Genesis look: Ranger X

An important aspect in developing a great game is identity. Without an identity a game has nothing that helps it stand apart from possibly hundreds of other titles in the same genre. Sega/Gau was well aware of this when they put together Ranger-X. While it is at heart an action-shooter game there are so many unique aspects and different approaches to mechanics and game design that it makes for a great game.

In the far future society will fail and it is up to a man and his mecha to set things right. Each of the six stages involves hunting down numerous objectives through moderately-sized environments and then facing off with a big boss at the end. Our buddy doesn't have to go it alone however as a cycle-like vehicle follows him through three stages while a flying vehicle covers him through the other three.

The Ranger-X has quite an impressive arsenal. He has a main cannon, the ability to fly for a short period of time and an ever-increasing collection of sub-weapons that he can switch between using his vehicles. While the flying vehicle only follows along and tosses lasers at nearby enemies, the cycle is quite the interesting creation. The cycle fires a main cannon along with X and if X gets inside the cycle he can control it directly as well as strengthen the main cannon with double firepower and homing capabilities. His sub-weapons run the gamut of flamethrowers, lasers that directly target enemies, a blast that rolls along the ground, a flying mecha-eagle of death, a wave shot, and finally a super-blast that drains all of X's energy but makes quite an impression on the enemy. Add in a pretty lengthy life meter for both X and his cycle and they're ready for action.

Energy is restored by light. Where the player gets light is usually pretty obvious. In caves he may have to shoot loose rocks in the ceiling, maybe while scaling a tall building at night he'll come across a random room with the light still on. Energy is needed for the sub-weapons as well as recharging health from the handy stations or from one-time-only pickups. This can be problematic if you're doing poorly in some stages since that means constantly waiting for energy to recharge and then going back to the station to heal up. the stages are rather short so one never has to wander far.

A flying mecha needs a mecha-army to fight against and Ranger-X certainly delivers. Rather than focus on filling the screen with enemies at all times the stages are designed with certain enemy-sets in mind. If you're stalking an enemy base and searchlights are scouring the area it'd be a good idea to take out the wandering patrols and hibernating attack-pods. The objectives that you have to destroy are by no means defenseless as they're well-guarded and can put up a fight of their own. The bosses follow in the mindset of the level designs and tend to do more than offer up a huge wave of bullets to dodge. Some require a bit of ingenuity and restraint and some others might be quite a hassle if you don't use the environment to your advantage. I guess this could be considered a "thinking man's action game" if it actually required a lot of thinking. No it's more about simply understanding that there's more to succeeding than blowing everything up.

Aside from the aforementioned vehicles Ranger-X's offers some very creative uses in mechanics. Though your jet-pack is limited you can prolong its flight by tapping up instead of holding it. If you let the jet-pack empty all the way you'll drop like a stone with no way to recover. Furthermore if one holds down while in the air they'll drop even faster, making a useful technique for dodging attacks. Also since X is the only one that takes damage from enemy-fire you can ride on top of the cycle to get where you're going faster and it can be used to cross a handful of dangerous areas. Most attacks are targeted directly at X so if something's flying at you you can always duck inside your cycle for a quick dodge. Most of the sub-weapons can also be used to cancel out many of the enemy's bullets. Obviously this is a good thing. Taking damage is also handled well since although you don't get an invincibility period after taking a hit you have so much maneuverability that you can quickly get out of large attacks. Collisions with most enemies don't result in damage either. In fact you can shove some enemies around to put yourself in a more advantageous position. The main cannon fire button is tied to both the A and C button(one for left and one for right). This is good for a number of reasons and makes X great in any situation.

Score really doesn't matter at all in this game since unless you fly past a bunch of enemies you're bound to destroy everything(respawnable enemies don't give out any points). This is sensible as additional continues are tied to score. In addition when you destroy the final boss you're rewarded with a completely ridiculous amount of points. So for the most part it's really meaningless.

