What I'm Playing (Volume 16): DuckTales

One of my favorite things about the NES is the huge chunks of new ground that it covered. There was so much experimentation going on during that time, and it was simply a fun time to be a gamer. Sure, that experimentation led to probably a higher percentage of stinkers than your current consoles, but also a lot more shining gems of originality and risk-taking.

I also really love NES/SNES era Capcom, and DuckTales is a great example of risk taking and breaking new ground.

A 2D platformer, DuckTales is based on the hit Disney TV show. You control Scrooge McDuck, and your goal is to beat every level and amass as much treasure as possible, in keeping with Scrooge's character. Along the way, you get help from several of the DuckTales supporting characters, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Launchpad, Mrs. Beakley and Gizmoduck. DuckTales is just one of several excellent Capcom NES games based on Disney properties, including Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, and The Little Mermaid (don't knock it 'til you've tried it).

DuckTales is made by the same development team that worked on the Mega Man series, and at first glance, the similarities are obvious. The game begins with you choosing your level, rather than being thrust into it. The graphical style is similar as is the quality of the sound and music, which is some of the finest on the NES. The Moon theme in particular is among my favorite chiptune songs of all time. The game has a bright color palette that makes it remarkably beautiful and enjoyable.

Yet the mechanics of DuckTales are quite different from a Mega Man game, as is its basic approach to the experience of playing the game. While Mega Man has a gun which he shoots, and can get new weapons along the way to pass increasingly challenging obstacles, Scrooge begins and ends the game armed only with his cane. While you can use the cane like a golf club to harm enemies, you quickly discover that the best way to kill enemies is by bouncing on them with your cane, which enables you to damage enemies far more safely, but also to bounce higher and reach different secrets riddled throughout the levels. The only true upgrade I could find is a health upgrade, although their may be more.

While mastering a Mega Man game is based primarily on navigating left to right, bypassing enemies and completing tricky platforming in a high-stakes and high stress experience, DuckTales is instead a relaxing and enjoyable jaunt through beautiful environments, searching for treasure to become the richest duck on earth. Each level is packed full of secrets, and finding these is the key to increasing the amount of treasure you receive, giving you a benchmark for how you're performing. The levels are huge, and while I spent quite a bit of time exploring, I have to say that there's no way I found everything, or even a majority of the secrets contained with the game. This process of exploration gives the game a great level of replay value as you attempt to more thorough plumb the depths of the superbly crafted levels within.

This isn't necessarily to say that DuckTales is easy, although compared to other comparable NES games of the era, which were notoriously hard in the awkward transition from quarter munching mechanics in the arcades to enduring home experiences, it certainly is. But the game has a nice level of challenge to it that enhances your exploration experience, rather than detracts from it. You can always take the easy path through the levels, but finding the hidden treasures and becoming richer requires that you undertake more challenging platforming, at great personal risk.

The controls are fluid and responsive, and controlling Scrooge as he bounces across the Amazon, a vampire's castle, a snowy mountain, the moon, and a mine is very enjoyable.

The game isn't without its drawbacks, though. There are times in which the bouncing mechanics can seem very buggy due to poor hitboxes. There were times in which I was certain I had landed directly on an enemy, yet ended up getting damaged anyway. Also, if you bounce on the very end of a spike, you simply stop bouncing and sit there, not taking any damage, but not bouncing for some reason.

The end boss was fairly disappointing, mostly due to the fact that rather than having his own level, you are thrust back into an older level that you've already explored. What's more, there isn't even anything new about the level. You simply traverse it to the area where the boss was last time, and then fight the new boss. This was a letdown at the end of an excellent experience.

All in all, however, DuckTales is a classic game from an excellent era for a classic developer, and changes up the formula enough from its progenitors to produce a unique and enduring experience. I'd recommend it to any fan of platforming games. I'll give it a 9.4/10.

My next home console game will be another classic NES game. Can you guess which one?

-TRO

What I'm Playing (Volume 15): EarthBound

If EarthBound is one of the greatest cult hits in gaming history, you can consider me one of the earlier cultists. While I admittedly never owned a cart until very recently, thanks to my incredible wife who bought me the shining star of my collection, I had played EarthBound at my friends' house, and absolutely loved it.

I always looked up to these two girls, and they had excellent taste in games. When I had an NES, they had a Sega Genesis, and I loved playing Sonic, Sonic 2, and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine at their house. I later upgraded to the SNES, and they would always play Link to the Past at my house. My friend across the street then got a Genesis, and I mistakenly assumed that the Genesis was the better console, got rid of my SNES, and got a Genesis, which is still my biggest gaming regret.

Later on, after those two girls moved away, we visited them, and I found out that they had a SNES, and informed me that I had been a fool to get rid of my SNES for a Genesis. As proof, they had me play EarthBound for an hour or so.

I was captivated.

