Category: Video Reviews

Review #1285 – River Rescue (Atari 8-Bit)

Another dip into Antstream, you say? Will wonders ever cease? Of course, they will, but until then, we’ve got River Rescue, a game that makes me wish I were playing River Raid, instead. But the Xbox Game Pass has that and the stream there is kinda shit… even though it’s powered by Antstream, which generally runs okay at home… not so much off my phone, which doesn’t surprise me.

Review #1282 – Breakers Collection (Switch)

One of the early 2025 leftovers that somehow got lost in the shuffle, but much like Breakers itself, it’s better late than never. No gripes about the timing of this stuff… though plenty of gripes about everything else.

Expect more of this stuff down the road.

Review #1281 – Super Valis IV (Super NES)

Imagine calling yourself Super and not quite living up to the moniker. That’s Super Valis IV in a nutshell… but is it a genuinely bad game or is it just a matter of tarnished reputations? A good question that this video does not answer, but it does bring this journey through the Valis series to a close.

Hey, you know what? I thoroughly enjoyed the trip through that series and was happy to explore most of the nook and crannies of that series. Maybe some day, I’ll stomach up the effort to go through the Valis computer games and turn those into videos, but that’s for much later down the road when I feel like doing MSX videos again.

Review #1280 – Valis IV (PC Engine)

You know what? The last one came in late, so you get this one early. My treat… or is it a trick?

The final chronological entry in the Valis series… and I’d imagine the take in this video is going to be pretty controversial, though I honestly don’t believe that to be the case. I like to think I’ve been honest and… well, honest, at least.

Oh well… Wednesday’s video will be our last dip into Valis territory with Super Valis IV… fitting that it would be the final Valis game ever released until 2006 where…

Actually, never mind. It’s the final Valis game ever released until these collections came along. Nothing else happened before that. Ever.

Review #1279 – Valis I (Famicom)

I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here, but this Famicom version was the closest I got to experiencing voluntarily pure misery in playing one of these Valis games. This was one of the very few times where I was thankful for the implementation of save states and rapid-fire add-ons to make this thing slightly less intolerable than it would have been had I played the OG Famicom cart. Absolutely dreadful.

By the way, if you’re keen on playing this, consider using this Valis++ hack that I mentioned once or twice.
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/248/

Review #1277 – Valis I (Genesis)

We return to where it all began… except not really because this is a remake. We’re also breaking from the Valis Collection grips by playing this on the Antstream streaming service, which actually held up quite nicely until the last stage playthrough where it eventually shat the bed. If nothing else, I’m getting some mileage out of this Antstream thing and hopefully, it continues to be a thing for the future, especially as it relates to this hobby of mine.

Review #1276 – Valis III (PC Engine)

Delayed? Was that what I said? Scratch that. You can have this one early. I’m in a good mood.

When someone tells that you’ve played an inferior version of a good game and after playing the “real” game, your only reaction is meh. It’s not a knock of Valis III, which remains the best of the Valis games in my opinion and there are some nice improvements here and there… but otherwise, it’s the same game I’ve played before but faster. Works for me.