There are two perceived faults with Ranger-X. That is it's short and easy. However by perceived that's what I believe most people will say after they beat the game on normal without using a continue. While there are additional difficulty settings above normal let's go beyond that. There are still a number of ways for the player to challenge themselves further. Try going without certain sub-weapons or even all of them, try going through the game taking as little damage as possible or only destroying the objectives/bosses. Yes the game is still short but the levels have a bit of open-ness to them and it's safe to try new things. Another important aspect of a great game is that it should be made yours. By this I mean that if it makes sense it should be do-able and if it works it should be successful. If the player wants to get more life out of their game by trying a variety of challenges they've made for themselves the game should be designed to allow that freedom. Under no circumstances should the game force the player to change their idea of how the game could be played. Ranger-X is definitely a game that can be made yours if you think the gameplay is worthwhile. 

I'll be spending more time looking at the essential concept of making a game yours in the future but for now consider checking out Ranger-X. This is one of the better titles available on the Genesis and like with nearly everything else I've talked about in this blog it's affordable no matter your budget.

Genesis look: Galahad

Here we have yet another Amiga port for the Sega Genesis. Galahad is actually a slight modification of the game Leander, which is the tale of a young man's quest to rescue the maiden and kill the sorcerer. Speaking of tales this game was developed by Traveller's Tales. You may remember these guys from such monster hits as the Lego videogame franchise.

As expected the folks at Traveller's Tales have a bit of history with making traditional games. Galahad is no different as it's a platformer with fairly light action elements. Though you wield a sword and at times a special ability you'll find that much of your progress is tied to how well you can jump from tiny platform to tiny platform. The game is split into three worlds that are made up of about 6 or 7 stages apiece. Each world culminates with a big boss fight though there's plenty of larger encounters to deal with along the way. 

The hero Galahad(yeah he's not really Galahad but who cares?) has the walking and jumping under control. His sword is also quite adept though initially it's pretty weak. Thankfully in most stages there's a shop where the hero can buy new armor to take more hits, buy more powerful swords(with unique abilities), and bombs for one particular sword. While all of the swords have their uses I'm fond of the Tornado Blade because Galahad becomes this whirling deluge of sword-swings and moves a bit faster, making for more interesting jumps(though quite a bit less safe). Aside from the shop there's many goodies scattered everywhere in the form of coins, healing potions, bombs, and even 1ups(rare obviously). These can be found in out of the way places as well as the corpses of your foes. Although enemies can respawn the treasure doesn't. While the hero can take up to six hits, spiked pits and certain larger enemies can take him out instantly. Though with plentiful lives, a few continues, and even passwords for the three worlds it should be well within anyone's grasp to finish this game.

The levels in this game are rather large though for the most part they're linear. Your goal in each stage is to collect some magic artifact and take it to a teleporter(which is usually located at the other end of the level). The basic idea is that the teleporter is on one end, the artifact is on the other, and you're somewhere in the middle. It's traditional certainly but the levels are paced well enough that it rarely gets very boring. If you're a fan of Sonic games and their ilk however you'll get tired of this game rather quickly. 

The denizens of the land are about as traditional as you can imagine. Soldiers wander around trying to gut you with their spear, goblins shoot arrows or ride balloons while dropping bombs, dogs wander the streets, and so on. The game mixes it up by changing the enemy set every world and even introducing a handful of unique foes you won't find in any other stage(the protagonist from Fatal Rewind makes a cameo towards the end as an enemy!). While most of the foes don't do much aside from walking back and forth they're placed well enough and complement the level design so that you can't simply jump around without incident. 

The real threats in Galahad are the traps. Moving platforms and spikes are a given but as the player progresses they'll stumble into new ones or more difficult variations of past traps. My personal favorite is the moving platform that dips just below the spikes before coming back up. Since spikes are instant death there's plenty to fear from these things. It also doesn't help that in a couple stages the player can't make out what's below them so they could just as easily fall on a bed of spikes unless they've played the stage before and know where to jump. It's not that the spikes are badly misplaced it's just hard to determine if particular jumps are safe. These incidents are rare at least and as the game progresses the level design improves to a point where it's no longer a worry.

