I haven’t quite finished Wario Land 3 (my attention has been elsewhere), but I think the bottom line for my take on it is going to be… It’s pretty clever, but also pretty tedious. Most everything about it sounds cool on paper, but in practice the game involves a whole lot of doing menial tasks over and over again. There are moments that make me go “oh, that’s neat,” but then I get hit for the thousandth time by some enemy which changes Wario’s form in some way and I’ve got to wait that out for 5-10 seconds. I should find it in me to finish the game at least, but I’ll be curious to see if its more straightforward predecessors work a bit better for me. (I assume they’ll be added to Switch Online eventually, along with Wario Land 4 on the Game Boy Advance.)
Wario Land 1 is much more straightforward and Mario-like; it’s one of my favorites on Game Boy
i played dune 2000 this way, a while back and remember it being pretty fun way to scratch the C&C Itch, dont think i finished it though.
Played a bit of Dune 2. Not very good by today’s standards.
I like the idea of having to place concrete to build structures. It reminds me of another RTS in which you had to “terraform” the soil before expanding (Perimeter). But building and placing each slab one by one is too tedious.
But the two big issues are that units are too dumb and need to be ultra micromanaged (they can have an enemy at arms reach and wont attack unless you explicitly tell them to) and that you cannot select more than one unit at a time. So if you have more than a few units, then each troop movement is a long and tedious of clicking each unit, clicking on “attack”, and then clicking on the enemy. It’s just terribly annoying.
Now I’m trying Super Mario Land whatever. I don’t remember playing a lot of Mario games as a kid so I have zero nostalgia, so the game feels mostly dated. Not super bad, but just… clunky? It has the same problem as DKC that you need to press a button to run, which makes things harder than they should. And platforms are kind of slippery; I died a bunch after landing on the platform and Mario choosing not to stop. I think moving platforms might be the worse at this since it feels like Mario actually accelerates after landing. But also the levels are just… there? They don’t feel special or anything, just a bunch of platforms that you jump and then you get to the end…
It’s funny you say that, because I feel Super Mario Land 2 is a standout for 2D Mario games in that department specifically. The theming of the levels at least is a lot more imaginative IMO than most of the other old Mario games, and a ton more so than the “New” line of Marios.
I’ll agree the physics are not the best, but considering it was on the Game Boy it’s automatically a small miracle they managed what they could. (It’s certainly easier to control than the first Mario Land… which is a bit of a nightmare to go back to IMO.)
Yes, I have to admit that levels do look nice and varied and with strong central themes.
Super Mario Land 2 kinda reminds me of another old favourite, Kirby 64, in that I find the levels more interesting than many games that came after them
For instance, you have a submarine, going inside a whale, rather than just a water level and a slightly different water level and a slightly different water level
They’re unique, while still sticking to the theme of the Zones
While true, this is also true of every 2D Mario game, so this didn’t strike me as a hindrance when I first played this as a kid. I think my default is to hold one button down at all times when playing Mario games.
I’m still on Wario Land 3 and I agree it does get tedious when an enemy changes your form - thank the lord for save states, I just reload a save if it’s a recent one instead of waiting for the animation
Looking forward to the April games though. Nice selection, haven’t played any of them before so that’s exciting!
Hi all, this fell off my radar in May and I apologize. Perhaps that gave people time to play a little catch up. If people are still interested in continuing in June, we can start discussing or nominating titles now. Does anyone have anything they’d be excited to play in June?
Would ALttp/Minish cap be on theme or rather a Zelda overload? they are both on the Switch online system (Minish cap only on the expansion though) and are easily emulable in pc.
Where I am at the moment:
After more than 8 hours of Wario Land 3, I give up.
It was nice to have an understanding of what emulation is and how it works.
I read Wikipedia articles about Mario, Luigi and Wario, so I learned a bit about their world. Wario remained a bit of a mystery, though.
Wario was originally designed to be German. Accordingly, his voice actor from 1996–2001 in Japan, German Thomas Spindler, gave him several German lines.
This made me laugh.
The game itself was hard and I had to turn off/tune down the music/sound because it was getting on my nerves. The only thing I liked was the Wario sprite itself, he looked so angry, cute and sad at the same time.
I also understand now that I am still not into mobile gaming, even though my tablet has a bigger screen and I could use a controller with it. I am still not into platforming either.
While I was emulating, I also had a 10 hour adventure in Pokémon Silver, my first Pokémon experience. It was good to get my own impression of what Pokémon is, but it is not for me. I am sure as a kid I would have loved it for the repetition and the collecting and exploring, but as an old grumpy adult I found it boring and weird.
I only watched maybe 3 episodes of the anime and tried Pokémon Go when it first came out, but my phone at the time wouldn’t work with it, probably due to poor GPS, so I gave it up after 3 days.
