Level Up: Pulseman

If I say the name Game Freak, you might recognize it due to them being the developers of Pokemon (which I neglected to mention in my Pokemon Blue review), and currently they work exclusively behind Nintendo. But of course, they didn’t start out that way, and though their earliest titles are on the NES (like the previously reviewed Yoshi), they had a few that came out for the PC, PlayStation and Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis as we North Americans know it). According to my research, most of these are Japanese only games, but one was brought to us thanks to the Wii Virtual Console. Let’s take a look at Pulseman, originally for the Sega Master Drive, but I’ll be playing it on the Wii Virtual Console.

Since ported games on the Virtual Console are still not translated for some reason, my understanding of the game’s story relies somewhat on fan translations. But basically Pulseman seems to be a unique individual able to cross over from virtual reality to the real world at will. He was created when his father, Doctor Yoshiyama entered into the virtual world to be with a virtual woman he loved and they produced an offspring. I think this might be why Pulseman was never came to America: they weren’t ready for man on data action. However, though Yoshiyama could enter the virtual reality and produce an offspring that could leave, it seems that he was stuck for a while. This would have a negative effect over time and would result in two Matrix sequels- I mean Yoshiyama going insane. When he finally gets out he has become the evil Doctor Waruyama and establishes a group of cyber terrorists he calls the Galaxy Gang. The only person who can stop them from taking over all of the world’s technology is the only one who can stop their mayhem in the virtual world as well as the real one: Pulseman.

The story behind Pulseman is interesting, especially considering he sounds like he’s just a rejected Megaman robot master. The idea that the main villain is actually Pulseman’s creator, turned mad due to what he did for love, actually creates some tension and could play out like a tragedy. Here’s the problem: this is pretty much told to us from the start. This would be like if at the beginning of A New Hope, Luke’s aunt said “It really sucked that your father went crazy trying to protect you and your mother and became Darth Vader”.  Still, it’s a neat emotional twist to the plot, which was more than I expected from a game that revolves around the Cyberspace trope.

With a name like Pulseman, the core game mechanics would of course rely on electricity. You have two kinds of attacks, but the more interesting thing is how you get to use your powers. You need to power them up by running, and this is an interesting mechanic. But it has a fatal problem: you basically have two speeds, slow and fast, and the shift between is just so sudden. However, you can also charge up by double tapping forward or backwards, as Pulseman will jolt in that direction and be fully charged. I found this ruins the strategy of running around and finding enough room to use your good attacks, since this will work even if you hit into a wall. It’s a shame that this game mechanic had so much potential.

But beyond that, the platforming is still good. Being fully changed allows you to shoot a straight shot of electricity or bounce around in an electric ball (which is a great way to say yourself from dying). I found the difficulty to be a good middle ground, as you’ll need to know what you’re doing, but it’s never frustrating. All around, the only flaw is the lack of “smoothness” coming from the speed system.

Pulseman is a great game, it could have just been that extra bit better. The music is good and the graphics are awesome! The game play is a pretty amusing as long as you don’t have to suddenly run, and everything has a cool techno atmosphere to it. This is a pretty good game that I am glad we get to now experience, and it’s pretty clear this game means something to Game Freaks too: the Galaxy Game may have inspired Team Galactic in 4^th Generation Pokemon, there’s a guy in Pokemon Platnium that looks like Doctor Waruyama, Rotom is shaped a bit like the title character, Remoraid looks like an enemy in the game and the “Volt-Tackle” is one of Pulseman’s two attacks (Pikachu’s final smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl looks just like this move too). If this game just felt a lot smoother, I could see myself giving this game a perfect score. But, I just can’t get over the momentum problems I felt while replaying this game for this review. I give Pulseman available on the Wii Virtual Console 9 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Shinobi

So far in this 8-Bit ninja month *GONG*, I have looked at 3 NES games with the word Ninja in the title. So I’m guessing some of you may have started wondering why I didn’t just call it “NES Ninja’” month, or maybe started looking up games with the word “Ninja” in the title. Well, like a Ninja, I wanted to be unpredictable: I started with the most obvious game, then went for something less known, then a slightly obscure game. So now, I’ll review a Ninja game on a console I haven’t even talked about yet. Let’s now look at Shinobi for the Sega Master System.

