The Ratings: April

It’s that time again. Four new games under our belt, 2 Co-Op side scrollers, a tactical game, and one of the most highly regarded adventure games of all times. Lets see how they fare, and more importantly, can anything dethrone Castlevainia?

For those of you who don’t know, every month, I rank all the games we play on a scale from 1-10. This is a sliding scale, at least one game will always occupy 10/10, and one game will occupy 1/10, with other numbers filling in around them. If we play a game better than the current champ the coming month, it looses its throne. At the end of this podcast, it will be a silly list, trying to gauge how much fun I had with each game. So lets get started.

Castlevainia 10/10
No, no it can’t. This should probably be obvious to anyone that listens to the podcast, since nothing has blown us away this month, nor has any game allowed you to murder even one Dracula.

Mega Man 9/10
Nor can anything bump the Blue Bomber (remember when people called him that?) from his spot right below Dracula. There’s just something about a very basic, moderately difficult platformer where you have an attack that really speaks to me.

The Legend of Zelda 8/10
That said, we’ve certainly played some games of merit, including the first installment in the Zelda franchise, one of the few game franchises that can still get me to buy and play a game on launch day. Our conversation about this game off the mics compared to the episode on it is… weird to me. We all stated at least some level of frustration with it, I was the most favorable towards it, Zach seemed not to like it much at all, and Tyler was sort of in the middle, leaning towards dislike. By the end though, he agreed it was better than Metroid. My feelings for this game are hard to express. Part of my joy in it is out of loyalty to the franchise. My brother asked me if he should play it and I said “it’s not a good game by modern standards”. At the same time, if you’ve any interest in The Legend Of Zelda or the history of video games, I highly recommend you give it a play through.

Gradius 7/10
I’m a little sad about Gradius, the fun arcade action it provides made me think I’d go back to it every once in a while to give it a try or two to see if I could get any further. Sadly I havn’t touched it since we recorded our episode. It’s a pity, hopefully I will soon.

Metroid 7/10
Metroid’s unique non-linear style and fun combat keeps it here, but I can’t help but feel the fact that we’re not playing games that place higher either means we’re terrible at picking them, or there aren’t as many good old games as nostalgia would like me to think

Super Mario Bros. 6/10
I still like the idea of this game being my mid-point. It’s just what my conception of videogames was based on for so long. It’s more than outdated now, but as I’ve said in podcasts, The Legend of Zelda didn’t seem like a game to me because it controlled your jumps. The thought of games were you can’t jump at all was beyond my comprehension. It’s still a good game though, better than a lot of others, so here it stands.

Final Fantasy 6/10
Unlike Gradius, I actually have gone back and played a little Final Fantasy, in order to compare it to another game we’re playing as the assignment in the near future. It’s still fun, but it’s still to slow to focus on. I didn’t have as much fun as playing Mario, but that’s the only reason it’s ranked below it, and I anticipate its rank might rise in the future, especially if we don’t play some really good games soon.

Gunstar Heroes 5/10
For some reason, I feel like I should mark games that rely on co-op to be fun lower than other games. This can be seen with the Double Dragon titles taking the bottom slots, and I’m not sure why. Co-op to some extent is only as fun as the partner you play it with, but at the same time, if a game is truly bad I feel I’d go find something else to do. Playing Gunstar with Alex and Tyler, switching controllers like it was 1995 again was a lot of fun. But I don’t think the game is all that good. If it sounded like it was worth checking out in the episode, and you have a friend to check it out with, do so. Otherwise, skip it.

Harvest Moon 5/10
After thinking on it some more, I’ve decided Harvest Moon actually should be ahead of Kirby’s Adventure. The game is fun. The problem is, it’s not engaging for the length of the game. For a completionist like me… who feels some sort of neurotic need to finish games, especially games with low skill caps, it’s irritating, but it is fun for a while. That said, there are a huge number of sequels and spin offs, and you’re better off looking there.

Kirby’s Adventure 5/10
And here Kirby is in his new spot. Honestly, I was expecting Kirby’s adventure to quickly fall off this list. It’s not a bad game, it’s just not engaging. With its pretty colors, it feels way more Sega than Nintendo. Move along.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4/10
Speaking of games that just aren’t fun… well I feel kind of like a broken record. The Blue Blur’s first game isn’t nearly as good as the Blue Bomber’s. Hopefully we’ll find Sonic 2 more to our taste when we get that far.

Act Raiser 3/10
Act Raiser is not a very fun game, the combat is broken, the platforming awkward, and the sim portions boring. That said, I finished it… and there are a lot of good new ideas in it. That gets it a lot of points in my book. It’s still very low on the totem pole, but thinking on it some more, it’s been raised up quite a bit.

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja 3/10
As I stated, I feel that I should dock a game if they’re more fun when playing co-op. That said… adding a co-op feature should be a boon if it makes a game better. Mystical Ninja co-op was a lot of fun. However, single player was nothing but constant frustration, with many things tacked on to increase the length, but not fun of the game. Come on Konami, it’s how you use it.

 Double Dragon II The Revenge 2/10 Unfortunately for The Revenge, co-op is kind of all it has. That along with confusing controls and a so bad its good story puts it very near the bottom of the list. Sadly, it doesn’t quite hit rock bottom.

Ogre Battle 2/10 I want to like Ogre Battle, I want to rank it higher. I like tactical games, I like fantasy, I love the thought of leading an army of liches dragons and knights into battle against an enemy force. The game just isn’t fun, it’s the game that’s felt like the most work of any that we’ve played, it’s just garbage. Avoid it.

 Double Dragon 1/10 Double Dragon has terrible music, recycled bosses, boring game play, and no co-op. It retains its spot at the bottom of the heap. Will it stay there? We’ll see.