• Finished 9th November 2024
  3/10

Hard to assess this one as your enjoyment will be very dependent on do you enjoy these 5 games. I personally do not really. Even on lower difficulties they feel too hard and arcade for me. They seem like good ports. Fast performance and sounds. No complaints here. But in 1996 and 1997 for a full RRP can you really justify this? 5 games over 15 years old at the time feels very barebones. The controls don't quite work either for games like Robotron. They could have included remakes or even more titles surely. A game for the hardcore fan. Side note - Sinistar is terrifying and has the great voice samples intact. Will I ever play this again? Nah.

• Finished 18th November 2024
  8/10

Lovely graphics and absolutely stunning soundtrack. The first stage is one of the best pieces in the mega drive library. The rest also reaches solid highs. The lore and character designs for this game go far beyond the game itself which almost makes you wonder why they didn't just make an RPG or a Sega CD game with cutscenes. The variety of levels and backgrounds is truly impressive. Overall, this game is just such a vibe.

However, it's not without faults. The lightening attack never really feels powerful enough unless at full charge and waiting for the charge is tedious. The main issue is that quite a few levels throw too many enemies at you and while it ends up not really mattering, it does feel next to impossible to avoid most damage which as a player just doesn't feel great. Some levels are best dealt with by just keeping moving as enemies spawn over and over. Other levels are better played slow. The slower levels feel better overall. Bosses are largely not very interesting and the final bosses are where the game begins to fall apart.

Alisia has a jump recovery animation from larger heights that is trigger from a full height jump too. This causes issues on the final boss where you must jump quickly over his attacks. The solution is doing short hops but this is not very obvious or intuitive to the player. The higher jump will only trigger the crouching recovery every 4-5 jumps. It will occur when jumping from a higher level to lower. I can't help but feel it isn't intentional and more a bug. Manageable but causes a lot of frustration. A sour end to an overall great game that lacks total polish.

• Finished 19th November 2024
  3/10

Lovely big sprites with lots of animation. The End....Fine, this games terrible? Not enough? Ok urm... it is just not very fun. It's the usual 16bit era fighter syndrome. Horrible AI that will not chill or stop assaulting your hitbox space. The characters are cool and creative but the special moves all feel very lacklustre and lack any sort of big feedback that they are doing much. They inputs are also too loose and finnicky, often times I would end up doing a different move to the one I was actually trying to do. The moves feel so meagre I eventually just gave up and started spamming mid and high punches. The backgrounds are very hit and miss, sometimes they look rather good sometimes they look really bland.

The game also for some reason decides you have to fight 3 opponents twice for no reason I could figure out. Add the usually "it's probably better on 2 player" but on 1 player it's pretty naff. How this was put on the mini 2 makes my mind turn to clay. Honestly, I really wanted to like this one but it’s just so incredibly unfun and awkward to play.

• Finished 21st November 2024
  4/10

Initially I was enjoying this game. The first two stages while simple enough are pretty fun. Controls are slippy but it doesn't matter here as they never require too much precision. The game has varied gameplay and the graphics and animations are bright and interesting. The game just spirals down after this. Stage 3 is incredibly boring to replay (and you will). Full of annoying parts ranging from odd perspectives of overhead hazards, misleading backgrounds that look like platforms but aren't, horrible gun turrets that cause many cheap deaths due to no iframes. Stage 4 is awful and totally different gameplay in some poor asteroids shooting level that never feels good. The missile lock on takes about the same time as the ships firing patterns so you can't charge it up, the cursor is also terrible.

That’s the game in general. It mixes up beat em up, platformer, shooter and doesn’t get the controls and gameplay for any them right. The heroes move like they are on ice, hitboxes are dreadful and the jump is incredibly sluggish. Cut to level 5 and the difficulty ramps right up with instant death flame torches to dodge with deadly precision, horrible janky, tanky enemies that just charge into you until you button mash through. It took me most the playtime to get through level 5 then the game actually eases up for the finale. The game also has zero iframes until you die and many deaths are just from getting stuck between poundings or environmental hazards.