Beyond the system, the gameplay also makes this game different from the others I reviewed this month. While most of them went for a chaotic, action feel, Shinobi goes for the feel of a slow, intimidating assassin. The animation looks like the player character is just taking baby steps forward (which is why I jokingly give him the nick name “The world’s slowest ninja”). This game is all about planning things out, as you’re damaged easily making it hard to advance if there is an enemy in front of you, so just wait for your moment to strike.

Of course, at its heart, Shinobi is still a platforming game and has a few interesting elements. By pressing up or down and the jump button in the right spots, you jump up to another level, floor, platform or whatever you want to call it. Not only is this necessary to advance but it’s useful to manoeuvre around enemies. As you play, you will also spot kidnapped kids. By walking up to them, they will give you certain bonus items. This could be a weapon upgrade, they might heal you, extend your health bar, let you play bonus games for some extra skills or maybe just give you points. Not every weapon is an upgrade though, so you may want to skip a kid here or there (they always have the same item, so just remember where they are).

As for the controls, I have to say they work really well. Considering how slow Shinobi moves, I was surprised to find I could react quickly if I needed to.  You can also be surprisingly accurate with your thrown weapons while jumping. All around, this game has pretty decent game play.

The story of Shinobi takes place in modern times, when the criminal organisation “Zeed” kidnaps the children of Joe Musashi’s ninja clan. He takes it upon himself to rescue them and take down the Zeed.

Now, do you know how I know all of this? I looked it up on Wikipedia. Seriously, everything I just said could have been made up by someone who edited the page and I wouldn’t know. The game never gave any hint that it has a plot, especially since there are no cut scenes. This wouldn’t be so bad, but one thing really pushed me over the limit: when you finish the game (and this is so pathetic, I’m not even going to activate a spoiler alarm) all you get is the Game Over screen. There’s no extra image, no “Thank You”, “The End” or even a credit roll. This game is actually kind of hard, so to put all that effort for a screen that I could have just seen if I failed really made my blood boil. Now, apparently the arcade version had images and messages between stages, but that’s not the version I’m talking about. The fact that they didn’t even put the effort to change the words to an appropriate end message shows an incredible laziness and might as well have been a picture of the producer flipping us the bird.

I wanted to like Shinobi more than I do. Honestly, the game play is fun and different enough from most games (especially most Ninja games) that it makes it somewhat unique. Unfortunately a few things stop me from raving about this game: there is no cut scenes, the ending really made me mad (called the worst video game ending ever by a few people) and (as much as I hate to nit-pick) there is a jump on level 4-2 that is practically impossible. That doesn’t sound so bad, but this is the type of game where a single death makes you lose all your power-ups, it is hard to beat the game without them and a single pit-fall means a death. If you’re the type of gamer who gets really invested in finishing something, this might just disappoint you: the pay-off is not worth the effort. Still, Shinobi is fun as it has many great elements and approaches its subject in a good way. I give Shinobi for the Sega Master System 7 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Ninja Crusaders

So we know Ninjas are often awesome, but occasionally you’ll get a stinker that just used the name Ninja as a marketing gimmick (Ninja Bread Man leaps to mind) and you have to take the risk. That’s what I thought when I randomly stumbled upon today’s game. I had never heard of it or even the company on the label (Sammy Studios) so I took a chance. Let’s look at my random find and continue 8-bit Ninja month *GONG* with Ninja Crusaders for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Last week, when I talked about Shadow of the Ninja, I had compared it a lot to Ninja Gaiden.  While I found the two games comparable, I felt it was only because it was also an 8-bit Ninja game on the NES. But at no point did I feel like Shadow of the Ninja was trying to be Ninja Gaiden. That’s not the case with Ninja Crusaders: it very much feels like a knock off even from just looking at the game. The sprite style looks like they just tried to copy Ryu, but didn’t quite succeed. Furthermore, I mentioned that Ryu was bright while the enemies are dark in my review of Ninja Gaiden 2. This is not the case with Ninja Crusaders, as the player character is a dark red, but the enemies range from dark blue and brown to bright pink, so that contrast doesn’t exist.  Even the animations, poses and backgrounds are all done in the same manner as Ninja Gaiden. It really starts feeling like The Asylum started publishing video games.

The game play is… second rate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still “left-to-right-hit-the-enemy” goodness, but there are some things just off about it. The jumping, for example, fells more like floating up and down in the air. Oddly enough, swimming feels more like you’re jumping onto water, as you sink about as quickly as you would if you were stepping on a memory foam mattress. Hit detection really feels iffy too, as I’m never sure if I’m hitting the enemies. It’s just all a bunch of things like this that makes me wonder it’s just half-assed or if they didn’t know how a really good game feels.