The mechanics for this game are rather odd. While Galahad is a deceptively thin target he's also a deceptively tall target. Using the Goblin's bombs for example I was able to determine that his hit box is one line through the center of his body since attacks that hit his hands or other protruding extremities don't count. However things that shouldn't matter like a stray arrow going through his hair(or whatever that stuff is on his helmet) counts as damage. It's not really that big of a worry but it can be an annoyance in some sections where the player has to climb up an area with falling rocks. 

The scoring system suffers a little from the inclusion of respawning enemies. If you think your Genesis could last a month or two you could just find a stationary enemy, turn on an autofire controller, and leave. So yeah if you did something like that I doubt Twin Galaxies or whoever is going to come knocking on your door. The scoring system is well-done as it gives points to a number of factors(like carrying a lot of money and not using any bombs) and it gives some reward to exploration even if the player finds a bunch of things they don't even need.

The direction of this game never changes beyond the first stage. There's no levels where Galahad rides a horse or saves a village from burning by fighting off a wave of goblins. There's no speed stages or huge mazes or huge multi-form bossfights that take ten minutes to kill. This game holds very close to its roots and never deviates. While it can get repetitive there's little in the way of actual flaws. All in all Galahad is a respectable game and it earns my recommendation.

Favorite Game soundtracks

While the music in a videogame does nothing to affect my critique of a game there's still no shortage of game music that I absolutely enjoy. Plus at least it'll keep me from gushing over the music whenever I look at a game. There's going to be a lot of stuff you've already heard but I hope that you'll find something new as well.

Here's a list of my favorite soundtracks along with an accompanying youtube sample and a few words.

Tekken 4: While this is considered the black sheep of the series it's definitely one of my favorites in terms of music. It's a very cool mix of acid jazz and minimalistic pieces that help to evoke a ton of atmosphere. 

Tekken 5 / Dark Resurrection: Keeping with Tekken this is easily my pick for best of the series(though T6 BR might change that when it finally hits consoles). The composers went in a number of different directions here and while there are a couple misses the highs are just absolutely perfect.

Super Mario Galaxy: Needless to say if I was going to put any Mario soundtrack here it'd be this one. Aside from the amazing orchestrated pieces there are a number of tracks here that adapt to Mario's current situation(whether he's about to defeat a boss, underwater, or etc). It's hard to explain but since you played the game you already know what I'm talking about.

Vagrant Story: Phenomenal. That's all I can say.

G-Darius: While Darius Gaiden was a bit of a surprise aurally with its combination of eastern themes and techno-opera G. Darius pushes it to another level with something completely out there. There's a bit of everything and a lot of unique sounds to this soundtrack and for the final entry in the series OGR really took it to another level.

Sonic CD: While popular opinion is mostly in favor of the original version's Japan/Europe soundtrack there's good and bad in both of them I think. The original soundtrack is pretty reliant on samples(like this boss theme) and can get annoying at times(plus there's a few outright stinkers) while there's some mediocre tracks to the US version as well. Since we have the freedom to take both that's what I'm doing. Good stuff.

Ecco The Dolphin CD: Spencer Nilsen is one of Sega's most talented composers yet I don't think he gets enough credit. This soundtrack is one of his highlights. Just the kind of thing I'd be listening to if I were to find myself swimming in the middle of an ocean somewhere.

Puggsy: Due to the weak soundchip a lot of great compositions on the Genesis tend to get buried. This one does a fine job of working around that and producing just tons of memorable and catchy tunes. Nothing mind-blowing I guess but whatever I dig it.

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike: Some people can't stand this soundtrack. I love it so oh well. Not much else to say.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness: While there's little worthwhile about the actual game the soundtrack to CoD is one of the best I've heard in the series.

Metal Black: While the in-game soundtrack is good this one really shines on the arranged work known as "The First". Unfortunately I can't find much of anything on it on youtube.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer 1: I'm a fan of the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series but the music definitely peaked with the first Dreamcast game. Techno, Eurobeat, some Atmospheric, and even a bit of Metal. It's simplistic but fantastic.

Ridge Racer Type 4: This is considered among the best of the Ridge Racer soundtracks and it's not hard to see why. Definitely up there for myself as well.