The other problem is the bosses, they are awful. Janky with no real patterns and just walk back and forth at random doing their different attacks. This is a real pain for the final boss as you have to jump over her to avoid damage but she may also just decide to move back as you do. Feels unfair but that's the game all over. Largely unfair.

• Finished 23rd November 2024
  4/10

Nice graphics and music for the time. Interesting characters and a novel take having all the other characters brainwashed to explain why you are fighting each other. This is a fighter that predates street fighter 2 and as such plays very differently to all the fighters that came after. The game relies on a grapple system where you grab your opponent by making contact with their hitbox and then pressing a button and the D-pad. Whoever gets it off first has their move performed. The problem is against the ai, it's always going to be the ai at higher levels and difficulty that wins. This is a fundamental flaw that ruins the game. You can also grapple the enemy by stunning them first and then they are vulnerable for a second to a grapple throw.

This is how you will be playing the game but gameplay ends up becoming monotonous and repetitive. Small jab> sun > jump in and throw. Throws are the only real way to do damage too so there is very little choice. The enemy also is able to stand in your hit box while you’re on the floor and immediately throw you again and again. It's very frustrating. All that said, I do think there is something interesting here and that against a human player it might just work better. For a pre SF2 fighter it's got some good things going for it but just not enough for me to ever really want to replay.

• Finished 27th November 2024
  4/10

Beat and saw all 3 endings. An odd sort of port of an older arcade game. The graphics are much smaller but the backgrounds are actually pretty good. The music is pleasant and overall it's a passable presentation. Given there's only 9 stages it feels a bit poor that 4 of them are just pallet swaps of previous opponents. The hit detection on this game feels also really wonky. Most of the fights are beaten by hitting and running or getting into a rhythm with the kick attack while walking into your enemy. It sort of works until it doesn't. It feels kinda random and mostly luck to if you are going to connect or get smacked instead. The game is very short and there's really very little to go back for here. It's a very simple fighting game just punch and kick and a variation on the attacks for short range. That's it. There's also a jump attack but it's so niche use you won't use it. It only connects when the enemy is also in the air which is uncommon.

The most interesting thing here is the betting system where you bet money earned on each round that you will win first try or your opponent will make you lose at least one life. The best ending is easily achieved by betting on the opponent and throwing the match. It's cute but also feels rather silly. Not the worst game I've played but also no desire to play it again. Short, light and passably functional.

• Finished 7th December 2024
  2/10

Is it the worst game on the mega drive? No. Is it good? Absolutely not. The difference between this and other "bad games" is that I can firmly believe a good game exists here, its just marred by appalling controls and collision detection on this port. The graphics are respectable for the genre and year. The backgrounds however are flat and have no animation at all or any parallax. The music is ok but starts to get progressively worse as the one single track goes on and on into the loop. The game does however have really nice voice samples that add alot of character and goofiness to the game. The level design is actually rather good too.

However, the gameplay is so unforgivably terrible it's impossible to recommend. Up and down control the angel you throw with his arm (which I believe was originally mouse control) this is too sluggish and terribly inaccurate and makes the game a chore to play. This could be remedied by not having endless respawning enemies, or using the directions to aim. Platforming is terrible and jumping on any stairs causes death. I found myself dying on one screen because my character was jumping and "touching" the stairs above which trigger his tumble death animation. This is unacceptable. Jumping on ropes is too specific and the end of your jump must land on it or you jump past. I could go on. In the end the game is clunky, unfun and broken. It's a shame because objectively I can feel the frame of a good game (albeit short at about 10 minutes in total if you don't mess up). Avoid.

• Finished 9th December 2024
  3/10

Better than it's reputation as one worst games ever but it's still pretty awful. The concept is quite cool actually. Using numerous different toys to attack other toys seems fun at first and the game has some very charming writing and presentation between levels. However as a fan of the movie it really doesn't capture much of the films essence at all, instead favoring to focus on the films final 20 minutes which are really the worst part of the movie.