A common complaint (among the 3 other reviews I could actually find) is that this game is unfairly hard due to the player character dying with one hit. This not only goes against the inverse laws of Ninjas, but turns it from an action game to more of a memory test. Trial and error games aren’t inherently bad (look at Battletoads) but this is too chaotic, and only being able to take one hit only allows you inch forward.

That’s the last negative thing I’m really going to say about this game, as there are good things. For example, like in Shadow the Ninja, you can find other weapons to switch to. There are 4 different ones, which I can’t really list (a mix of the sub-par sprites and my lack of knowledge of Japanese weapons), but it does help you tailor the game to how you want to play it. For example, I enjoy the whip, because with only one chance to make a mistake, I enjoy taking down my enemies from as far as possible. Others might enjoy the stronger bow weapon that will take down most enemies in few hits. Another thing to consider is that the weapon you choose will also allow you to play as one of 4 animals. Each weapon corresponds to a different animal, so you may want to test both out and see which weapon suits you best for both cases.

“But Leo” you might be asking “can’t I just change weapons when I want a different animal?” I recommend not doing that. First off, weapons are found on the field, so the weapon you want might not be available at a given time, or you might switch to weapon that you’re not good with and may not be able to switch back for a while. Secondly, every time you run into the icon for the weapon you already have, you get an extra life. Since getting hit once kills you you’ll want to stock up as much as you can.

Ninja Crusaders isn’t really a great game, but it’s not really a bad game either. Perhaps it’s just my habit of being too nice while reviewing things, but for an obvious Ninja Gaiden rip-off made by some company I’ve never heard of, this could have been a lot worse. It feels off, but it’s not broken. It gets hard at some points, but not due to poor programming. It doesn’t get my blood pumping, but I’m neither bored nor angry after it. Though it doesn’t come highly recommended, I’m also not going to say to stay away from this game. Just feels a little cheap, so if you can deal with that, go for it maybe. I give Ninja Crusaders for the NES 6 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Shadow of the Ninja

Time to continue with 8-bit Ninja month! *GONG* However, I want to change the subject slightly to talk about the Wii Virtual console. I’ve talked before about how western gamers are now getting the chance to experience formerly Japan exclusive games for the first time. That being said, there are still some games released in North America that are very rare, and this would be an easy way to let gamers play them. Again, I appreciate being able to play Final Soldier, but I would definitely buy a Wii Points card just to play Knuckles Chaotix, Earthbound or EVO the search for Eden. Today’s game is on the Virtual Console, but was not a highly requested, popular or exclusive game to my knowledge. Out of curiosity, I bought it from another seller when I found a physical copy. The question I wanted to answer myself was “is this game good enough to be ported on the Wii Virtual Console before the other titles I mentioned”? Let’s find out in this review of Shadow of the Ninja for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The game is your typical platforming, sword slashing deal, but less chaotic than Ninja Gaiden. Movement in this game can be slower and a lot more calculated (like Batman NES in some ways). One of your skills is to be able to hang from the bottom of certain platforms. This not only creates some cool platforming moments, but helps out when facing certain kinds of enemies. You also have a special attack that you can use to clear off most of the screen, but it uses up like half your health (and doesn’t even look all that epic). One thing I really enjoyed though was that there are two weapons you can use: your default weapon is a sword, but you can find and use a *said slowly* ku-sa-ri-ga-ma (or “chain-whip-with-blade-thing” as I call it). (There are other weapons like throwing stars, but they’re limited to how often you can use them.) Though the kuasr- kasha- kusar-… Though the second weapon has a longer range, the reason I like it better is because you can whip it in 5 direction (anything that isn’t downwards), but this comes at the cost of not hitting enemies too close to you.

Those little extra hits can be costly, as you only have 5 continues to deal with. I find the game is still relatively easy though, and it doesn’t employ cheap tricks to take your life (like instantly dying if you fall down a pit). The game can seem short for this reason (you might not get the game play time from restarting again and again like in Ninja Gaiden). But if you are having problems, you can get a second player to help simultaneously. One player will be the male ninja and the other will be a female ninja (whose names I won’t even try to pronounce). According to Nintendo Power, this was the first male-and-female team up in video games. Ninja games just keep getting more awesome.