Ridge Racer 5: While not up to RRT4's level this soundtrack still has some great stuff. Hell if it wasn't for this song I wouldn't have gotten myself to complete Ridge Racer 6's career mode.

Mass Effect: You knew this was going to get listed eventually so I may as well get it over with.

Street Fighter EX3: Okay maybe this isn't Capcom's best fighting game series but it's near the top when it comes to music. 

The World Ends With You: A surprising gem and one of my picks for best game of 2008. Soundtrack isn't for everyone but who cares about them?

There's more to come so feel free to watch this space if you like. 

Genesis look: Wings of Wor

Oh, look it's another one of those 2D shooters for the Sega Genesis. This time we're looking at a game by NCS/Masaya. These guys have produced a number of titles over the years. Probably their most well-known is the bizarre shooter Choaniki. While they tend to develop games that are off-putting in either style or game design I can't think of a truly bad game they've put out.

Wings of Wor's story involves something about a winged man fighting mutants and then turning into a statue. Yeah I didn't pay attention to the intro or the manual. To save the land this guy must go through five lengthy stages filled with all manner of grotesque creatures. There's also the final stage is essentially a mini-boss rush where all of the mid-bosses of the first five stages for one last attack(the 4th boss also makes an appearance..which is just plain odd). Like pretty much all other console-exclusive Genesis shooters this one is horizontally scrolling.

As far as winged-men go this dude is pretty well-equipped. He starts off with a piddly two bullet spreadfire but it can grow up to six shots and cover the screen quite well. Also, by obtaining certain powerups he can fire straight ahead to do more damage or gain a rear shot for covering his hindquarters. The more unique aspect is the sub-weapon system. When he grabs scrolls with different letters our hero can use special limited-use weapons like a lightning bolt that flies across the screen or a diagonal-based shot that evaporates enemy bullets. There's room for three scrolls so the player can pick up different ones for variation or they can grab three of the same weapon to make it much stronger. This adds a bit of strategy and also helps keep the game fresh on repeat playthroughs. Unfortunately, our winged hero requires feathers that boost his speed (and if you grab too many feathers, you might have trouble controlling him). Upon dying the hero loses 1 weapon level (out of up to 5), one level of speed, and his currently-equipped weapon. 

The level-design is pretty standard for the most part. There's usually a lot of wide-open space for the player to maneuver through and the enemy to fill with bullets. The game does a fine enough job of mixing it up but most of the themes of each stage come from the enemies the player will face off against. These enemies tend to appear in waves and they grow in number and intensity as the stage progresses. It's certainly a nice break as this game relies more on twitch-reflexes than rote memorization (though it helps to know how a few enemies behave). It's nowhere near the likes of manic shooters like Dodonpachi and its ilk but there's a lot more dodging to this game than simply knowing where to stand to avoid death.

The weapons tend to be doled out as the situation arises(like you'll find a sub-weapon that shoots along the ground when you approach a wave of ground-based enemies). Unfortunately this means that some weapons can only be found in certain stages and if you want to hold onto them for later that means you have to not pick up any others or not use the weapon after equipping it(don't forget you can't die either). While it certainly doesn't ruin the game it is a bit of a bummer especially since for the final stage no sub-weapons appear at all.

I have another complaint about the final stage and that is the clouds. While it's a cool locale for a final stage I think the clouds were a bit un-necessary and that's because they take up a fair portion of the screen. Since the clouds aren't transparent they can hide the hero as well as the boss' bullets. Needless to say this is a good way to rack up unfair deaths. 

I don't usually mention stuff like this but the art-design in this game is pretty freaking out there. At times it's Greco-roman but also a bit of industrial and some biological themes to it as well. There's quite a bit of suggestive imagery and at times it's hardly subtle. I guess the art-direction of this game is part of the reason why we may never see it on the Virtual Console* (that or the giant penis the fifth boss is sporting) which is quite a shame because the game is very good.

There's really not a whole lot that helps Wings of Wor stand out in comparison to other shooters on the Genesis (let alone other consoles & the arcade). The mechanics are quite good and while I have some issues with certain aspects like the lack of sub-weapons and a few minor design decisions I didn't see any apparent flaws worth mentioning. If you're the kind of person that only wants to stick to a handful of the best STGs you may as well pass this one by but if you're like me and have to play everything you'd do well to check this out. 

