Hey, remember that Balloon Kid game we reviewed on Monday? Well, here it is, again… but in color… and yes, it’s Earth Day, so a good chunk of review is recycled from Monday’s review… but it’s not just a splash of color and call it day.
Speaking of splash of color, Friday is when we get to ruin some portraits.
So this would be the time where I would load up on a bunch of wrestling game reviews on the road to Wrestlemania, but since the road to Wrestlemania seems to have more potholes than the island of Montreal at the moment, I’ve decided that we’re going to cover a couple Gradius games, starting with this Japan-only PC Engine version and then following up with the two Game Boy entries, Nemesis and Interstellar Assault.
In any event, Gradius is a fun one to revisit. There’s a Gradius Origins collection that you should check out for arcade fun… and also Salamander III is quite the banger.
Oh lookie… it’s another Tetris game from Japan on Playstation… and that’s about all I’ve got on that front unless I can somehow get that Cardcaptor Sakura variant that costs a billion dollars or something.
On the bright side, Review #1300 is on Friday and it won’t cover a Tetris game.
From the land of the Rising Sun, a Tetris game on Playstation that you’ve probably already played before when it was called, well, Tetris. And as someone who plays a fair amount of Tetris, I’m happy to knock this off the list, but at the same time… well…
Yes, we are doing a Parodius game before we’re even sniffing a Gradius game… though it’s not for a lack of trying, let me tell you. But yes, it’s about time we dive into that stash of Famicom carts that I’ve got laying around here and start playing these bloody things for once.’
Been doing some trial runs with adding borders to the NES/Famicom widescreen footage and then I found myself playing a bunch of Parodius and having a blast with it, so I figured why not? Not the first time that I’ve tackled a series out of order, nor will it be the last.
Yes, we’re reshuffling reviews here. A couple changes here and there, but we should be on track… somewhat.
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.
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/
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.
Hello. It’s the debut of Valis on PC Engine, even though it’s the sequel to a prior game that we’ve looked at that’s actually a remake of an earlier computer game. Are we confused yet? Try not to think too hard about this one.
Friday’s review will be on Valis III for PC Engine and then next week, it’ll be a couple Mega Drive ports and the Famicom version of Valis I, which I make no reservations of not looking forward to playing. It might actually be more distressful to play than Order Of Ecclesia.
Our (better late than never) deep dive into Valis continues with a remake of the first game in the series that came out after the third game in the series… try to keep up. It gets less confusing.
Yeah, so we’re using the Valis Collection versions for these games, which only have the Japanese versions, which is a shame because the localized English dubs aren’t too bad in comparison to most dubs done around this time. Alas, I don’t have a Turbo-CD and those games cost an arm and an leg that could go to… well, another arm or leg.
dtm666 