The story starts up 17 years from now (the year 2029) where somehow it seems the USA has become a dictatorship under the rule of Emperor Garuda. Since he actually seems to be worse than the Bush administration, the two previously mentioned Ninjas are sent to the nation’s largest city to assassinate him, stop his reign and avenge the innocent lives he’s taken. I really like this story; it’s basic, a little cheesy and cliché and opens the door for a lot of action (a perfect B movie plot if you will). And I have to say this: I think future Ninjas rock. Don’t get me wrong, sword clashing stories from feudal Japan are cool, but when someone is taking down future weapons with just a sword and some throwing stars, that is just bad ass.

Shadow of the Ninja surprised me: it’s not just good, it is REALLY good. Even on the technical side, though the characters are bigger than Ninja Gaiden’s, they really make it work in a very smooth way. It’s not as blood pumping or memorable as Ninja Gaiden, but it’s a really well made platforming title from Natsume. And if you think it’s unfair to compare this game so much to Ninja Gaiden, it really isn’t; when it came time to port this game to the Game Boy, the publishing rights were bought by Tecmo who made the Game Boy version a Ninja Gaiden spin-off called “Ninja Gaiden Shadow”. But I digress. My only really “complaint” about Shadow of the Ninja is the convoluted start up screen, where you see the game’s title, but have to wait for the cinematic to start for some reason, press SELECT and then you can start playing. Still, this is nothing to ruin the game for me. Though I still want Kunckles Chaotix, Earthbound and EVO on the Wii Virtual Console, this is a great title for only 500 points. I give Shadow of the Ninja for the NES 8 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Ninja Gaiden 2

This August, I decided to address a serious problem in my reviews: the lack of Ninjas. Sure I’ve presented games with Ninjas in them, but they were often character options or of the Turtle variety. I feel like talking about games where the focus is to play as a ninja. It’s like instant awesome for your game console (just ask TV Tropes). With the amount of ninja games available, I decided to limit myself to 8-Bit systems. I’ll start with the most obvious one since, when you think about 8-bit ninja games, you think about Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden series. So to start of 8-bit Ninja month *GONG * we have Ninja Gaiden 2 : The Dark Sword of Chaos for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

You guys all know I’m going to eventually say it, so I might as well get this point out of the way right now:  the Ninja Gaiden games are hard and this game is not an exception. But it’s a good kind of hard with a nice difficulty curve and no sudden spike in the challenge. You just have to constantly keep an eye out, have sharp reflexes and be prepared to handle any situation.

However, this is not the only thing the Ninja Gaiden series is known for: there is also the wall jump ability. I talked before about how awesome I think this skill is. Tecmo knew they had gold here, so many platforming areas rely on it. New to this game is the ability to climb up and down after clinging to a wall, which I’m not sure if I like or not. On the one hand, it allows you make adjustments and in some cases it allows for level layouts otherwise impossible. On the other hand, it eliminates the challenge of having to be precise with your jumps. It also made it so that you have to climb up or down a ladder at some point to move to the next screen, but if you jump down instead, even if you are right next to the ladder, it counts as a pit fall death.

All this excellent game play goes well with the level designs. Most levels have stage hazards (things like blowing wind, slippery ice, random darkness, etc…). These do a good job of building on the game play to offer a new challenge, but never change the game enough that it feels like something completely different. I do have a nit-pick that pausing at the right time can get around some of these hazards, which seems like bad programming to me.

And other than that, all I can say is that you have unlimited continues, so try, try again.

On a technical level, this game is AWESOME. It took me a while to figure out why the graphics look so different than other NES games, but it’s because, unlike games like Mario or Zelda, the Ninja Gaiden sprites are actually well proportioned (no big head). Ryu Hayabusa (the player character) is colored with a bright blue costume and oddly reddish outline, and since some of the enemies have a slight inhuman quality to them and most of them are washed out in dark colors, it makes a great visual contrast between good and bad. The cut scenes are really good too. It’s on the NES, so the animation looks like moving carboard cut outs, but there was a lot of effort put into making the characters as well detailed as possible.

The music in the game kicks ASS and gets the blood going. It fits the game perfectly: you’re a ninja on a mission, obstacles will get in your way, but you will get past them. Mystical and dark elements are felt in it too and you have to be serious. It’s all just well composed.

Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos is one of those games that really lives up to its legacy. It’s fun, it’s hard, it’s really well made, it kicks ass and it will kick your ass. Sadly, I hesitate to give it a perfect score, as when I thought about it critically, there are a few things I would say are wrong with it: enemies repeatedly spawn if near the edge of the screen, if you lose ONE life on a boss, you have to redo its level, and then there’s that pause cheat and the ladder/pit annoyances I mentioned earlier. These are minor nit-picks however to an overall great gaming experience. Though I haven’t played through the entire NES trilogy, I feel as if it’s safe to say you need one of the Ninja Gaiden games if you have an NES. This particular one is said to be the easiest (as I think more can people beat it), but it still has a big challenge. I give Ninja Gaiden 2: the Dark Sword of Chaos for the NES 9.5 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Batman the Brave and the Bold the Videogame

So as some of you should know, August is coming up soon and that means that I’ll be doing my August Theme month. However, I want to bring attention to Adamant Ditto, because they also announced that this July is going to be a theme month for them and they have probably chosen the best theme possible: they will be doing several let’s plays of Beat ‘em Up games. Beat ‘em up month sounds like the best holiday ever to me, so I knew I had to do something for it. At the same time though, I decided I wanted to fix something from my first August theme of Bat-month. At that time, I only had 3 Batman games, so I was kind of missing the last week, so why not do a Batman Beat ‘em up game for you guys? It also seems appropriate because I just hear there’s a new Batman movie coming out: something rises or something like that. Anyways, here’s Batman the Brave and the Bold The Video Game for the Nintendo Wii.

The gameplay is a single plain beat ‘em up, kind of like Power Rangers SNES. The major difference between those two games though is that Power Rangers concentrated more on platforming, while Batman the Brave and the Bold concentrates more on fighting. The size of the characters in Power Rangers were quite big, so it felt claustrophobic when there were several characters on screen. This is not the case with this game, as there are often a lot of bad guys on screen at the same time that you can dispatch with a series of awesome combos. You can do the usual beat ‘em up stuff, like both light and heavy punches, jumps and grabs and you have a few super moves to clear off most of the screen if things get too difficult.

Beyond just the fighting, there are a still few platforming moments and some of the levels have secret areas to find for some extra cash. Sadly, these are not plentiful nor something really all that amazing (often just jumping), so most of the game is just punching and walking to the right. Once you figure out your favorite combo to take out the most enemies at once, you have most of the game figured out, and the only reason you might replay it is to unlock all the gadgets. Even if you don’t figure out a good combo, you can still easily beat this game as the only penalty for dying is a 100 coin loss (even if you have less than 100 coins, you just lose them all and still keep playing). It’s rather sad when a game can get fighting down so well, but offers nothing else (not even a challenge).

I haven’t seen much of Batman the Brave and the Bold TV show, but from my understanding the concept is that, during each episode, Batman teams up with one other DC hero to fight a DC villain. This game has 4 episodes, which allows you to play as Robin, the Blue Beetle, Hawkman and Guy Gardener (in order). The episodes are entirely unrelated though; absolutely nothing holds them together other than Batman and this game. So you’d think for this reason that the stories would all be unique, different and progressively get more interesting. Well, they really aren’t. I found the first story to be the most interesting, as there is a sense of mystery for the first half, a good twist I didn’t expect (though retrospectively I should have) and a genuine sense of panic. The other 3 episodes are basically the same; a villain attacks, Batman and another hero case him, other hero loses some self-esteem, Batman helps them through it, they both kick butt, the end. Granted, the last story has the most at stake, but I never felt like there was actually something to lose.

Batman the Brave and the Bold the Video game has some fun fights, but that’s about all it has. There’s really nothing else to the game; it’s pretty short, a bit repetitive, there is no depth to the story and the only replay value is in trying to buy all the upgrades. However, none of these are bad elements, they’re just the lack of good ones; it’s not like the game play broke on me or like I hated any of the characters. Really, it just feels like this is a game where the makers barely even tried, but at least where it does try, it succeeds. I will also give it that the graphics are really good and the sound quality is fine. If this were a Game Boy Advance game released 10 years ago, I would think this was pretty awesome, but it seems really weird that this is Wii game, so it just doesn’t meet my expectations. Still, if you want some short, cheap fun and like beat ‘em ups or are looking for something for a younger gamer, then you maybe could consider this. I can definitely think of a few other games that were a bigger waste of money. I give Batman the Brave and the Bold the Video game for the Wii 6 levels out of 10.