Action RPG's #3

StarTropics (1990)
By: Nintendo R&D3 Genre: Action RPG Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES
Also Available For: Nothing

This game is unusual in that it was an NES game made by Nintendo themselves but only released in the US and Europe, with poor Japanese players having to do without. This has probably happened with certain types of sports games or tie-ins to things only popular in the west but this was an action RPG - a genre more popular in Japan than maybe any other! It's also, oddly, a game I never heard about in its day from magazines or other gamers, only learning of it later from collectors. It has, however, intrigued me since then, mainly due to its name and the images it conjured in my head - something to do with spacey, sun-bathed alien worlds overflowing with lush vegetation and glowing sands, punctuated by curious creatures and hiding some sort of magical adventure. The other day I was oafing around in my garden and decided it was time to see what the actual game was like, and if it bore any relation to the version I have been having visions of for many moons. Join me as I venture forth, into the mysterious tropics...

PS4 Purchases #15

Aggelos by Storybird Games / PQube / Look At My Game (2018)

Not only have I actually owned this game for several years now - that's normal for me with these posts as it takes me ages to get around to posting about them - but I've even played it quite extensively which is less normal for me! I can't really remember how I first discovered it now. I think I might've just been browsing Amazon one day and the pixelly graphics on its cover caught my eye, but however it happened, I'm sure glad it did as it turned out to be exactly the kind of game I hoped it would be. Namely, a Wonder Boy III clone. The story is the usual fare - you play as a brave warrior who must gather 'the elements' in order to defeat some flange called Valion who wants to destroy the kingdom. Or something. What matters is that it's a vast adventure set over many different areas filled with monsters and tons of stuff to collect including many different swords, armour, and magic rings and scrolls.

Spectrum Round-Up #2

Budget games were great, a real lifeline for kids my age back in the mid-to-late-80s. I fondly recall my good friend Luke and I frequently visiting our local Blockbuster video store and browsing the rack of budget games they had for sale, but both there and featured heavily in the magazines that covered the 8-bit micros at the time were games bearing the name of Joe Blade, but for some reason I never played them. They are a trilogy of flick-screen arcade adventures - a type of game that appeals to me, and they were always near the top of the budget charts and were well received by most of the magazines too, so I really don't know why I never gave them a try. Time, then, for this pitiful blog to do its job once again. Behold:

Joe Blade (1987)

This first instalment sees Joe as a lone commando sent into an enemy fortress to rescue six hostages, then set a few bombs, and escape before they blow. Sounds like a cinch! There are guards patrolling most rooms though, and you have limited ammo for your machine gun. Luckily you can pick up more as well as keys, guards uniforms (temporary invincibility), and food to replenish Joe's health metre which depletes rapidly from contact with guards or other enemies. You will also find the aforementioned bombs here and there (there are six in total). Touching one brings up a mini-game where you have to put letters in the right order. If you do, you'll have 20 minutes to find the other bombs and arm them in a similar way before escaping. If you don't, the bomb will blow, killing you. It's a good idea to find the hostages before messing about with these! It's simple like most budget games, but the monochrome graphics are really nice (colours change now and then), there are tons of screens, it's good fun to play, and would be addictive enough anyway, but the placement of all the items (hostages, bombs, pick-ups) is randomised every time you play which makes it even more addictive, not to mention great value for money... 8/10

Arcade Adventures #7

Lord of the Sword (1988)
By: Sega Genre: Arcade Adventure Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Sega Master System
Also Available For: Nothing

For the second review in a row I've found myself in the not-unstartling position of apparently having had a game's genre wrong for 35-odd years! Last time was It Came From the Desert and now it's this MS exclusive from Sega. It got rather mediocre reviews in its day so I've never shown a huge amount of interest in it, but from screenshots I always assumed it was a Rastan or Legendary Axe type deal. It kind of is I suppose, but it's a more adventurey kind of game than those two. We'll come to that later though. You play through the game as a fellow known as Landau. I assume this isn't meant to be classic actor Martin Landau, star of Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999 amongst many others, probably including even more examples with colons. No, this Landau is just some guy with long hair.

