Like Goof Troop (reviewed earlier and link at the bottom), The Lion King was another Disney video game. This was mainly made through Virgin Entertainment. Yes, that company that Richard Branson owns was part of the video game craze known as the 1990's. The Lion King was a highly successful movie that has gone through sequels and now the live-action version movie that is probably going to garner like 482 quadrillion dollars in the opening week. The Lion King game was also highly successful, having sold across all platforms about 4.5 million copies (Sega, SNES, Windows, etc.) The Lion King the movie was also highly acclaimed. The video game, at least the SNES version that I can review, is one that gets quite a lot of acclaim as well. How do I rank it? Let's see below.
Positives:
1. Graphics: The graphics to this game are very well done. The Virgin people and staff did a very good job with Disney and Westwood to make a very well done graphical game. You can't put any one of the ten levels in a bad setting and it is terrifically well done.
2. The ability to grab lives: There is a massive reason I say that. See below.
3. Simba's progression: No, it's not like the movie. But the cool part of the game is seeing Simba go from cub to lion to overcoming his past like the movie is really cool. They did well to incorporate parts of the movie to make it a good feature for the game.
4. Music: Yep, you knew this would be on here. Literally, YouTube the music. It is fantastic for this game. (Yes it helps when Disney literally was part of this and gave the game the music from the movie, but just roll with it.)
5. The Ending: Personally, I get a great sense of pride at the end of the movie. If you know the ending of the movie, in a lot of the same the way Simba does the ending of the movie is the ending to the game. Connect the dots to it yourself, but the level is exceptional and worthy of a high ranking with how you win the game overall.
Personally, before I go to the negatives (oh yes, there are those too) my favorite level of this game had to be Can't Wait to be King. The music is terrific. Once you figure out what you are doing for that in terms of jumping, you'll be fine. Plus it is one of the best levels to gain lives for later on.
Negatives:
1. Difficulty: Alright, it sounds like I am complaining here. And yes, I am aware of that. BUT FOR GOD SAKE THIS GAME'S DIFFICULTY IS STUPID. I get why The 7th Saga was hard as heck, but for gosh sake how on Earth was The Lion King this freaking difficult? Everyone might say "David, your skill at these are lackluster" and I would say "Okay absolutely fair" but GOOD LORD THIS GAME. You will die repeatedly, again, and again, and again. A lot of gamers rate this in the top 10 of hardest games, and I tend to agree.
2. Too finite on controls: Yes I understand being perfect on controls. No I do not understand on how bats can hurt Simba when I hit them already previously. I also don't know how Simba can't grab onto an animal's tail when he is directly over it. I also don't know how he can hit panthers despite not reaching them. Anyway, you have to be way too perfect with the sprite lineup to do some things. That would be a personal negative to me.
Overall rating and rank:
First, yes at times you will notice a game I rate like a 8.2 or 7.4 or whatever may be lower than a 8.0 or something. One reason for that: Genres. EX: Tecmo Super Bowl III may be rated an 8.2 (which I think I put) will be far lower than a platformer or RPG likely rated a 7.7 because of the genre aspect. Plus unless you are 3 NHL games and one MLB game, you likely weren't worth a high top 100 merit in the world of the SNES. ANYWAY, to my rating of The Lion King. To me, I would actually rate it an 8.3. The music, graphics, the progression, and most levels all warrant high mention. The perfection of the controls though listed above and the ungodly and unreasonable difficulty is just something that knocks it down for a supposed kid's game (Your kid will break controllers.)
For the ranking, The Lion King's difficulty will make a lot of people despise this game. This is a game though that overcomes that. It also makes it a top 50 game with everything else incorporated. To me, it's the back end of the top 50 of SNES games with it being ranked 48th.
https://davidswideworldofblogging.blogspot.com/2019/04/snes-game-review-goof-troop.html
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
SNES Game Review: The 7th Saga
Ah yes, the year is 1993. I was going on all of four-years-old, the Packers were relevant again and the Badgers were.. somehow going to a Rose Bowl. Yes all that was going on as The 7th Saga was released for the Super Nintendo. Much like the Packers road back to relevance and the Badgers surprising literally everyone to the Rose Bowl, this game is... well difficult isn't a good enough word. To say this game is difficult is putting it very, very loosely. How does it rank though? Well let's unveil that as we go through everything below.
Positives:
1. Non-Linear Plot: Typically this is a negative because the developers don't know what they are doing with the plot. However, there are some games that bust this method. For instance, Super Metroid, Super Mario RPG, and Chrono Trigger (to some extent) all do well with this. The 7th Saga also does well with a non-linear plot. The game is about exploration and finding seven runes, but you don't really know until very late into the game why you need the runes and what the purpose of them are.
2. Different characters: You have the choice of seven characters as well, with all different skill sets, weaponry and armor and magic ability. You can only team up with one character later on in the game and you have the ability to switch party members through different sequences of the game. It's pretty neat how you can use these characters to your own ability to get the most you can out of your own starting character.
