Parodius: Non-Sense Fantasy | Parodius Da!: Shinwa Kara Owarai Ne (Feb 1, 1992)
Platform played: SNES Emulator
Date beaten: April 11, 2024

The Parodius series is Konami's parody of their own Gradius series, so this game has basically the same mechanics, being a side-scrolling space shooter with the same power-up system, but with more goofy stages and cutesy, weird enemies and obstacles. I liked this a lot better than Gradius (which I played on the NES Classic Mini), but I don't know if that's because I enjoyed the aesthetic more, or if it's just that it's a later SNES game which improved on the formua established by the NES original (i.e., even though I didn't really like the original Gradius, I might like other games in that series as much as I liked this).

Kirby's Dream Land | Hoshi no Kirby (April 27, 1991)
Platform played: Game Boy Emulator
Date beaten: Apr 9, 2024

A short, cute game. My understanding is that Kirby was developed to be an easier game than popular titles at the time like Mario, in order to make gaming more accessible for kids and stuff. And this game certainly is very easy after clearing many challenges NES titles like Castlevania and Mega Man. For one thing, Kirby can fly pretty much infinitely, which makes it very easy to avoid stage hazards. Bosses are also pretty straightforward, with few gimmicks and easy patterns. There was never a single time in this game where I got frustrated or didn't know how to proceed. You can, however, unlock a secret "hard mode" by pressing up, select and A on the title screen (the game tells you this after you beat the normal mode once, but you can use the code at any time if you know it). Similar to the hard mode in Super Mario Bros., it changes up the enemies to make the game a bit harder. I didn't go through the whole thing though.

This is Kirby's first game so of course it makes the debut of Kirby himself and many recurring enemies such as King Dedede, Wispy Woods, and Kracko. However, coming back to it in 2024 is a bit surprising and disappointing because Kirby lacks his trademark copy ability here. You fight enemies by inhaling them (or objects) and spitting them out, but swallowing them won't give Kirby their abilities. However, there are a few special items in the game that do different things when eaten or spit out, so that might be the origin of the idea of the copy ability here.

Super Mario Kart (Aug 27, 1992)
Platform played: SNES Emulator
Date played: Mar 31-Apr 1, 2024

Falls into the "revolutionary for its time but not necessarily worth playing today" category. I played this a lot as a kid (though I don't remember being very good at it) but wouldn't really recommend it to a modern gamer except out of historical interest, since later entries in the series improved on everything that's here. At the time, however, it was notable for being a 2-player racing game on the SNES and for using the Mode 7 graphics to create a quasi-3D view, and it popularized the "mascot kart racer" subgenre of racing games. It's also notable for being the first game where you can play as Bowser. In fact, Mario, Luigi, and Peach are the only human characters available, so the majority of the roster is non-human (unless Toad counts as human, then it's a clean half-and-half). The gender diversity is much less impressive though, which Peach being the only girl.

At the start of the game, only "50cc mode" (easy) and "100cc mode" (normal) are available, with three cups each: The Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, and Star Cup. The "special cup" can be unlocked by getting 1st place in all three courses on 100cc mode, and I guess beating the special cup must unlock the "150cc" or hard mode. So to fully beat this game, you would have to rank first place in all four courses twice, which I simply don't feel like doing.

Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome (Hand of the Heavenly Bride) (Sep 27, 1992)
Platform played: SNES Emulator
Date beaten: May 16, 2024

The main standout feature of this game is that you can recruit monsters as party members for the first time in the series. Also, you can choose which of two women you want to marry. The plot is somewhat unique in that while there is a prophecy of a "Legendary Hero," you don't play as him - instead, your wife eventually gives birth to the chosen one. You start out playing as a child, then there's a timeskip to adulthood. After you give birth you get turned to stone and then there's another 6-year timeskip and you get to meet your grown kids after being unstoned. Apart from that twist on the chosen one formula however, it's a fairly standard Dragon Quest plot of "defeat the big bad demon king to save the world."

One thing that kinda sucks is the graphics. It looks like a late-era Famicom game... but it came out on the SUPER Famicom.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Oct 16, 1992)
Platform played: PC (Sonic Origins)
Date beaten: Apr 2, 2024

This game introduced numerous features including Tails, the spindash, and Super Sonic. There was also a 2-player mode where the second player could control Tails, instead of the AI controlling him. But for some reason, only the AI could fly as Tails. Problems such as this were fixed in the Sonic Origins version however. Sonic Origins also adds the ability to play as Tails, Knuckles or Amy (with the DLC), all of whom get Super forms, except Tails for some reason. Super Tails is programmed into the game, but you can only access him in debug mode, not in a normal playthrough. Baffles me.