Arcade Adventures #6

It Came from the Desert (1989)
By: Cinemaware Genre: Adventure Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Amiga
Also Available For: PC, PC Engine

I mention the old games magazines I used to read in my younger years quite often here at Red Parsley, and indeed they continue to provide me with many warm memories. One game I always remember seeing was the scarily-titled It Came From the Desert - scary, perhaps, more due of the giant ants that featured in screenshots of the game and adorned promotional material than the name itself. I remember seeing reviews in several magazines such as C&VG and Ace and I wanted to play it despite not owning anything that could play it, and not even really knowing what kind of game it was since neither system I owned (Spectrum and Master System) featured anything like it to my knowledge. By the time I actually had an Amiga, I guess I had forgotten about this distinctive game, and it has remained unplayed by me for all these long years since. That is... until now!

PS4 Purchases #13

Children of Morta by 11 Bit Studios / Dead Mage (2019)

Many of my PS4 games - about half I reckon - were kindly given to me as Christmas or birthday gifts by my wife or family but I haven't received any for a good while now. In fact, I believe Children of Morta was the last one and I received it at least two years ago. Yes, that's long it takes me to get around to posting about stuff! I have finally been playing it a bit lately though. Unlike some other games in my collection, it's a no-frills package - just game and disc - but the game itself seems to be pretty good. It's an isometric action RPG, and a pretty simple one too, by genre standards. This is good for me since I'm hardly a veteran and find some RPGs more than a little daunting. Here, you get a little of the story (something about clearing the land of an evil called the Corruption), then you're off to to explore the area and chat with locals. There are several playable characters, all members of the same family, and procedurally generated dungeons full of monsters to vanquish. There's a bit more to it than that, of course, but it's looking great so far. Literally, in fact, thanks to its lovely pixelly graphics as well as moody music and excellent voice acting. I'll need to spend a lot more time with this one. Look out for the review... one day.

PS4 Purchases #12

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap by Lizardcube / Dotemu (2017)

Any observant regular visitors here might remember that I've posted about this game before. Indeed, there was a preview and a review of the Steam version that I've had for many moons, but when a game is as wholly wondrous as this one, the prospect of a physical copy to keep for many ages of our world is a mighty appealing one. I had this PS4 version on my Amazon wishlist pretty much since I had the Steam version, and then, to my not inconsiderable delight, I received it as a gift for my last birthday! Its 'main' cover is typical of the lovely new artwork found in the remade game. It still looks delightful and I can now look at it whenever I want. But I soon discovered the game comes with a reversible cover, the other side of which features some nice, rather more CGI-ish artwork. Upon opening the case, however, there was something else I noticed before I discovered this alternative cover.

First Look PC #6

Raider Kid and the Ruby Chest by Cacareco Games (2021) - PC

As is often the case with me, I saw this game somewhere and it caught my eye but it has taken me so long to post about it here that I've totally forgotten where I saw it. It has even changed names (slightly) since I first saw it! Oh well, doesn't matter now I guess. What does matter is the game itself which did and still does remind me of Rick Dangerous at first glance. It comes to us via a Portuguese (?) indie developer called Cacareco Games who have made their adventure in the style of a Game Boy Color game which, I think you will agree, is something they succeeded in. There is a simple backstory which I believe involves the pipsqueak of the title getting separated from a tourist party near some ancient ruins of some sort. So naturally, instead of looking for help he crawls inside the ruins and starts snooping around and soon finds they aren't as lifeless as might've been assumed! I'm guessing the objective is simply to get out alive but there is plenty of things to do on the way to that goal.

Steam / GOG Downloads #8

SteamWorld Dig A Fistful of Dirt (2013)
By: Image & Form Genre: Platform/Arcade Adventure Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: PC
Also Available For: PS4, Vita, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Switch

Anyone who visited my little page back around the turn of last year may recall a post I made wherein my good friend Luke had given me five game recommendations which I had then vowed to play before the end of the following year. Well, it took me over half of said year but I finally got around to playing the first of his choices, and it has taken me even longer to review it, but it was... SteamWorld Dig! It was among the more popular indie titles of its day so I'm definitely late to the party but due to such high praise from Luke I was keen to get stuck in. Near enough straight away, however, I found that it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I kind of had the impression it was a fairly standard platformer, just set underground. Maybe something like Spelunky. But it's actually more like a much slower-paced, somewhat more complicated Mr Driller. Well, kind of anyway.