I loved naming my characters (I don't remember what I named Ness, Paula, and Jeff the first time, but I do remember naming Poo Goku), picking my favorite food, and my favorite thing (DBZ). I loved the crisp, colorful, retro look of the game. I loved the humor of the game. I loved how the game took place in the real world. I loved that it anachronistically reminded me of Pokemon. It was my first non-Pokemon RPG.

When I came back home, I told all of my friends about it. I told them that it was just like Pokemon, but with real people.

Once I figured out how to use emulators, and had finished Pokemon Gold, EarthBound was one of the first games I played. I never beat it on the emulator until later in life, but I loved starting the game over and experiencing the beginning of the game again, and playing until I got stuck.

I later beat it on an emulator, as the cart was WAY too expensive. I cheated, though, and used save states and other emulation trickery extensively to get the Sword of Kings, restart boss battles, etc. It never felt right.

So I decided to do it the right way, and beat it on my very expensive cart, and finally finished up this weekend.

And my love for the game hasn't waned one bit. The graphics are still delightful and have aged very well. The game has a sharp sense of humor, and delights in turning the standards of RPGs on their heads, exposing their silliness, yet delighting in the core mechanisms underlying the JRPG. I love the diverse and silly set of enemies with whom you can fight, and the absurd situations in which you find yourself. Just when you think the game can't get any weirder, it gets truly poignant and beautiful. And then it swerves back to weirdness.

The music is really excellent, as are all of the sounds in the game. The music strikes a diverse note, drawing from a wide range of musical influences including rock and roll, psychedelic, classical, and jazz. It is at times intentionally bad, including the brilliantly horrible theme inside of the dungeon man, which a sign inside pronounces as "his greatest achievement".

The core combat mechanics are mostly unremarkable, yet solid and fun. The addition of a rolling counter for HP introduces a kind of desperation into your strategy that a purely turn-based RPG shouldn't have, which gives the combat an addicting edge to it as you desperately try to heal that character who has just taken a mortal wound, or finish off the enemy before their life runs out.

The end boss and ending are among my favorite endings of all time. I will spoil nothing of this beloved gem, but it's a must-see type of ending.

As much as I hate to say it, EarthBound isn't perfect. But I think that's the nature of a game which experiments with as many things as does EarthBound. True transformative genius generally has its moments in which it goes off the rails, and I don't think EarthBound had the chance to really develop it's identity, in the way that truly perfect games like Super Mario World were able to improve over time. The inventory system is super annoying. Your spaces in your inventory are shockingly limited, and your equipment itself will take up nearly a quarter of the spots you have. This requires frequent selling of your gear and loot to have space for new items.

As much as I like the graphical rendering of the game, I feel like they could have done more to improve the way it looks, particularly in battle. While the Dragon Quest type of battle perspective is fine, including more animations for ordinary attacks, such as swinging bats and frying pans for Ness and Paula would have been nice. And while the sprites for the enemies are lovingly drawn and beautiful, they are entirely stationary, and have no attack animations to speak of. The UI is also extremely boring, and could have used some improvements like including portraits of the characters, or even their sprites a la FFIV.

Technically speaking, the game has flaws as well. There are times in which you can gets stuck behind NPCs in various parts of the game, with no real way to escape. There is also a large amount of puzzling slowdown for a game which is as graphically basic as this. 

Ordinarily, a game with flaws like this would rate a bit lower. And no, it's no Chrono Trigger, still the shining star of RPG excellence on a system replete with excellent RPGs. But EarthBound is an experience that can't be missed. A game that over twenty years later still has tried things that no game since has really nailed to the degree that EarthBound did. It's an excellent game that everyone needs to try, warts and all.

I'll give EarthBound a 9.8/10.

-TRO

100th Post!!! A reTROview reTROspective

I never thought I'd make it to 100! While precious few people are actually reading this, I've enjoyed it, and that makes it worthwhile to me. Perhaps the best side effect of doing the blog has been that it has increased my dedication to clearing out my backlog of video games. In the last calendar year, I have completed for the first time, without any cheating, including improper use of save states via emulation, the following 37 (!) games (in order):

Mega Man 7
Mega Man 8
Mega Man 9
Mega Man Zero 3
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Mega Man X
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles
Pokemon Sun
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
Tales of Phantasia
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castelvania: Harmony of Dissonance
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
Pokemon Trading Card Game 2
Super Metroid
Banjo-Kazooie
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Mario Kart 8
Final Fantasy XIII
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

NERD ALERT!

Here are a few quick charts showing the patterns of my playing this year (I love charts):

Figure 1: Games by Genre

 

Holy platformers Batman! RPGs come in a not-so-close second with 4 games, compared to 21 platformers!

Figure 2: Game Rating by Genre

 

These ratings don't necessarily reflect my general liking of these genres, but it is interesting to look at it! By the ratings, racing was my favorite genre of the year, although this is because I only beat one racing game, Mario Kart 8 (which I adored). And card games are my least favorite genre, which definitely isn't true based on how much I play Hearthstone. But this is simply selected from games I've newly beaten thus far this year, that I've reviewed on reTROview, so take it with a grain of salt. The only two genres above 9.0 are racing and action, buoyed up by small sample sizes and a few excellent games (the Zelda games and Mario Kart 8).