The game is a little longer than Sonic 1, while still being shorter than planned, as it was rushed for a Christmas release. Apparently, according to TV Tropes, it was developed around the same time as Sonic CD but by a different team, although Sonic CD ended up coming out later. That partially explains why some consider Sonic CD the "true" followup to Sonic 1 and why Sonic Origins places CD first in the timeline order (I skipped to Sonic 2 since I am going in release order).

The final boss is kinda bullshit. Like the first game, you don't get any rings in the final boss arena, but UNLIKE the first game, you can only damage the boss during very specific parts of his animations and it's basically impossible to tell what they are. I had to look it up and I genuinely have no clue how they expected kids in 1992 to be able to figure it out without the internet, save states, or infinite lives. Really annoying and kind of tarnishes the game for me.

Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins
Platform played: Game Boy Emulator
Date beaten: April 10, 2024

The debut of Wario. Apparently the plot, as explained in the manual, is that Mario is returning home to his own kingdom after the previous game, but it has been taken over by Wario, while Mario was distracted dealing with Tatanga. Tatanga actually returns as a boss in this game, apparently now being employed by Wario. So this game actually takes place in Mario Land, as in the land ruled over by Mario. Of course, Mario games being exteremely loose on continuity, the idea of Mario having his own castle isn't really mentioned outside of this game.

As for the gameplay, well, it's a Mario game. It's a bit less linear than the previous entries in the series, since to unlock the final level, you have to collect the titular six coins by beating the six levels around the map, but you can do them in order you please. It's a bit on the easier side thanks to forgiving level design and plentiful power-ups. A few of the bosses have tricky patterns, but they all go down in 3 hits, even the big bad Wario himself. However, there are three phases to the Wario fight, for a total of 9 hits. Also, the final stage is quite a bit harder than the rest of the game, featuring more dangerous hazards and lacking in checkpoints. But the game is generous enough to give you a power-up right before the final boss.

Shin Megami Tensei
Platform played: SNES emulator (Fan translation; no official translation is available)
Date beaten: Oct 5, 2024 (Law route)

It's Megami Tensei, but on the Super Famicom! Of course, I played the Super Famicom remake of Megami Tensei 1+2, so this game actually has the same engine (I presume). It introduces the series staple of having different routes for Law, Chaos or Neutral depending on your choices. The previous Megami Tensei duology had some choices you could make which affected the ending, but did not have the developed alignment system seen here, which not only affects your ending but even which demons you can summon. It sadly has the same graphical limitation of Kyuuyaku where it can only display one enemy sprite on screen at a time. In some boss fights you fight multiple groups of different demons, but each species/group is only represented by one sprite.

The gameplay and setting is very similar to Megami Tensei II, taking place in Tokyo, which soon becomes post-apocalyptic Tokyo as warheads are dropped near the beginning of the story. You explore tile-based dungeons and recruit demons in turn-based encounters. The main annoyance is the insanely high encounter rate. Not only do you get a random encounter every few steps or so, but after defeating one, another mob may appear immediately, and this can happen 2 or 3 times. Actually, "this can happen" is an understatement; it happens constantly. So basically, almost every single random encounter turns into THREE random encounters, which gets annoying fast. These insanely high encounter rates were common in old-school RPGs like this (maybe not with the "multiple random encounters in a row" thing, but I think Wizardry might do that). It can make the dungeon crawl feel pretty exhausting, but it also gives a lot more opportunities to recruit powerful demon allies and just grind in general. But what makes it really annoying is that if you run away from an encounter, you don't get rewards from ANY of the waves. So you can use up a bunch of resources on the first couple waves, then the third wave is a set of demons you can't defeat, so you run, and then you don't get any macca/magnetite/exp from the previous waves you already defeated. Dumb as hell. Glad they got rid of that in later games.

While the battles can be challenging, the bosses are not usually that hard and often vulnerable to status effects. It's very easy to cheese them by giving the heroine high points in magic and speed, then use Zionga to shock them and prevent them from taking any turns. As with most games in the franchise, struggling on a boss usually means that you need to go improve your demon stock.

Similar to when I played the original Legend of Zelda, I also used a walkthrough as a general guide for where to go, but mapped out the dungeons myself. The ROM I was playing did have an "auto-mapping" feature but it's very barebones and lacks detail so I still found it preferable to map it out myself.

After finishing it I have to say, while I am surprised to say this, I think I liked Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II more than I liked this game. Now, I did play the SNES remake of the DDS duology so maybe that is part of it - they took what they learned from making this game and improved on it. But I feel like I much preferred the DDS2-style of navigation of Tokyo (and later Hell), where you see your guy (not just an icon representing him) moving along and you go to visit little towns and stuff. This game kind of goes back to the DDS1-style of things where all the "towns" are located inside of the dungeons. There isn't really an overhead world map like in DDS2, outside of moving the little map marker around Tokyo (although you still get into random encounters and such on the world map). Though clearly, it is much more ambitious than DDS2, with the more fleshed-out alignment system and the three different endings, more optional sidequests (whether or not you complete them can impact your alignment) and so forth.

