Scramble (Switch)

This seemed interesting

Buying up all those Anniversary Collections from Konami on the Switch I took the Arcade one and saw that it had Life Force that was ported over to the NES (and other consoles like TG-16). Life Force was a bit harder to beat without building up some reflexes I started looking on some of the other games. First of was Scramble, an arcade game from 1981 where you control a jet that is making a run for the enemy base. Basically fly past all obstacles while hitting the fuel stations so that the jet doesn't crash and then defeat the enemy base, and then repeat. Nothing special, but a small distraction that takes around 5 minutes to make one run.

The graphics looks like it came from the early 80's

It's nothing else to say about it. It's seen by some as the first Gradius and that's it.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

Feels like 1993 (or more accurate 1999 when the DX version was released and the first time I played the game)

As mentioned in this post I was waiting for the remake of Link's Awakening to drop on the switch and I got it after work on release date and finished it the following Sunday morning. A really beautiful remake and the depth perspective is really popping out in this environment. Take for example the dream shrine where you get the ocarina, I always assumed the bed was reachable by going down, but now I can actually see the intent was a plateau.  

I mean, can you blame me? (Now I can't even unsee it so I begin to wonder what I was thinking)

Overall, it's a pretty faithful. Differences is that the warp system have been improved with more warp points as well as the Mambo hooks you up to the network instead of taking you to one point making traveling around the island faster. You have bottles to store fairies making the game even easier actually. You have more buttons now so things like the sword, shield, pegasus boots and bracelets get their own dedicated buttons which diminishes the need for constantly pause and unpause the game to equip the right gear. I usually put the feather on X as a dedicated jump-button. New collectibles in figurines that you can place out in the houses of Mabe village and you win them in the crane game. Both the crane game and fishing pond is improved so that you actually have something to gain from using them (figurines and seashells).

The biggest changes is the inclusion of Dampé the gravedigger from Ocarina of Time that now allows Link to arrange dungeons on his own and then play them. Dubbed Zelda Maker after the Mario Maker games. For people who like those games this might be something to spend time on, but I only played enough to get the heart piece and sea shell. I'm usually to uninspired to create things by myself so I probably won't bother (just like I haven't gotten any Mario Maker game and Dragon Quest Builders just last till the end of the story mode). Also combat have been improved with Link have to outmanoeuvre certain enemies like shielded ones, or that the bomb-eating monsters now have a cool down and wont even eat the bombs first couple of seconds after a bomb prior (lucky they implemented that picking up the bombs pause the timer).

Is there some problems? I couldn't find any options to adjust sound and music. At some places the music was very silent and I miss the DX version when (although sharp sound) the game blasted Tal Tal Heights as I began traversing the mountain. To subdued here and no way other than to bring all sounds up. Another thing is the removal of the photograph mouse and hut (Dampé have taken his place). Gameplay wise it doesn't matter, and it was mostly something to sell the Game Boy Camera I gathered, but the scenes were funny and I would have loved to see the expressions up close that the photographs captured as well as keeping memories of the journey. 

I mean, look at them!

That is actually the only thing I miss in the game. Well, besides the heart container I gotta missed from a boss, cause I was one short and I had to go through all the dungeons again to be sure and I couldn't find it so I think that implies that if you don't get it it's gone for that playthrough. Which is weird (I suspect the angler fish to be the culprit). I would wish they remade the Oracle games as well in this engine since it looks amazing and the improvements to gameplay is fantastic and the reason I would probably prefer this version over DX. 

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Switch)

Only a woman can break his spell
Pure in heart who will offer herself
To Nosferatu

The second game in the series and takes place 7 years after the first where Simon has to travel the land of Transylvania in search of Dracula's relics spread out in different mansions in order to summon Dracula and kill him of and stop the curse that have been laid on Simon. In parts I actually like this game more than the first, mostly since I can see that if I had the game as a kid I might been able to win it. First of it's "open world", go where you want if you can handle the enemies. Secondly, it introduced RPG elements like EXP and levels rewarding defeating enemies so you can take more damage and survive the harsher environments. Thirdly, you can permanently upgrade your weapons and buy helping aids like laurels. And you can choose between your subweapons freely. All that makes it more likely that I could have won the game. Also the relics give Simon different abilities, of course better used in later games like Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance.

That said, there are problems with the game, better articulated by the AVGN, but take the cryptic nature of the crystals you carry with you and where to use them. I can see certain hints in the village, but the translation butchered parts of them and the other part is that the game gives itself an excuse to lie to the player with the corruption of Dracula. Still, with pen and paper I feel one should be able to do it. This time I even got the best ending that is determined by how many day/night cycles you go through before finishing of Dracula. To do this I skipped picking up certain upgrades for the whip since I didn't have enough hearts passing through (hearts are both the EXP and currency, also, after a certain level-threshold weaker enemies don't give EXP). That made traversing certain mansions and areas harder, but I still made it. The reward was a nice ending cutscene with Simon kneeling before the grave of Dracula and when the night comes, Dracula's hand raises from the grave.

THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED!

Music is decent, not many tracks at all. Hardly any bosses which feels like they run out of time implementing since shouldn't there be a boss at every mansion? And I think you can skip one boss since it doesn't do anything other than give you a certain subweapon and doesn't even block the way to the relic of the mansion. Like my fascination for Zelda II I probably would play this game more often than the other games in the series for the NES. First time playing it was the Wii Virtual Console, and I got it for Wii U and 3DS as well. Interesting that it is seen as a bad game, even though it pretty much laid the foundation for the GBA-games that I recall where loved by most people. I've seen Egoraptors point on that as well, and I can see that it might have some coverage, but still.

Castlevania (Switch)

Deep in the heart of Germany
Lucy clutched her breast in fear
She heard the beat of her lover's heart
For weeks she raved in dreams he appeared
From far Transylvania

So now I played through the original Castlevania once again, this time for the switch with its Castlevania Anniversary Collection. First time playing it was for the Game Boy Advance when it was released as one of the NES Classics and since I liked the other Castlevania games for the Game Boy Advance (Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow) I thought it would be fun. I was a bit disappointed actually. The furthest I got was to the Frankenstein Monster Boss and since their was no way to "cheese it" as the kids call it, I never finished it there. Got it for the Virtual Console on the Wii, didn't fare much better. The Wii U on the other hand with its save state functionality was the first time I pushed through the game, and another time on the 3DS and now this.

The game isn't bad, but when you expect something like the Action RPGs and get just an action game, my skills aren't really up for task. Since I haven't played it as a kid, I have to cheese it to not loose my mind since the muscle memory doesn't exist and I don't want to spend all those hours that I would need to play it legit. It's still fun to play through, the music is fantastic and even though I save scum to win, it's still hard to actually get to the end and fight of the bosses. The story as told before is that Simon Belmont is on his way through Dracula's castle, Castlevania in order to end the vampire lords rule over the land of Transylvania. You battle armies of bats, skeletons, armoured knights and several other staple of monsters. Then we have the bosses, a giant bat, Medusa, a pair of Mummies, Frankensteins monster and Igor, Death and Dracula himself.

This ain't looking good

It's not a long game, fun to play once and awhile. The action style of Castlevania games isn't my cup of tea, I prefer RPGs, mostly since I don't need to be super good at the gameplay.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch)

Prefered the alternative cover

I got the craving for another minecraft-esque game for a while and I could have popped in Dragon Quest Builders 1, but since they announced the sequel I couldn't say no. It's pretty much the same game as the original, but different story and a lot of quality of life improvements. I haven't played the original since I finished (since I got a lot of games to play through), but things like no breakable weapons like the original, you can create an armoury to equip the "soldiers" with the latest weapons and with a way to draft the citizens to help you in building from a blueprint. It makes the game more manageable since you can let the citizens build a structure while you go out and look for materials and turn them into building parts so that they can continue to build the structure. The builder also gets new abilities like creating water from a bottomless jug, a fishing rod, copying a structure, swap large areas with another material and so on. Also there is a bit more to the battle system, not much, but enough with some combos and such. 

The story is that you have been taken captive by some Children of Hargon on their slave ship, apparently one of their last since the heroes of Dragon Quest 2 have killed Hargon so they are a bit disoriented. While doing task for the captain you are attacked by a sea monster while the captain tries to protect all aboard... didn't think I would play two games this summer which begins on a ship that is attacked by a kraken. You end up in the water and then you wake up on a deserted island. You meet Malroth... which is the same name as the god of destruction the Children of Hargon worship... I guess he's friendly. You begin buidling things, meet Lulu another survivor of the ship and then is instructed by a Hammerhood to gather people on the isle of Awakening and build wonders. So you do that. Malroth and you travels to a an island to learn the basic of farming and have to create a tree to together with a pastor of Hargon, Pastor Al... HA HA. I love Dragon Quest humour. 

How are people so creative?

Second island is a desert island where you mine minerals to upgrade a golem to gold status so that he can fight of the Medusa that turned him into... a stone golem. Brilliant, and you create a copper bar, a silver bar and a gold bar (bar as in drinking establishment, but I love the pun) to boost the miners morale. Third one is building defences for a castle and end an eternal war between humans and monsters.  The twist is revealed that everything except the ferryman, you, Malroth and Lulu is an illusion in a dream world created by Hargon. Hargon's plan is to team up the builder and Malroth in order to make Malroth be overcome by destructive power and unleash the demon inside of him. So as he grabs Malroth you follow to Malhalla which is being destroyed and you have to save the monsters on it by creating a space ship and as they leave you have to fight the possessed Malroth and then end the fight as a space shooter. I loved it! Fun thing is that I cared more for the friendly monsters like the captain at the ship in the beginning, all of them in Malhalla and Pastor Al. Maybe due them not being as demanding as the humans. A bit short in the story department, but you got some content afterwards, but I don't feel the need. I know that the monsters from Malhalla survived due to a letters so thats fine. Got other things to do.