Most of the games issues fall down to two large issues. The biggest issue with this game is the level of zoom. The character is too big and your field of vision is much too short which makes it very frustrating and difficult to deal with any enemies offscreen. You have to play the game slowly and cautiously scrolling the screen to avoid running into enemies who erratically run around or one's that shoot on sight with unavoidable "projectile" damage if you are in their line of fire. It really hurts any fun this game could have had. The 2nd problem is that nearly all weapons are a nightmare to aim so attacking anything becomes excruciating.

There are a few "great toys" and lot of terrible ones. The final level is also pretty wretched. Auto scrollers with easy death should be banned from all games as final acts especially when the punishment is having to play the slow paced tedious first 3 levels again. It's playable just about but its just not that fun.

• Finished 9th December 2024
  3/10

Possibly the worst shmup I've played. This game is a fever dream of bizarre choices. The graphics are passable and the opening two levels or feel ok. Then the game just gets really clunky. The power up system is awful. You have 4 sub-weapons but the game in constantly throwing power ups at you. (I mean constantly, sometimes I've had 7 on screen at once during a boss fight). They always spiral down in a fixed bath in the centre of the screen and are very hard to not pick up while playing. You will find yourself just changing subweapons constantly and no idea what you have equipped. One sub weapon is really overpowered and its annoying to keep losing it.

The powerups themselves are tied to RNG. Want a powerup for your primary shot? Maybe you will get 2 back to back or maybe you will spend half the level without any. The same goes for Speed. Such a weird and bad choice. The ship is also painfully slow on all modes except default easy. Dodging anything is awful without any speed and it takes quite a few to make it playable and you may not get any for quite some time.

Now the bizarre bad gameplay is out the way onto the music. This is quite possible the worst soundtrack I've ever heard that isn't just "bad instruments" the instruments are fine but the composition is just so utterly insane. It lulls you in with some sensible tracks then suddenly turns into this weird alien bad late night jazz when everyone is drunk and thinking they are rocking out. It's the little kid playing the demo button on keyboard and trying to join in. It's a marvel to behold. I have never laughed so much at music since Fantasia. This is the Fantasia of shmups except it sort of isn't broken it's just so poorly thought out. There are also some truly cursed boss designs that will stay with me forever. Great for a giggle, rubbish otherwise.

• Finished 11th December 2024
  5/10

Fairly well-made game with many bad design choices. First the zoom is a little too close but it’s manageable. The "combat" is where it fails. 8 characters but most of are very unpowered. The one with the homing missiles is clearly the best and totally unbalanced. You can shoot forwards or backwards if the car is in your proximity. Whereas mines are only backwards and the shotgun character can only shoot in a straight line forward. The mine type weapons that are niche use and are most likely going to miss. The speed boosts feels so brief and useless. Just pick the homing missiles.

Now onto difficulty. This game is tough! A terrible decision was made where any car bumping another from behind will stop the car and drive over them getting a speed bump in the process. Sounds ok? It is not. More often you will find yourself shot at or bombed in the first 10 seconds of a race to then be run over by the other 4 cars over and over unable to move. Many tracks have very thin lanes so this will happen often, usually on a corner as you leap from 1st to 6th in seconds and are now so far behind it's over. Catching up with the AI is often impossible once they get too far away. You can’t attack (even with homing) and trying to catch up with driving alone is usually futile. It's very common for the winning car to have a 10-12 second gap lead from you and the cars behind you.

Most races are decided in the 1st lap and then just holding position by throwing missiles back to keep up front. Even more frustrating you have no continues and if you do not place at least 3rd, you’re done--Game Over. Beating all 24 tracks with no mistakes when things can snowball so easily at the start of a race is utterly hairpulling at times. You're reward for finishing them all? Nothing. Same high score screen as gameover -- lazy! That said, the soundtrack is fantastic, the graphics are pleasant and perhaps in 2 player mode without the pressure of trying to actually beat solo this could be fun. Quite a few tracks are good fun but the horrible windy, thin, harbour tracks kill the game for me and the snow courses where you always seem to be slower than everyone else. The menus are also terribly laggy. Competent, functional game marred by bad design choice after bad design choice. A shame!