Mega Man 5 | Rockman 5
Platform played: PC (Mega Man Legacy Collection on Steam)
Date beaten: April 6, 2024

Not too different from Mega Man 4, though one thing it does introduce is the concept of having hidden/optional collectibles in each stage. If you collect all eight letters to spell out "ROCKMAN 5" (JP) or "MEGAMAN 5" (EN) you get access to a special weapon, a robot bird named Beat, which is one of the more useful and powerful weapons in the game, and is recommended to use against the final boss, so it's worth it to seek them out.

As for the plot, Blues/Proto Man has kidnapped Dr. Light! But of course it turns out that Proto Man was being impersonated by an evil robot called Dark Man, built by Dr. Wily, who is once again behind everything. It follows the same structure as MM4, where you fight 8 Robot Masters, then go to the castle of the decoy villain, then finally to the real Wily Castle.

The majority of the Robot Masters in this game are pathetically easy, and most of their weapons are not that good or useful. The exceptions are Charge Man who I found pretty difficult because of how he relentessly pursues you and can only be damaged while he's walking around (not charging or standing still), and the Dark Men in the Proto Man's Castle stages. The hardest was Dark Man 3, but I was able to beat him using the Charge Kick which you get from Charge Man. Dark Man 3 will frequently stop time, but if you are in the middle of a Charge Kick when he does this, you will be invincible and YOU will damage HIM if he runs into you while time is stopped. So the hardest of the Robot Masters gave me the weapon that helped with the hardest Dark Man, which seems fitting.

E.V.O.: The Search for Eden
Platform played: SNES Emulator
Date beaten: April 14, 2024

This is a rather unique SNES action-RPG due to its eon-spanning story and its "evolution" mechanic. You start out as a fish in the Earth's ocean millions of years ago, and gradually evolve into a reptile and then a mammal, and optionally a human at the end (I opted not to become a human because it's frankly easier to beat the final boss if you don't - the human is supposed to be powerful because it has the ability to "use tools," which in this game translates to throwing axes, but the raw biting power of the mammal's jaws is better).

Unfortunately, the way you evolve is to defeat other creatures to gain "evolution points" you can spend on upgrades, which ultimately results in the game becoming very grindy and most of your playthrough ends up being walking back and forth killing the same enemies over and over so you can get enough EP to buy the upgrades you want. I think I would have enjoyed the game more if you could freely evolve at any time, or at least make it cheaper. It feels like half the appeal of the game should be experimenting with different evolution options, but you're not really incentivized to do that when it's such a big time investment to grind up points for any change you want to make. Even worse, you lose about half your EP if you die. And many of the bosses are extremely frustrating too, seeing as how easily they can stunlock you. I often felt like if I got hit once, I would just be screwed and have to start the battle all over. The one saving grace is the "evolution exploit" - evolving your creature also refills all your health, so if you have enough points, you can make a small change in the middle of battle to refill your health. You can also eat a red crystal to temporarily turn into a powerful creature, but you can then save it to your "evolution record," and if you eat a green crystal, you can turn back into a creature you recorded previously. And there is a hidden location in the game with a red crystal that turns you into a powerful dragon. Saving this dragon into my record was basically the only way I was able to make it through this game (that and using save states...)

There are also some really wonky translation issues in this game, like when the red crystal wears off, it says "Crystal power doesn't work yet." It should be "stopped working" or "ran out of power," not "doesn't work yet."

I remember liking this game and being charmed by it quite a bit when I first played it many years ago, but upon revisiting it, I couldn't help but notice all these issues (particularly the grinding) that made it frustrating and less fun than it should be. Great concept but the execution is lacking.

Megami Tensei II: Last Bible | Revelations: The Demon Slayer (Dec 23, 1992)
Platform played: Game Boy Emulator
Date beaten: Dec 26, 2024

This is a more "child-friendly" spinoff of the Megami Tensei series with somewhat simplified mechanics, developed by the same studio as the Devil Children games. I played the English version. Instead of a first-person dungeon crawler, it's a top-down view RPG like Dragon Quest. Honestly, it feels a lot like the first Dragon Quest game, but without the nostalgia I had for that game, I found it quite tedious and boring. It does have the demon recruitment and fusion systems that the MT series is known for, but the plot and characters feel rather lacking.

Game of the year: It seems like I had something negative to say about just about every game from this year except for Kirby's Dream Land. The worst I could say about Kirby's debut is that it may be too short or easy for some players. But it's supposed to be easy, so that's not really a flaw.
Of course, I still plan to come back and play Final Fantasy V at some point, so we'll see if the rankings change... Back to Games
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