Indie Games News/Previews #16

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World by ININ Games / G-Choice (2021) - PS4, Switch

Fans of Westone's spiffing Wonder Boy series must have already been ultra-happy with the revival the series has had over the last few years, and apparently it's not over yet! Joining the original Wonder Boy and Wonder Boy 3 remakes is this, a remake of Monster World IV which was originally only released in Japan for the MegaDrive and starred a young girl named Asha rather than our usual hero. Some members of the original Wonder Boy dev team are working on it and, while there doesn't seem to be much in the way of info or screenshots yet, there is a trailer as below. I'm not 100% sure I like the visual style but I'm confident it will a great game regardless. Release is planned for early 2021 and will apparently be available only for PS4 and Switch, although I would imagine a PC version will also be made available, surely? We'll have to wait and see I guess! Definitely one to look out for.

PS4 Purchases #6

Axiom Verge by Thomas Happ Games (2015)

It's slightly startling to think about how long ago this was released as it still almost seems like a current release in my (peculiar) mind, but it has nonetheless been on my wanted list the whole time - first on Steam, then the physical PS4 version on Amazon which is of course the one I finally bought this past week. I was going to get the standard version which was available for the bargain sum of ten sheets. It is, however, bereft of any bells and whistles as you might well expect, unlike the fancy 'Multiverse Edition' which I thought cost significantly more. But soon after receiving my purchase, I found that the lovelier special edition was only fifteen nicker, so of course I swiftly returned the normal version and ordered the special one instead which, as you can see, also arrived promptly!

Indie Games News/Previews #14

Savior by Starsoft (2020?) - PC, Consoles (TBD)

There are so many superb looking indie games around these days it's hard to keep track. The latest one to catch my eye is Savior (known previously as Into the Rift) which is currently being developed by Starsoft, a small studio made up of veterans of both the game and movie industries. It's a 2D side-scroller and is being touted as an 'open world platformer', and while it clearly takes influence from several genres, there does seem to be an extensive amount of platforming. Splendidly, this isn't just bog-standard running/jumping action either - one of the numerous notable things about the game is the main character's parkour-inspired movements, as can be seen in the pics and trailer here. Look as she flips and leaps all over the place, dodging enemies and scaling the terrain!

Indie Games News/Previews #13

Panzer Paladin by Tribute Games (2020) - PC, PS4, Xbox One

Tribute Games have been one of my favourite indie developers since they first arrived about 8 years ago so I'm always looking forward to new releases by them. Their latest is the intriguingly-named Panzer Paladin which is, to quote Tribute themselves, "an engaging action-platformer with fun and intuitive swordplay". There isn't any actual gameplay footage yet but, judging by the screenshots, it looks like it could have a bit of a Castlevania feel to it. It also looks pretty awesome, with Tribute's trademark lovely pixel art visual style very evident once again, even at this early stage. The game will undoubtedly have a bit of an adventurey tang to it as well. It's at least a year away yet but it seems like Tribute could have another corker on their hands here. More to follow...

No trailer or game footage yet but keep track of developments at the official site here.
 

PS4 Purchases #5

No Man's Sky by Hello Games (2016)

Despite having posted about most of my recent PS4 acquisitions, I'm still rather behind on posting about the earlier ones, so I thought I'd go right back to the beginning with this one. As long time readers may know, I was ultra-excited about No Man's Sky - the promo blurb and screenshots made it seem like a game that would appeal to me enormously, but as it turned out, it failed completely to live up to its promises. I still wanted to try it anyway but at the time of its release I didn't have a PS4 and my PC apparently wasn't capable of running that version, so I missed out. Upon unexpectedly getting a PS4, however, it was one of the first titles to pop into my head. Supposedly it was superior to the PC version anway, and after buying Driveclub with my new console, the next purchase I made was this one.