3. Music: Yep, this game rocked at music. Noted is that Squaresoft didn't make this game. That would belong to Enix. Yes, the same company that early in the 2000's merged with Squaresoft produced games as well as a separate entity. They did very well with the recording of music and deserve a lot of praise.
4. Graphics: Enix also gets credit for the graphics which pushed the SNES a lot but they did very well with the graphics and the different abilities of them in the world, dungeons and in battle. This does well overall for a game that is this challenging.
Negatives:
1. Difficulty: I hate getting on the difficulty too much but holy cow is this game a grindfest. You will want to spend multiple times in the day going on a break from this game. Note: You will die, and die, and yes die again in this game. It is what it is, as the game is really, really difficult. If you find yourself grinding like crazy and getting fed up with this, that's the norm for this game. You just have to have the perseverance to overcome it.
2. That ending. Really?: Yep, that's correct. The ending.. le ouch. It's not that the ending boss is difficult, once you know what you are doing, it's literally the ending itself. It gives you a feeling of you did everything.. for that?
3. What was Enix's purpose for this game?: This one I found myself asking a lot. What was the actual purpose for this game? Was it to provide the public with a cult following, which it did? Was it to provide gamers with a challenge, which it also did? Was it to provide the necessary tools to completely tick off gamers who died more than four times, which obviously it did? I can see why the following to this day. The difficulty as well, as well as the challenge but I wonder what the opening cause of the game and why the purpose for the game existed.
Rating and ranking: IN conclusion, I feel that The 7th Saga is a quite well made game, but has a lot of flaws. Notably the difficulty is a flaw, but also, the random battles are a flaw as well in terms of amount generated. This game is an absolute grindfest and if you want a difficult battle to play, this is your game. It takes a LONG time to complete this game. But if you have enough patience, you will win and and will do well. My rating is 7.5 out of 10 for this game. My ranking all-time is conflicting. There were times I thought this could be a top 100 game. There are times I would only put it in the Top 200. Overall, I would rank it like 105th. I'll drop in a good YouTube sensation, SNESDrunk, who did a couple of videos on this game, and how it deserves a second chance. I think that's why I put it so near the top 100. You will need to grind this game out but it is a good overall game. But if you give up right away, I would give the game a second chance, grind some levels, and you'll be more successful.
Positives:
1. Non-Linear Plot: Typically this is a negative because the developers don't know what they are doing with the plot. However, there are some games that bust this method. For instance, Super Metroid, Super Mario RPG, and Chrono Trigger (to some extent) all do well with this. The 7th Saga also does well with a non-linear plot. The game is about exploration and finding seven runes, but you don't really know until very late into the game why you need the runes and what the purpose of them are.
2. Different characters: You have the choice of seven characters as well, with all different skill sets, weaponry and armor and magic ability. You can only team up with one character later on in the game and you have the ability to switch party members through different sequences of the game. It's pretty neat how you can use these characters to your own ability to get the most you can out of your own starting character.
3. Music: Yep, this game rocked at music. Noted is that Squaresoft didn't make this game. That would belong to Enix. Yes, the same company that early in the 2000's merged with Squaresoft produced games as well as a separate entity. They did very well with the recording of music and deserve a lot of praise.
4. Graphics: Enix also gets credit for the graphics which pushed the SNES a lot but they did very well with the graphics and the different abilities of them in the world, dungeons and in battle. This does well overall for a game that is this challenging.
Negatives:
1. Difficulty: I hate getting on the difficulty too much but holy cow is this game a grindfest. You will want to spend multiple times in the day going on a break from this game. Note: You will die, and die, and yes die again in this game. It is what it is, as the game is really, really difficult. If you find yourself grinding like crazy and getting fed up with this, that's the norm for this game. You just have to have the perseverance to overcome it.
2. That ending. Really?: Yep, that's correct. The ending.. le ouch. It's not that the ending boss is difficult, once you know what you are doing, it's literally the ending itself. It gives you a feeling of you did everything.. for that?
3. What was Enix's purpose for this game?: This one I found myself asking a lot. What was the actual purpose for this game? Was it to provide the public with a cult following, which it did? Was it to provide gamers with a challenge, which it also did? Was it to provide the necessary tools to completely tick off gamers who died more than four times, which obviously it did? I can see why the following to this day. The difficulty as well, as well as the challenge but I wonder what the opening cause of the game and why the purpose for the game existed.
Rating and ranking: IN conclusion, I feel that The 7th Saga is a quite well made game, but has a lot of flaws. Notably the difficulty is a flaw, but also, the random battles are a flaw as well in terms of amount generated. This game is an absolute grindfest and if you want a difficult battle to play, this is your game. It takes a LONG time to complete this game. But if you have enough patience, you will win and and will do well. My rating is 7.5 out of 10 for this game. My ranking all-time is conflicting. There were times I thought this could be a top 100 game. There are times I would only put it in the Top 200. Overall, I would rank it like 105th. I'll drop in a good YouTube sensation, SNESDrunk, who did a couple of videos on this game, and how it deserves a second chance. I think that's why I put it so near the top 100. You will need to grind this game out but it is a good overall game. But if you give up right away, I would give the game a second chance, grind some levels, and you'll be more successful.
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