The soundtrack is very nice as well. It's by Noriyuki Iwadare who has done music for various RPGs like the Lunar series and Grandia. Like Hitoshi Sakimoto and Motoi Sakuraba, Iwadare is just one of the many Japanese game-music composers who cut their teeth on shooter soundtracks before going to work on RPGs. Course I guess you could just look up the music on youtube or something and ignore the game entirely. That would be a shame, I think.

*Nowadays you can just buy the game off of the Switch store.

Genesis look: Tiny Toons: Buster's Hidden Treasure

There's not much to say about the Tiny Toons cartoons. At first I wrote it off as Looney Toons for the kiddies but before long I came to enjoy their self-referential humor. My favorite character was always Plucky Duck because well, I'm a huge Daffy Duck fan so it carries over. With every popular franchise comes a videogame and Tiny Toons actually got quite a few of them on consoles ranging from the SNES to even the Game Boy Advance. Right now however I'd like to look at Buster's Hidden Treasure.

While cleaning out some rooms in Acme University Buster stumbles upon a treasure map. Naturally things don't go well and Monterey Max(an un-likeable spoiled jerk) wants it for himself and has hired some professor to capture all of Buster's friends. So in order to rescue his friends and get the treasure Buster has to run & jump through several stages each taking on a popular platforming locale(like forests, caves, lava caves, ice lands, and so on). If you're a fan of platformers you've seen it all before. The game uses a map screen and you can replay stages as many times as you like although you can't exit ones you've already finished unless you complete them again. Some of the stages have multiple exits which lead to new stages and Gogo the Dodo kindly points those out. Touching Gogo at the end of each stage completes it, though at times there are more than one of him in different locations in the stage(thus they'll lead to different stages).

The controls are almost the same as any other platformer. You push left or right to run and if you run for awhile you break out into a Sonic-esque full speed run and can do some impressive jumps. Also when full-speed running you can slide by hitting B, great for nailing lines of guys but other than that it doesn't see nearly enough use. The jump is a bit of an odd bird. You're familiar with platformers where if you hold the jump button as opposed to simply tapping it you can jump higher. Well in this game if you tap the jump button or let go before you reach the full height of your leap you fall very quickly. This is very jarring at first and even late in the game it can still crop up if you're not paying attention. Also like in traditional platformers you kill the bad guys by jumping on them. The final feature is the wall jump. When Buster reaches the full height of his jump while pressing against a wall he'll go into a primer animation(he puts his feet against the wall) and by hitting jump again you can leap in the direction he's facing. This isn't really touched upon at first but in the later stages its usefulness starts to become readily apparent. There's also power-ups you can collect like healing items(you can take three hits, up to five if you collect two bells), carrots(aka coins), and extra lives. You can also grab power-ups that when used(A button) will summon a less popular Tiny Toons character(like that sneezing mouse) to wipe out everything on the screen. These guys are really useless.

The level designs fit the archetypes well. In lava stages you'll have to contend with fire-based enemies that you can't touch as well as lots of platforms sitting in lava. There are a few stages where you have to swim and thus can't attack but they are for the most part not too bad. There is one particular stage is very annoying since there are a lot of huge drops into pools of water and you're likely to land on an enemy as soon as you fall in the water. Every few stages you face off against a boss. Most of the time the Professor has taken control of one of your friends and you have to jump on his head multiple times to rescue them. I know this guy is an actual Tiny Toons character but in the context of the game he may as well be Dr. Robotnik. He's got a tiny ship he flies around in, he captures Buster's friends and uses them against him, when you beat him he always retreats, and like the more recent Sonic games he's only secondary to the real villain(Max). It's like Konami and almost every other Genesis platformer dev. figured since people liked Sonic so much they'd also like games that played as close to that series as possible.

