Ys Book 1 & 2

Another game I got my hand on was Ys book 1 & 2 for the TurboGrafx-16, an action RPG were the basic form of attack is... running into enemies. An odd form of attack I believe was used in earlier games since there wasn't enough graphic power to show the sword attack or so. With a bit of imagination your character, Adol, either fences around the enemy to deliver the deadly strike with his blade or he rams the enemy head on caring nothing for his well-being to save... whoever needs saving. The story is fairly simple, you arrive at this new continent were there once stood a powerful civilization named Ys (pronounced ease or something like that) were dark forces gathers so you must stop this darkness and find the clues for what happened. Fairly standard atlantian story-telling, sadly the game suffers a bit for being two games in one. This separates places and characters making it feel very restricted in terms of exploring as well as having problem creating characters that are memorable past their special scene. It still worked as a story, just feeling disjointed after clearing the first half.

Graphically and musically the game have very nice anime cut-scenes and sprites as well as a decent orchestrated score as well as voice acting. Sad part is that in some places the voices hard to hear and there is no text so you must listen really hard to know who spoke and whatever happened to the plot. All in all a decent game that has an interesting mythos, sadly the other parts wasn't released on the Virtual Console so hopefully they get released this time around, although with the different releases and such I have a hard time seeing it. The fun thing is that with this game and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood I really start to see the TG-16 in a very good light, although that could just be I'm only touching the best of the consoles library.

Metal Slug Comeback

Oh, a month since the latest update? And a new year at that? Golly, that went fast. At the moment my home is a bit of a renovation site since we found a water leak that pumped water below the kitchen floor... for maybe two years. So a good start for the new year isn't? What happy things should we talk about then?

Before Christmas I went on a Virtual Console spree and got games I had heard of, but never seen or played. Let us begin discussing the METAL SLUG-series, especially the first four games and the remake of MS 2. HOLY F***ING GOD!!! What an awesome series! You take control of one out of two or four characters as you mow down rebels threatening the world peace, sometimes even jumping in tanks, planes, helicopters, submarines or other machines to stop the evil General (who I forgotten the name of). The graphics are amazing for sprites and the music makes the blood pump. These games are the 80's and 90's action movies distilled to 1-2 hour gameplay. At certain points you can get turned to a big blob, a zombie or a mummy that can be really annoying, especially as you loose your machine gun or rocket launcher while in that form and if you don't find medicine quick enough you will probably die before the effect wears of, almost forgot, ONE HIT KILLS.

One of the few games I felt that the more I played, the better I got, even going so far surviving the first stages without using a continue or the like... compared to the first time when I used up all credits to reach the first boss and then die. Personally MS 2 (the original) is my favorite and that is due to the slowdowns which everyone else hates and would prefer the remake MS X. Best scene is the final stage when you jump across ice cold water, jump over sandbags with enemy soldiers covering behind them while you fire machine gun and then the twirling bridge appears. The slow downs hit with all enemies, projectiles and rockets on screen, but it feel like a slow motion action scene. It's AWESOME! And the music rocks.

Explosions for everyone and a toast to everyone and a wish that 2014 will be a good year to look back to!