_glook's Gameventure

The what

I embarked on a journey to start from the NES and play all of the consoles until I've caught up to the current generation.

The why

The rules

Gut Rating Descriptions

NES Games

3D World Runner

4/5

It is a bit dated, but good fun, nonetheless. It's a platformer, but it runs into memorization syndrome; you have to memorize exactly how big the gaps are in later levels since there is no way to tell as you're playing whether the jump is going to be a big jump or simply a moderate jump. The only possible way to beat the level is to die a few times to figure out what the jumps are, which isn't particularly a clever, interesting or rewarding for the player. The boss fights, while challenging at the end, do tend to get tedious, especially after essentially beating the same boss four times in a row which, again, is repetitive. However, it is a nice fast paced romp that introduces new things in every level and is competant platformer. Particularly memorable moments are the enemies in the last level which all home in on you, which makes things quite frantic, and weaving in and out of fire pillars while also avoiding the hands that follow your jumps; they were a fun reactive platforming challenges.

10 Yard Dash

Skipped

8 Eyes

3/5

This game shows its age with its controls and gameplay, but I still had fun the way through. I got an adventurey feel while playing it, with the item collecting and finding things in the walls. At first, the random treasures in the walls bugged me but it turned out they weren't really random and you could usually tell where a good place would be to search. Of course, randomly stumbling across something, while nice because of the item bonus, doesn't really present any cleverness on the player's part, just a lot of free time to search for them. Golden Sun style hiddens, where the observant would spot something and they would have to figure out how to get to where they want to, which is the hidden secret. But, I suppose that maybe a combination of this being an older game, lower budget, and lower game capabilities contributed to this.
The controls are a bit complicated, but I'm going to blame that on there not being enough buttons on the NES controller to map each action, especially the falcon, which would have been especially nice to be able to control on one controller using a modern controller with the control stick. There are also some restrictions in this game that modern games don't typically have, like actions and movements being restricted while on stairs; while this does feel silly by modern standards, it does force the player to either time things correctly or find alternative methods, like using the falcon. Speaking of which, I think the falcon was one of the more interesting aspect of the game; this was probably one of the first, if not first, game to allow your to use a familiar, and having to look after both characters is interesting.
The bosses, while interesting, didn't really change during battle. This wouldn't matter in a game like Mega Man, where the boss battles go by quickly, but in a game like this, the boss battles can drag out a bit. The fighting also got a bit redundant after a while: the three main things you would do is either position yourself to hit flying enemies after you memorized their paths, stab-run-repeat (hit the enemy, walk out of the range of their attack, then do it again until they've died), or hitting projectiles with your sword. There were a few times when situations came up where different enemies were combined into one area to provide an interesting challenge, but that was not the norm and even then, there are not that many permutations on this formula. In the modern age of gaming, and even in the NES days of gaming, action games are a bit more robust, offering more interesting variety of interactions, not to mention less restrictive movement and actions. While it is true that restrictiveness can present some novel situations, it also tends to make games shallower and, depending on the length of the game, repeated gameplay situations. If restrictivness is desired for something, it may be more useful to do it for specific areas or levels, like the special levels in Super Mario Sunshine (where F.L.U.D.D. is taken away) or the purple parrot from Donkey Kong Country 2.
That being said, I enjoyed the game. Not enough to go through the extra mode or the super hidden mode, but enough to play through to the end. This style of game has been done better though, notably by Castlevania, which this game is said to be a clone of.

720

In Queue

Glossary

Back Tracking
When a game forces you to come back to a place you've already been to to get something or complete some task because the player currently doesn't have the items or in-game skillset to do it. An example would be in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time where Link sees a cracked wall but cannot get past it to get the gold skullita because he does not have bombs yet. This is a semi-pet peeve of mine because of two reasons: (1) it forces me spend time navigating back to somewhere I've already been and going through the same motions to get there and (2) I'm not a very great man of memory, so being expected to keep it all in my head or to keep a game log is a bit much for me, especially for what amounts to a game I'm playing for fun. However, I cannot ignore the fact that backtracking rewards observant player behavior and it also rewards novel approaches to new items. It also increases the enjoyment of becoming more powerful, through new skills, items, etc. It is also a bit realistic in that a new item should realistically be able to be applied to older areas. It is also good for nuturing the sense of adventure, which is great for games such as Zelda or Metroid. I do believe, however, that it can be overused, and is particularly frustrating in a game such as Kirby, which in the worst case devolves into (1) repeat an entire level to get the power required and (2) repeat an entire level to get to the place to use the special power, which has to be repeated if a death occurs or the power is lost; this would be a form of repetition.
Memorization Syndrome
When the game or level design forces the player to memorize level layout because the player is expected to take an action before there is any indication that an action even needs to be taken (or at least that particular action). For example, there may be hidden blocks in Super Mario Brothers 2 (JPN), memorizing the blocks in Mega Man 2's lava pit, and the pits in the last level of 3D World Runner. This is particularly bothersome in platformers and action games and tends to affect older games. The reason I find this appalling is that the player is expected to do something that the player has no way of knowing how to do unless they've already done it, and failure often results in death, a consequence that results in having to go through a level the player had already bested once again (repetition). One caveat is that this can be used to humorous effect in romhacks. In most of these cases, visual cues would get rid of this issue entirely.
Repetition
When a game forces you to do something again that you've already done, that is repetition. This isn't the same as putting the user through a similar situation but with certain things changed, because this presents the player with a novel situation they haven't been in before. This also does not include video game tropes used often, because are not themselves the focus of attention and instead are building blocks to bigger things, such as the overall level design. Repetition is a pet peeve of mine because it's not mentally engaging (since I've already done it before), it is tedious (I'm just going through the motions), and after a while, it ceases to be challenging, which as a result ceases the technical engagement.