All told this game doesn't exactly play like a Sonic game. Although speed is a factor there are quite a few traps or even just loose objects lying on the ground to keep Buster from rushing through everything. In fact most of the game is just straight-up platforming with everything you'd expect. Tiny platforms that move, fall, or do a combination of both, bad guys to bounce off to reach higher places, and so on. In some stages you'll find an item that sends Buster to Wackyland to collect tons of carrots and maybe a 1up or two. These are very rare but they provide a neat bit of variety to the game. 

The biggest threat in this game is spikes. Spikes will cause instant death if they are touched and are quite prevalent in all the wrong places. For some reason the designers love to put spikes just out of sight of the player. Late in the game I'd find myself falling on a set of spikes just sitting on the floor with no indication that they'd be there, or worse yet a set of them sitting on the ceiling for players to bump their head on after hitting a spring. Usually these spikes are sensibly placed but at times they just feel like they were placed to mess people up and make them start the stage over(there are no checkpoints). Some sort of visual cue would be nice since the game is so apt to show off Buster's speed. I can guarantee you that spikes will be the cause of most if not all of your deaths in this game. The bosses are mostly pathetic and you find so many hearts and bells that health isn't really a problem when dealing with regular foes. 

One aspect in particular that absolutely blows my mind is that you get unlimited continues...at first. Later in the game those continues are taken away. Now this isn't a terribly long game but it's idiotic to do something like this. Besides if gamers feel that their lives are running low they can just go all the way back to the first stage and load up on a bunch of easy 1ups. Now granted you can't exit a level even if you die but if it takes you 10 or more lives to complete a level you've got bigger problems. There are passwords in this game for when the continues run out. Again this makes no sense. Why not have the unlimited continues anyway? It's even worse that the passwords in this game are massive. All they should be keeping track of is which stages are completed. It's not like it keeps track of score, number of lives, or any of that other stuff. Your best bet is to just keep a large stock of lives handy at all times. Granted that means going all the way back to the first stage every once in awhile but at least it keeps you in the game and not sitting in front of a password entry screen for several minutes.

I also don't see the point in having a score in this game. About all points are good for is 1ups as there are no scoreboards and the ability to repeat stages renders playing for score rather moot. Better yet why not ditch the useless "kill all enemies" power-ups and just make 50 or even 100 carrots equal a 1up? I really don't understand why Konami would make such wacky design decisions for this game.

However if you can manage to ignore all of the stupidity in the design of the game, the odd jumping mechanic, and all those random spike-beds you'll find that it's actually a pretty decent game. It certainly doesn't hurt that this game is still dirt-cheap, making it a good addition to any platformer fan's library. Of course when playing this game you might want to throw on your favorite CD or have a relative or close friend scream in your ear cause anything is better than the 20 variations of the Tiny Toons theme you'll hear.

Genesis look: Fatal Rewind

One nice quality about the Genesis is that over the years it recieved a handful of Amiga ports courtesy of Electronic Arts. This is good in my case since I'll probably never get around to buying an Amiga. Fatal Rewind is one such game and the first thing one will notice is the striking box-art. Both this and Shadow of the Beast have fantastic covers. In fact every copy of both game comes with a poster...provided you can still find a copy that does.

Fatal Rewind (or The Killing Game Show if you prefer) takes place in one of those futures where the government has complete control of the people and a secret rebel group is ready to make a stand. In a story that draws comparisons to "The Running Man" one individual is caught and made an example of by being placed in this game show. Course in this game they take it a step further by removing his entire lower body and placing the rest of him inside a mech that moves by walking on its hands. Yeah it's a very twisted game.

This game show is basically a death trap as players are expected to navigate a large number of huge mazes collecting keys, avoiding minor traps, and destroying waves of enemies. The greatest worry however is an ocean of DOLL(Deadly to Organic Life Liquid). After a few seconds in the stage DOLL starts to slowly rise, consuming everything in sight. Needless to say it's obvious that you're not supposed to win but with enough time you will eventually.

This game uses a side-view perspective and the controls are pretty easy to grasp. You tap the fire button to shoot while holding the button uses a tool. C button jumps and if you jump at some walls you can climb. You also get a lengthy health meter but since you don't get an invincibility period when you take a hit it's necessary to avoid running into swarms of foes as they can drain it all very quickly. 

