Buyers guide part 2
Darkstalkers: The night warriors a.k.a Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers Revenge(capcom)****- If you’re looking for a phenomenal 2-D fighter you really can’t do any better than the Darkstalkers games. Darkstalkers is a marriage of bizarre monsters and Capcom’s classic fighter style. So think of it as street fighter with cat girls. One of my favorite things about the Darkstalkers games is the characters are a veritable cavalcade of strange. With combatants such as Sasquatch, a succubus named Morrigan a vampire who goes by Dimitri and my personal favorite the cat girl Felicia. The characters have a personality all their own and their isn’t a bad one in the bunch. Although speaking game play wise the mummy Anakaris could REALLY use some balancing done. Since he’s widely regarded as the cheapest character in fighter history and I’m inclined to agree.
But other than that the game play is pure gold. And after you play for a bit despatching Anakaris becomes much easier. And the game is just gorgeous, Pyron the fire demon is really an eyeful. I’m especially found of his ground punch which is a mini A-bomb explosion. The characters are constantly in motion, and you would be hard pressed to find a game the flows more fluently than this. The sprites are simply huge, and while this is par for the course on saturn I still find them something to marvel at. Bottom line is no saturn collection is complete without this game in it.
X-men Children of the atom (capcom)***-Capcom pioneered a lot of ideas in X-men that would later become staples of the genre. One of the first Capcom games to sport the more cartoony look that I’m quite fond of, and given the X-men was a comic book it’s a perfect fit. Visually the game looks good. The characters are so well done in fact capcom so fit to use these in fighters in their Marvel Vs. Capcom line over half a decade later! The backgrounds are equally good looking, my particular favorites include ice mans glacier on a beach stage and the freakin danger room! Which is constantly changing and looks great. However the music simply isn’t saturn quality, sounding a lot more like a 16 bit cart than a 32 bit cd game. Definitely genesis or super Nintendo quality here.
The biggest problem plaguing this game is the insane difficulty level. This game is hard no two ways about it. The challenge doesn’t seem to have much correlation to what the difficulty is set at. Since the first stage or two will always a breeze but than the game gives you a big old Juggernaut style head butt no matter what you set it at. A casual fighter fan will get the adamantium knocked out of them on a regular basis with this title. However like most any other capcom brawler the two player action is great. Complete with five man team battle that will keep fighter fans pleased. For the great visuals interesting back rounds and good two player children of the atom is worth your time.
Sonic wings special (Media Quest)***-It’s hard to not like a game that lets you play as a ninja in a jet fighter. Sonic wings is a solid title for old school shooter fans. Especially if you’re looking for something a little wackier than your average classic shooter. Like I said earlier you can play as a ninja and a smorgisbord of other bizarre characters. Including a dolphin a robot and even a Viking. Your special weapon is tied to your character type, for instance if you pick the ninja you’ll shoot out shurikens or if you’re the dolphin you use deadly sonar waves to cut a swath through the apposing forces. I have to say there is something special about tearing up a fleet of fighters with ninja knifes. Although the characters and final boss (who is a giant monkey) are quite odd, the rest of the game is actually fairly standard stuff. With the variety of enemies run the gamut of classic planes and battleships and the occasional giant mech the enemies. So it’s your normal shooter fair, not to say the game lacks personality it has some to burn really. Graphically the game certainly looks good in the classic shooter way but their isn’t anything here pushing the saturns limits that’s for sure. If you like any of older shooter titles the chances are pretty high you will enjoy this classic romp as well.
Panzer Dragoon (sega)***-Panzer Dragoon was a launch title for the saturn and while it may look dated there is still some rock solid action to be found here. While the camera and your ability to dodge may seem spotty at times it’s pretty important to note that in 1994 this game really tested what could be done in 3-D on the saturn. While a lot of the game looks very muddy now, and the water looks especially awful the animations are quite good. Your dragon moves very fluidly and is quite an eye ful as he swerves and sways in the breeze. Plus the game is accompanied by a sweeping score that is very well done and fits well with majestic way your dragon moves.