Figure 3: Games by System*

 

*This refers to the system the game was originally on, not necessarily the one on which I played it. If it was originally released on more than one, then I coded it based on the system on which I played it.

I always say that the Super Nintendo is my favorite system of all time, and I sure walked the walk this year! Few can accuse me of not being retro enough, with only 3 games being played on HD systems, with one of those being the decidedly retro Mega Man 9 on PS3. My 3 3DS games may count slightly against my retro cred, though, but with one being Pokemon, and the other two being retro-style platformers, I think I've maintained my credibility.

 Figure 4: Game Rating by System

 

My most played developer this year was Capcom, in a not so stunning turn of events. I beat 7 new Mega Man games, and 3 Capcom developed Zelda games. Nintendo came in second with 7 games developed.

Figure 5: Game Rating by Developer

 

And developer of the year award goes to...Yacht Club Games! This award is based solely on their one game I played this year at a 9.3 rating, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment. Sega, however, with their excellent trilogy of Sonic games, comes in at a very close average of 9.267. We miss you, Sega...Camelot pulls up the rear with their dreadful Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, on which I may have been too harsh, but really didn't enjoy it much at all. But those Mario Sports games are fantastic, as are the earlier Golden Sun games, so this isn't necessarily a criticism of the company more generally.

Figure 6: Handheld or Home?

 

With progress on handhelds bogged down a bit by a few very long RPGs (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance A2, Tales of Phantasia, and Pokemon Sun), the home consoles edged out handhelds by a hair, despite the fact that I probably spend more total time gaming on handhelds than on a TV. Short platformers that only took me a few days to beat, like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Buster Bunny Busts Loose, and shorter games like Mario Kart 8 also helped to add a few to the home completion list. Note that I counted a game as a handheld based on how I played it, not necessarily based on the platform on which it was originally released. For example, Super Metroid was a handheld game for me, as I played it on the 3DS virtual console.

Figure 7: Ratings for Handheld and Home

 

This was neck and neck, although handheld had a tiny edge, with an average rating of 8.58, compared to the home rating of 8.43.

Figure 8: Games by Company

 

NINTENDO FANBOY ALERT!!!!! All kidding aside, I do so love Nintendo. I've always had a psychological attachment to the NES and SNES, my first and second consoles, and no one does handhelds like Nintendo (this is an empirical fact and not subject to anyone's opinions). I played 10 Nintendo games for every 1 Sony and Sega game this year. And 0 games from Microsoft, Neo Geo, NEC, or other companies. Ouch.

I am working on a Microsoft game at the moment, though!

Figure 9: Game Rating by Company

I guess I should be playing more Sega games! Sample size problems assured Sega's reign here, as well as the fact that all four of the true bombs (rated under 7.0) that I reviewed were Nintendo games. When you're only playing Genesis Sonic games, your Sega rating will be a bit better. Good thing I didn't play Altered Beast.

Awards:

Game of the (reTROview) year: Super Mario Bros. 3

With a rating at at a perfect 10, you can't get better than Super Mario 3. Honorable mention goes to Super Mario World, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and Shovel Knight, which all rated as a 10 as well, but weren't newly beaten for this year's data.

Best New Game (to me) of the (reTROview) year: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

To qualify for this award, the game had to have never been touched by me before starting the blog, and at a 9.8, this one is the winner! I have very fond memories of this one, and will probably play through it again at about the same rate I play through Link to the Past, which is to say about every 2 or three years. Honorable Mention goes to Mario Kart 8, at an excellent 9.7 rating. 

Stinker of the (reTROview) year: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

 

Ew. With a score of 5, this game was awful. Dishonorable Mention goes to runner up Buster Busts Loose!, with a dismal score of 6.

Median Game of the (reTROview) year: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

 
Better than some and worse than some, this was your median game of the year!

Newest Game Reviewed: Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

A game from 2017! Hooray.

Oldest Game Reviewed: Super Mario Bros. 2

 
Wow. I need to get more retro than 1988. But I really don't care for the Atari 2600, so it'll have to be another NES game, as the Game Boy didn't release here until 1989. Unless I find that magical Atari 2600 hundred game I REALLY want to play. Because I don't think I ever want to play that dreadful Pac-Man cart I have sitting at home, which is my only 2600 game. My Genesis Ms. Pac-Man? Maybe. But not that abomination on the 2600.

Well, that's my first 100th blog post detailing my gaming progress dating from games I've reviewed  since starting the blog, and have newly beaten in roughly that time. If I can beat another 37 games in the next 100 blog posts, I'll be pleasantly surprised. I think that for once, my beating games may have actually outstripped the rate at which I have acquired them, so that's a big positive. I'll have to keep that up to save money and have more fun! I've been working on this post for several days, so I've missed a few days, but I think this will be worth it.

I'd give this post a 100/100.

-TRO