Over the course of the game you can collect a variety of weapons and items. The weapons have limited ammo but they're still nice to have when dealing with the constantly spawning swarms. Your main focus however will be on all of the items. There are a few items that restore health, others that give you hints(or simply mock you), and even one very important one that stops the DOLL from rising. Your most important items however will be the keys. These come in a variety of shapes and they can open doors, create platforms, and otherwise allow you to progress. You can only hold one item at a time(including keys) so you'll have to do quite a bit of swapping around to get where you need to go.

The most unique feature of Fatal Rewind is that when you die on your next life the game will automatically replay everything you did on your last life. It's here where you can figure out where you went wrong on your last life and take control when you reach the critical spot. It's really cool being treated to a replay of your last playthrough and even if you make a mistake towards the end you're not exactly starting the entire level over again. While this is trial & error gameplay after completing each level you're given an extra life so at least one of your screw-ups is covered provided you reach the end. 

Unfortunately as with most games of this type once you can figure out how to reach the end of the stage that's pretty much it. There's little in the way of additional paths or more ways to challenge yourself and once you're figured out where to go in every stage you've pretty much mastered it. It's a cool concept with a really interesting feature but without anything else to set it apart it's probably not worth the trouble of hunting down.

The poster is pretty sweet though.

Game Boy Advance Look: Double Dragon Advance

It seems kind of sad that the final(?) game in the Double Dragon series was relegated to a near-launch Game Boy Advance release. Many beatemup fans cite the original Double Dragon as one of their first games in the genre. The series peaked during the NES days with the classic Double Dragon II but was unfortunately overshadowed by the likes of Final Fight and Streets of Rage during the 16-bit years before fading into obscurity(it also didn't help that Technos, the developers behind this and other beatemup games was shut down in 1995). Yet seemingly out of nowhere we got a new Double Dragon from Million and Atlus.

Actually calling this a new Double Dragon is stretching the truth a bit. Advance is actually a remake of sorts that compiles the first two games into one adventure including aspects like weapons, thugs, bosses, and stages. While fans of parts 3 & 4 are more or less left out in the cold there's plenty to like about this title.

Over the years Technos also did several other beatemups like the Kunio Kun series(though we only saw a tiny % of that series in the form of River City Ransom) and a few one-off titles like The Combatribes and Shadow Force. So for this "ultimate" edition of Double Dragon there was a lot of material to pull from. Though Technos is long-gone the developers behind this game did a good job of carrying along every facet of the originals(they've also done a River City Ransom remake for the GBA as well as two Super Dodgeball games for the GBA as well as the DS).

The story and intro are classic to Double Dragon fans. In a future sort of inspired by Mad Max(but with far less Desert), Billy and Jimmy Lee must rescue Billy's girlfriend Marion from the clutches of the Shadow Warriors. Rescuing the girl leads the heroes through eight stages of varying locales from alleyways and construction yards to ancient temples and even on top of a semi-trailer. These games seem to be based on the arcade versions and thus feature much less platforming than their NES counterparts as well as mechanics and gameplay similar to arcade. A lot of the music is also from the first two games though a couple choice tracks didn't make the cut(for example the second stage theme from DD2, which sounds almost exactly like the song "Easy Lover" by Philip Bailey & Phil Collins).

Both brothers play identical to each other and they have a ton of moves at their disposal. Seriously this is by far the most moves either brother has had access to in the entire series. To put into perspective let's go over the options. A thug approaches what do you do? Well you could start by doing a one-two punch or a single kick. This puts him into stun animation. From there you could press punch again for an uppercut that sends him into the air, a roundhouse to send him flying, or you can grab his hair and do a number of other moves(like knee him in the face and/or toss him over your shoulder to take out guys moving in from behind). But let's say this guy is jumping in. Well that's what the block is for. In fact with proper timing not only will you deflect the attack but you'll also throw the thug. It doesn't end there however. You've got your special moves. By pressing both the punch and kick buttons together you crouch down(which is also handy for dodging some attacks) depending on what button you press you either get a devastating uppercut or a flying knee. Toss in a bunch of moves that'll cover your rear(like a handy elbow), a handful of attacks for opponents on the ground, running attacks, different flavors of jump-kicks(spin-kicks, back-kicks, diving-kicks), and you're certainly a force to be reckoned with. If that isn't enough you can even do some basic juggling combos. Uppercut a dude and you can give him a nice head-butt when he falls to really put him out in a bad way.