Isometric Games #4

Batman (1986)
By: Jon Ritman & Bernie Drummond / Ocean Genre: Arcade Adventure Players: 1
Difficulty: Medium Featured Version: ZX Spectrum First Day Score: 824
Also Available For: Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, MSX

Pretty much ever since I first got (or was given - thanks mum and dad!) a Spectrum, one of my top five favourite games for it has been Head Over Heels. Not only was it a wonderful adventure in its own right but it also made me a fan of isometric games generally, so it's strange that it has taken me such an extraordinary amount of time to get around to playing this example. I've never really been a fan of the Caped Crusader in general but this, possibly the first Speccy title to bear his name, is one that has long been considered the spiritual predecessor of Head Over Heels. Both were products of the same ace two-man team of Jon Ritman (programming) and Bernie Drummond (graphics), so it's not too much of a surprise that they have a lot in common, and there are similarities in both the visuals and game design as well.

PS4 Purchases #3

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom by FDG Entertainment (2018)

Finally (tootle tootle)! It seems like I've been waiting forever for this one. I've posted about it twice before - once in 2015 and again in 2016 - but it was starting to seem like that release date would get pushed back forever, unto the end of days... !BUT THEN!... Lo, did I wander unto Amazon's US website and there it lay, the PS4 version, glistening like a mythical treasure amidst their more expected wares, bearing a release date of December 2018 and available for pre-order! This news was met with considerable excitement but, after a quick detour, I found there was sadly no corresponding listing on the UK site. Harumph! A hastily-undertaken investigation subsequently revealed, however, that the game was indeed finished and ready to be released as a download for both PS4 and Switch, with a tantalising physical release apparently bestowed only upon American owners of those consoles.

First Look PS1 #1

Akuji the Heartless by Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive (1998) - PlayStation

It has been a while since I played a Tomb Raider-style adventure so I thought I'd have a quick look at this one. There are no English hotties with enormous boobs here though - instead I found myself in control of a scary voodoo dude who rather unkindly has his heart ripped out on his wedding day. That must've put a dampener on proceedings! He has one chance for happiness - traverse the realms of hell collecting souls. Gather enough he will be freed - probably just in time to save his better half too. This is where things become more familiar as our presumably-undead hero runs and leaps around the gloomy world that makes up the game's three main areas. I've only explored the first one so far which is rather dark and spooky, but it doesn't look as bad as one might expect hell to look. There are no rivers of lava or tortured souls to torment you anyway!

Indie Games News/Previews #11

Cathedral by Decemberborn Interactive (2018) - PC

A few years ago I saw a new indie game featured somewhere which caught my eye. A small amount of investigation revealed it was an NES-inspired arcade adventure called Cathedral and was soon to be released on PC via Steam and the like. Further news, however, was not forthcoming, and then, a game that should not have been forgotten was lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for three and a half years, the game passed out of all knowledge. But lo, by the will of some craft, whether fair or foul, I recently found myself mournfully recalling this game and decided to look it up once again, only to find that it not only still exists but is soon to be released!

Action RPG's #2

Golvellius: Valley of Doom (1988)
By: Compile Genre: Action RPG Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega Master System
Also Available For: MSX, MSX2
Download For: iOS

Most gamers over here in the West know the Compile name well. This is most often down to the splendid shooters they produced such as Zanac and the much loved Aleste series but they did also conjure up a fair few RPG's. Sadly, not many of these made it to our shores but one that did is Golvellius. It first appeared on the MSX in '87 where it... wasn't great, quite frankly. Happily, a much nicer redesigned version was soon ported to the Master System, swiftly followed by another version, again redesigned, for the MSX2. It's that MS version that most of us know though - even if we didn't own it, the screenshot showing a green squiggly background and large worm/snake-thing could be found on pretty much all of the MS's promo flyers and adverts. Indeed, it was a pretty well-known and liked game, but how does it hold up all these years later?

Wonder Boy Series - Part 2

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017)
By: Lizardcube / DotEmu Genre: Arcade Adventure Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: PC
Also Available For: PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Whatever name you might know it by, and it has had a few, Wonder Boy 3 (as I've always known it) is one of those rare games that seems to be universally loved. Not everyone has played it - it was only available on the Master System and PC Engine in its day after all - but those who did were forever taken by its considerable charms and have remained loyal fans ever since, eagerly extolling its virtues to any gamers unfortunate enough to have never been touched by its brilliance. Unsurprisingly, therefore, us fans were more than a little intrigued to hear news of a fancy new remake from those splendid fellows at Lizardcube and DotEmu as well. Would it be a fitting tribute to a much-loved classic or a ghastly desecration fit only to soil its memory?