• Finished 13th December 2024
  5/10

*It's Wheel of Fortune. The game itself is fun enough but the presentation here is pretty dire. Contestants look hideous, colours are very muted, no music except at the beginning. The UI is clunky and unnecessarily convoluted. The D-Pad moves a cursor around the screen when a cursor is not needed at all. This could have been fixed very easily by having a menu pop up to choose action then a new menu after to choose letters. *

The game also requires you to turn off controller 2 in options manually or you will find yourself stuck on round 2 and unable to use controller 1 to initiate the next game. Just poor playtesting and the game feels rushed (the credits even admit to sleepless nights to getting this game finished). There is also a time limit for taking actions and even trying to "solve" it's quite tight especially if you're solving a puzzle when there are a lot of letters to input. The computer turns drag on and the game could do with running at a faster pace. A very lackluster incarnation of fun game. Playable but I'm sure there better options. Jeopardy is also a much better option by Gametek.

• Finished 22nd March 2025
  5/10

Surprisingly decent graphics (although it is a later game), music is also pretty pleasant. The game however is painfully mediocre and has some interesting ideas that are executed poorly. Each level has largely two enemy types. Walking and shoots projectile. Standing and shoots projectile. All dealt with in the same way. Stage 3 and 5 even reuse the same enemies from stage 1. It's very lazy.

Bosses are interesting and quite fun to figure out but ultimately boring to repeat. The most interesting idea in this game is changing back into Bruce to fit through smaller gaps, but the opportunities to do so are very limited unless you deliberately lose your health and I think it should have been a bigger part of the game. It's really such a nothing game, nothing really good, nothing utterly awful. Skip.

• Finished 27th March 2025
  7/10

Despite liking the series I've never liked this. Wondered if I would mellow as an adult. Nope. The earlier stages are reasonable; however, it soon sours from stage 8. Janky hitboxes, unfair level design and constant instant or rapid death, I don't know where to begin. You can't pick up level items while using the key items—rendering them largely useless (especially the breathing helmet later). I'm still unsure what the dynamite was even for. The invincibility hat is the most important item in the game and almost essential but you have to put it down to pick up level items. The screens are usually chaotic, enemies fly in from nowhere and missiles go across the screen exploding and causing instant death. Each level has several item layouts and its RNG which you’ll get. Some can be as easy with enough key items on the first screen, some much more difficult layout. It's just tedious and frustrating to get the bad RNG.

The final levels has enemies that just spawn in and sit on the entrances to the water, you have practically no choice but to jump in and just take damage and hope you live. To make matters worse, the final stage does not let you use any continues without any warning or explanation. Having the lives cap at 4 also means it's not if you die, it's where you die, that matters. Some levels have many lives and some have very few. Going past score live thresholds will make the final level hard. I deliberately wasted a continue on the 2nd to last level to get my full lives back and reset the score counter. Unbelievable to have to resort to this strategy. Cheap difficulty and frustrating game. A shame as its quite attractive and has pleasant although eventually annoying music. Fun for 15 mins, miserable to finish

• Finished 1st April 2025
  8/10

[Max rank and all medals achieved.] Well made impressive conversion of a PC flight simulator on mega drive technology. The frame rate is very slow but you soon get used to it and begin to get immersed as you flight around shooting bases and bringing down planes with missiles. Amazing soundtrack that accompanies you throughout and really adds to the experience. In the context of 1993 this is a really impressive 3D experience on a console not known for this. However there are a few issues that hold it back. The choice to not let you take off on lower difficulties makes zero sense as it isn't difficult. Instead they opt to thrust you into the air surrounded by enemies (arguably harder).