In regular beatemup fashion the thugs also tend to be carrying weapons. Trademarks like knives and bats can be used to your advantage as well as stuff like dynamite, boulders, whips, maces, and so on. While sometimes it's more advantageous to stick to your fists it may be helpful to keep these tools in mind(or at least out of the enemies hands as they can be quite a threat with them). 

The levels play out as you would expect. You arrive at an area, beat everyone up, and move on. Some of the later stages mix it up by throwing in traps and more than enough pits that'll kill you instantly. Couple these with some absolutely brutal thugs(not to mention the numbers, it's not rare to see six foes on-screen at once) and you have more than enough reason to to work out that massive arsenal of moves you have. 

The biggest thing to look out for in this game is that your moves have next to no priority. What this means is even if you do something crazy like a jumping spin-kick you're still going to get knocked out of the air by a single punch. Even if you throw a punch at the same time a bad guy throws one his(or hers) will always connect. This isn't a flaw as it's actually a reason to play more defensively. Despite the advantage in priority the enemy still has a habit of making themselves open to attack and learning when to pursue these moments will help the player survive.

Surviving however is still quite difficult as this game can be quite brutal. Aside from the aforementioned pits being quite a nuisance(especially since you can fall into quite a few just by moving down a bit too far) the thugs themselves have quite a few moves that can drain your life almost completely. Their AI is a bit more advanced than average and they'll always seek out a way to surround you. Couple all of this with no healing items(though health is restored between stages) and you're going to go through quite a few lives before you get a handle on things. For the true masters a Survival mode is available. Getting to the top requires the defeat of over 100 foes and it has to be done with one measly life-bar. 

Aside from the standard two-player mode(when you want to beat up people with a friend, or just beat up each other), you can play a special one-player mode where you control both Billy & Jimmy. How this is accomplished is by pressing the select button to switch between characters. Obviously this is a very difficult mode and it would have been better if there was a mode where Jimmy was controlled by the computer. But eh for whatever reason it's there.

The gameplay itself is extremely good. Mechanics are quite solid and little touches like the enemies hitting each other with thrown knives and getting killed by their own traps really lends a sense of balance to the game. Despite all of the moves and basic combos this is still very much an old-school beatemup so if you miss you're left wide open to attack and since a rather large number of attacks can lead to instant-death it can be frustrating to some. But like quite a few other games this is one of those where it gets better as you spend more time with it. There's a number of factors that work against it like the relative ease that most thugs can be dispatched with but this is balanced out by them rarely working alone and gleefully surrounding you at every possible chance. From there it can be very difficult to get out of situations where you're surrounded and/or knocked down with foes leering over you. This is handled by learning the move-set and taking advantage of little things like the ability to charge a special when you get up(which is again very useful since you duck beforehand, leaving most high-attacks going clear over your head). Also at times you simply have to know when to hold back and not get yourself into problematic situations. While escape is possible it's not like a number of beatemups where you can just press a button or two and do an invincible attack at a small cost of life. Every move you make or don't make has very real consequences and leaving yourself open will lead to your ruin. While there's not much depth to the scoring system beating this game on the harder settings and getting the best possible ranking in Survival mode will give you more than enough time to master the very deep and satisfying fighting system.

As far as beatemups go this is by far the best one that I've played on the Game Boy Advance. Now I'm well aware that this isn't saying much cause you could probably count that handheld's entire beatemup library on one hand but even as far as the entire genre goes I think it's definitely up there next to the likes of Sega's Bare Knuckle 3, Capcom's later works, and Konami's Vendetta. If you want the best experience possible though I'd recommend a Super GBA player and a good controller cause playing this game on the DS has done quite a number to my thumbs. Still considering you can likely find this for only a few bucks and it's such a good game I say it's worth the abuse.