It's not the worst of the worst, and it's far from the worst sports game. However it's not a good game either and doesn't deserve to be in the top half.
SNES Game Review: Wheel Of Fortune: Deluxe Edition
A lot of game shows were in the Super Nintendo at the height of television shows. Most notably of those are Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. For the latter, they made two versions. A regular edition, and a deluxe edition. Essentially there isn't much difference, but the main things to the deluxe edition is six rounds and a ton of different puzzles. While the puzzle substance is there, how does this game add up to anything else?
Positives:
1. It's a very quick game: You'll be done with this game in less than an hour. Literally even though it took me three tries, I was done in less than an hour's time and it went straight to this review. I think that can be a good thing if you want it to be. If you want to keep playing, then keep on playing!
2. Depth of puzzles: There are over 4,000 puzzles to this thing. So you likely wouldn't go through the same ones time after time. Gametek, the producers of this game, knew it would be a quick game so they want to keep the gamer going with puzzles upon puzzles if they wanted. So you can't complain about variety at all.
3. Kind of like Wheel of Fortune: It's kind of realistic like Wheel of Fortune because you have to pick and guess and solve. The prizes are also involved at the end like the show as well. It's the best they could do to simulate it, so they deserve the award for trying at least.
4. Multi-player: This is a sticking point with me as you can game with more than just two computers. You got the capacity to play multi-player and have fun with a friend, relative or significant other. For a lot of gamers, this could be a good thing.
Negatives:
1. AI Difficulty: It's really not there, unless you forget the letters you have (admittedly guilty of this.) So it's not as realistic in that sense like the real show because the AI just are not very bright.
2. Lack of player choices: Only six characters in the screen to choose from. It would have been really cool if they went in-depth with this with multiple characters to choose from.
Neutral:
1. Graphics- They aren't bad, but aren't great. They are alright for the time frame and the ability to be a quick game.
2. No Pat Sajak, but Vanna White is featured: For those watchers of the show, Pat is not featured in the game, but Vanna is. Given there isn't much for substance of the characters themselves, it's more a neutral than a negative that only one of two main show people were featured.
Analysis:
Wheel of Fortune: Deluxe Edition is a game that if GameTek put more into this, could have been a game on PS1 or N64 that would be really fun. I know it is out for the latest Gen Nintendo console, so they brought it back. For the SNES though, it's limited in sphere of how they can do it. It's got a multi-player feature which is huge for the game and definitely benefits it. For the intelligence of AI lacking though, it drops it down a peg. To me, it's good that it is a quick game, because that's how it was made and why it was made for. The fact that it is a quick game is what makes it alright. It's not great, not bad either. It's an above average game that if you want to spend half an hour on, go for it.
Grading, where does it rank all-time of SNES games?
For a grade, I'd say 6.3 out of 10. Like I said it's not a bad, nor great game. It's a game that is there and collected money for the title. It has a multitude of puzzles if you want to keep going with the game after beating it. For an all-time rank, I'd say around 340th. It's being above average puts it above the median line only just. Not a bad game if you are looking for a little bit of a break from the world.
Positives:
1. It's a very quick game: You'll be done with this game in less than an hour. Literally even though it took me three tries, I was done in less than an hour's time and it went straight to this review. I think that can be a good thing if you want it to be. If you want to keep playing, then keep on playing!
2. Depth of puzzles: There are over 4,000 puzzles to this thing. So you likely wouldn't go through the same ones time after time. Gametek, the producers of this game, knew it would be a quick game so they want to keep the gamer going with puzzles upon puzzles if they wanted. So you can't complain about variety at all.
3. Kind of like Wheel of Fortune: It's kind of realistic like Wheel of Fortune because you have to pick and guess and solve. The prizes are also involved at the end like the show as well. It's the best they could do to simulate it, so they deserve the award for trying at least.
4. Multi-player: This is a sticking point with me as you can game with more than just two computers. You got the capacity to play multi-player and have fun with a friend, relative or significant other. For a lot of gamers, this could be a good thing.
Negatives:
1. AI Difficulty: It's really not there, unless you forget the letters you have (admittedly guilty of this.) So it's not as realistic in that sense like the real show because the AI just are not very bright.
2. Lack of player choices: Only six characters in the screen to choose from. It would have been really cool if they went in-depth with this with multiple characters to choose from.
Neutral:
1. Graphics- They aren't bad, but aren't great. They are alright for the time frame and the ability to be a quick game.
2. No Pat Sajak, but Vanna White is featured: For those watchers of the show, Pat is not featured in the game, but Vanna is. Given there isn't much for substance of the characters themselves, it's more a neutral than a negative that only one of two main show people were featured.
Analysis:
Wheel of Fortune: Deluxe Edition is a game that if GameTek put more into this, could have been a game on PS1 or N64 that would be really fun. I know it is out for the latest Gen Nintendo console, so they brought it back. For the SNES though, it's limited in sphere of how they can do it. It's got a multi-player feature which is huge for the game and definitely benefits it. For the intelligence of AI lacking though, it drops it down a peg. To me, it's good that it is a quick game, because that's how it was made and why it was made for. The fact that it is a quick game is what makes it alright. It's not great, not bad either. It's an above average game that if you want to spend half an hour on, go for it.
Grading, where does it rank all-time of SNES games?
For a grade, I'd say 6.3 out of 10. Like I said it's not a bad, nor great game. It's a game that is there and collected money for the title. It has a multitude of puzzles if you want to keep going with the game after beating it. For an all-time rank, I'd say around 340th. It's being above average puts it above the median line only just. Not a bad game if you are looking for a little bit of a break from the world.
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