The targetting system also is a bit tricky as it really struggles to lock onto targets close by unless you have them in your sights, instead favouring to lock onto to targets 50km away. It also priorities the mission target and will auto change lock on and even your weapons when you get nearby. I've missed many a shot due to the target changing at the last moment to the mission target. There is no need to automate this, it is always annoying and never useful. Making U-turns is also rather tricky, trying to line up a target to shot when you've missed is very tedious. Finally the point system feels unbalanced, to get the highest medal you need 12000 points and on the lowest difficulty this is really slow and tedious as enemies are worth much less. That said, it was a good game and my first flight sim on the console. The bar is set very high already. The game is such a vibe especially with the music.

• Finished 4th April 2025
  9/10

Polished presentation for 1990 and an outstanding soundtrack. (Really the soundtrack is top tier). A really interesting and unique gameplay loop that really could have become a franchise or revisited later. Honestly, I want more. A bigger longer game with a save system. I've no idea why this remained NA only nor why it's Japanese release was cancelled. I think this would have gone down well back home along the likes of games like Mega Bomberman etc. A few levels were a little bit tricky and one had a solution which was not explained in the manual and kinda cheap but overall I had a lovely time and would definitely replay. Big recommend if you want something different and feel like you've played all the famous classics. Great arcade type fun.

• Finished 8th April 2025
  4/10

At first, I really wanted to like this game as you slowly explore your surroundings and work out how to play. There is some fantastic world design and atmosphere here. The music is great, the parallax on the first screen still looks great in 1991, but the gameplay is just too rough. The openness of the game falls away revealing a strictly linear game. Hit collision is terrible, the punch attack is too short and unforgiving. Enemies look great with so many sprites but under the hood the entire game is essentially just grotesque enemy rectangles and squares flying in fast from the left or right of the screen or in an arch. It is tiresome and always cheap. Every few steps something will fly in your face, memorisation is the key here.

However, the first 40% of the game can be face rolled as you learn where health pickups are. I had to restart the game so many times I stopped engaging with it eventually and just tanking damage up to the point where health mattered. The more time I spent replaying this game the less I liked it. A huge shame where I think the desire to make something extremely difficulty has had the adverse effect of totally ruining the game. Every 3 hours the game went down another point mentally. The later bosses have bs hit boxes that don’t register if scrolled off screen (but you need to, to dodge). The play expectation is just ridiculous.

The game sorely needed a halfway checkpoint or an extra potion near the end. The game had a few small cutscene descriptions that worked at the opening but then never happened again. You don’t even get an ending. I just don’t understand the thought process here. There's framework for something really nice here but it just needs so much renovating to be passable as a good game. Watch a let’s play and move on.

• Shadow of the Beast: Mashou no Okite (Japanese Version)
  Finished 9th April 2025
  4/10

I had heard this was a better/easier version of the original. I don't exactly agree. It is better in places and worse in others. Every enemy has been changed with new colours or blood added, but some of the designs seem to have lost their feel with the world. The green leafy looking monster that falls out the tree is not orange which loses the point of its camouflage and even the protagonist looks unnecessarily different. The game still feels a touch too fast versus the PAL version to play even if the music is now optimised.

They added an extra sorely needed potion near the end but also seemed to remove the potions respawning so I’m not sure if the trade of is worth it. Bosses are vastly improved as you seem to be able to shoot faster and hit twice the punch attack is also rapid now and much more spammable. TL;DR It's still just overall a bit crap tbh. But hey, they added an ending in now and a unique cool title screen track?

• Finished 10th April 2025
  6/10

Ball Jacks has a really cool concept, rules and design. Colourful game art and some funky music. However, it’s yet another one of those competitive games that just doesn’t feel very fun against the AI. The tricky techniques are very hard to do and the ai as the game goes on becomes incredibly fast causing much frustration. Fortunately, the game infinite continues or I would probably still be playing to this day. The best way to beat most battles is stun and destroy the opponent and then get 4 balls while they are repairing.