In terms of game play Panzer Dragoon is an on-rails shooter, and simply action packed. The boss battles can be a ballet of ducks weaves and counter attacks once you get the hang of the games mechanics. Occasionally the annoying camera will severely hamper your field of view. It’s a shame because aside from that Panzer dragoon is an excellent arcade style shooter. And when I say arcade like I mean it, there’s six levels and you have to EARN lives as you play. If you die even on the last board you’re dead for good you have to start all over. However by beating the levels with a good score you’re awarded credits to help you get past the harder stages. You still have to start the level over if you use a credit but it beats playing through the game again. The overt difficulty may turn off some players but if you do want a little challenge pick up Panzer Dragoon.
Marvel super heroes (capcom)****-This is the second in the long line of Marvel and Capcom team ups. Similar to X-men children of the atom but much prettier and with a more well rounded cast of fighters. To start off Super Heroes is simply gorgeous, the sprites are enormous and brilliantly animated, characters like the Juggernaut take up just under half the screen! And the backgrounds are imaginative and interesting, I loved the Thanos stage which has fallen heroes like Thor and scarlet witch incased in stone in the back ground. The sound has also improved over the 16 bit digs of X men, not really memorable but not bad either. So in other words the production value is what you would expect from a capcom saturn fighter. And it’s nice to see how the arenas strain and break as you spandex roshambo rages on. Really if you liked X-men Super Heroes is more of the same Marvel madness only better in pretty much every way. However X men and Heroes share the same problem, and that’s difficulty. But where as X men was too hard the normal mode in Heroes is just ridiculously easy to anyone with any proficiency with a fighting game. So you’ll want to crank that way up when you first start, and I mean way up.
But other than those admittedly minor grievances you can’t fault Heroes for much. It’s still the same old great capcom fighter gussied up with the marvel name. And let’s face it who doesn’t want to see the Avengers duke it out? Also thankfully they axed some of the cheaper characters from X men like cyclops and spiral, and they made the bosses Juggernaut and Magneto playable. Along with Iron man the Hulk, Captain America and Spider man. They also employed a new infinity gem system, where you can use different gems that you obtain by whipping the super out of these heroes. By activating the gems you can gain more strength recover some life or get a stronger defense among other things. It helps to add some strategy to the matches and give the plot a little more overall depth. I really love the little touches this game has, like how the logo for each character is proudly displayed below them in the V.s. screen before a fight. And I found the dedication of this spectacular fighter to Jack "king" Kirby to be very classy indeed. While not on the level of Darkstalkers, Heroes is the best Marvel only fighter out there. Marvel fans or really just fighter fans would do well to seek this one out.
Corpse killer Graveyard edition (Digital pictures)*-If you ever wonder why full motion video games died away and why would you, Corpse Killer is all the evidence you need. This game is just a rainbow of bad. Rarely does a game have so little going for it. Corpse killer is a
F grade light gun game sans light gun support, which makes me ask why the hell did they even bother porting this nightmare. The acting is rancid to put it lightly, even if it does have a cult horror star Vincent Schiavelli as the villain. The game play is just non existent you point a cursor and hit A, amazing! The production values are cut rate as well, it look like they blew the entire budget on the location which is very pretty, nice tropical island. The zombies look terrible, and nothing like zombies. Got to love the guy wearing plaid slacks and a pink shirt. And I marvel at how they didn’t even bother putting make up on some of these peoples necks. What’s worse is the zombies are just matte shots over the background! So they just look like they are floating toward you. Some look like they are trying to be at least a little menacing and well some look like their just plain sitting in a chair. Avoid at all cost, not even the cheese factor can make this one fun.
I'll admit I had a good lark at your posts. You admit you never played the system and beyond that even said you can't play games from before the current generation. So why would anyone listen to you who doesn't play classic games OR ever played the system in question. The two systems I've dissed regularly are the jaguar and the psp. I owned a jag, and I've played and done plenty of research on the psp. You're just not well informed is all. If you had one and still didn't like it that's cool btu don't knock it till you try it.
Truth be told I never much liked the 64. Also I'm writing part 2 to the buyers guide now as well, the reviews are getting a bit longer.