However, there are 2 fights where the opponent is invincible, the 2nd of which is in the harder galaxy cup. This fight is insufferable and the hardest in the entire game. It just feels unfair that a very core mechanic is unusable but the ai can still use it against you. The 0.1 second timer on his health is the only saving grace but it’s very hard none the less. The ai on many fights move exceedingly fast and frantically, and can cut and incept your balls with the precision on a computer can have. When you do get through there was a cool twist in the end. I feel this game is much much more fun versus a friend but as a solo experience it would have been much better if it removed the 2 or 3 rounds that felt very overtuned. The ending music tracks are a total vibe though, give them a listen.

• Finished 12th April 2025
  8/10

A very realised action platformer with a lot of nice backstory and lore in the manual and cutscenes. I really enjoyed the world building here and it could have easily been an anime OVA. The pixel art is gorgeous although sometimes some very questionable extremely blown-up pixels are used. Anett animates really well, lots of small details like turning animations and head movements. The sound design’s a mixed affair. Music is really great but the SFX are rather noisy and sometimes annoying. The gameplay starts off well with tight controls and an interesting magic system. Level design is fun and really creative at first and bosses often have some interesting gimmick to figure out. However, after stage 5 the game just really starts to fall apart as it goes on. 6 is short with obnoxious conveyor belts and a very boring boss, stage 7 is a short screen of easy enemies and then the easiest boss in the entire game.

The final stage is an absolute atrocity with endlessly spawning annoying bats that fly into your hitbox and hare very hard to out pace or hit back. Even using the auto targeting magic is frustrating as it takes a long time to charge up. Honestly the level is garbage and it’s a shame as it has interesting design but then fill with these stupid bats. The final boss is also very messy too. I’m not a fan of unavoidable damage and this game is full of nigh impossible situations. The final 1/3 of the game just feels very lazy and rushed which is a huge shame because it was really feeling like something special until then. As the credits rolled I kinda felt “wow was that really it? We’re going to end on this lownote?” El Viento is a game that starts out strong reaches some great mid game heights then just fizzles away into a dreadful climax. It’s absolutely worth playing but brace yourself.

• Finished 13th April 2025
  1/10

Shocking game I’m convinced was conceived just to use the pun Dali Llama. I had heard it had a reputation but went in open minded. The manual had a nice set up with world building and interesting biographies. Things looked promising. The games menus and presentation upon booting up the game are also pleasant and things are looking good. The gameplay graphics are a mixed bag. Gorgeous as a still image but not really very nicely animated. Backgrounds range from innovative (such as the sliding doors stage) to just ugly. Mostly due to lack of decent shading given them this “drawn in ms paint” vibe (albeit professionally drawn in paint.)

Now the gameplay. It’s deplorable. The computer ai is utterly merciless and many fights it will just stun lock you into the wall and spam the same special move over and over leaving your defenseseless. Even if you block it knocks you over. It’s like fighting your kid cousin who just button mashes and drives you insane. The ai makes no sense in its actions, sometimes it just stands there doing nothing hitting the air and backing off, other times it goes all out smashing you into the wall.

To make matters worse, you don’t even have any of your special moves as the game has a system where you “learn” moves after winning some matches. The Dali Llama shows you the move inputs but even then, they are the move inputs for 3-button despite the game supporting 6-button, good luck figuring out how to pull some of them off. Some moves requiring holding the button down (unclear in the demo) others, I never figured out. None of this matters anyway as spamming a simple jump kick and kick again combo into the corner tends to shut up 90% of the games AI.

If you want to use moves next time you play, you need to put in a password for that character. It’s all very confusing and a baffling design choice. Damage values make no sense, some characters seem to hit much harder than others but some characters maybe have a higher defence? Who knows? Who cares? Not me. On my road to beating every Mega Drive game release, people ask me are sports games the worst things you have to play? No. It's these godawful broken fighting games with horrific ai and miserable 1 player experiences.

• Finished 17th April 2025
  5/10