Now I find the world of Pokémon disturbing and boring. I guess I am more like Donkey Kong, who would rather fight Pokémon trainers than the poor little creatures. When my first Pokémon fell to the ground injured and/or exhausted, and the woman at the Pokémon station just “fixed” it for me, finding it perfectly normal that the creature was in such a messed-up state, it made me sad. I’m currently playing a game where I burn bad people to a crisp, but I don’t want to play a game where I make beautiful wild creatures fight each other and then lock them up in a tiny ball. After all, who lets a small child run around alone in a world where there is a wild creature with terrifying fighting abilities lurking in the grass around every corner? Being able to give your nemesis a name is fun, though.
Long story short, I had more fun tearing this world apart overthinking it than I did playing the game. Sorry, not sorry.
Second last is Dune 2, to use the game’s voice: "Reporting!
I spent more than 10 hours on it. First of all, it was interesting to see where and how the genre started. I haven’t played an RTS, so I can’t compare it to anything. I liked the music and ambient sounds, and it was surprisingly immersive, capturing the “Dune feel” better than I thought such an old game could. It was also surprising that placing pixelated units and making them fight remained exciting, mostly because of the music and sounds that added a sense of danger and pressure.
As for the gameplay, I think it lacks a lot of the features that more modern games have for building and commanding your units, because it is a click fest. I had fun with it for a while, but I stopped before it could get really difficult and managing a lot of units would probably have broken my fingers.
I will definitely try a modern RTS, probably one related to Warhammer. I don’t know if it will ever be a genre for me, but I want to see where the genre is now.
The latest is Gothic2 + addon:
I am still in the middle of it and loving it. I find it crazy how much of the game I remember despite not having touched it for so many years. I try to find all the loot and do all the side missions and explore everything. I am completely immersed in the world and smiling all the time. Can you feel at home in a game? If so, then I do. I’m about to hit the 50 hour mark and I don’t want the game to ever end.
I have never played the game as a mercenary, so this time I am going that way.
I am clearly not objective when it comes to this game, but it’s the best game ever and I am going to die on this hill.
3 really old Games that are on my “soon” list:
Thief: The Dark Project, the first game in the series from 1998. I have never played it, the only game in the series I have played and which is also a favourite of mine is Thief: Deadly Shadows the third game in the series.
Mean Streets (1989) | Grouvee, the first game in the Tex Murphy series. I love games with FMV and this was one of the first to use it, but I think only for the faces of the people you talk to, later games in the series expanded on it. I have not played a Tex Murphy game and I want to experience the older ones first. I doubt it will be playable without a walkthrough, but I will try it without one first.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992) | Grouvee I was told this is a must play classic point&click adventure and since I love Indy and the genre I have to try it.
I’m not inherently opposed to it, because it’s reasonable to assume it goes both ways: some may feel Zelda burn out, others might not be playing TotK to begin with. I can add one of them to a poll if we feel the need to hold one.
Ohhh I’ve always wanted to play Fate of Atlantis, that’s my vote!
I re-played A Link to the Past earlier this year; that was great. Have never played Minish Cap, but may have to at some point
You could give another Pokemon games a chance. I would recommend Pokemon Black and White as the most solid Pokemon game. Diamond/Pearl have the most deep exploration, and Ruby/Sapphire are pretty good on that too, but maybe are more fun.
And if you preffer a more direct game, Alola is for you, since its region is the best, plot is entertaining and characters are pretty charming.
Silver/Gold are good games, but people use to say they are the best, and I don’t think that way. They are more repetitive than other games. I say that to you because you are criticizing things that are present in Gold/Silver but not as much in other Pokemon games.
Thank you very much for your suggestions. I wanted to at least have a look into the genre so I am not completely out of touch when I read about people’s Pokémon adventures (or Mario and friends) here on Grouvee , but looking at my backlog I have so many games I want to play that I legally own and do not have to emulate that I most likely won’t touch another Pokémon game in my life.
If I ever will try another Nintendo thingy to broaden my horizon, it would probably be something Zelda/Link related, so I can say that I had a glimpse into that universe (and I will read a bit about their world), but for now I am occupied with PC games. So this won’t happen until next year.
My next “experimental” gaming for this year will be me looking into a more modern RTS game, probably Warhammer related, to see if I like the genre as it is today. I assume heavily I will find it too complicated and hard, but you never know before trying.
oh wow you should def check out thief if you dont mind aged graphics and some gameplay… the first Thief was such a pleasure to play a few years ago (fully playthrough for the first time) Really did like the story and aesthetic of it. The whole series was worthwhile… And if you want more… The Dark Mod
@Nelemania If you want to play a modern RTS to get some experience with the genre, i actually would recommend dawn of war 2 or 3. you can scale the difficulty down easily. its not too hard. (the best RTS and TBT games are NEVER games in the workshop franchise though.) Dawn of War is a worthwhile series though.
I’ve mentioned it on the main site, but I recently played and finished Arcade Paradise and loved it. It’s a sim where you manage an arcade and as you slowly build it up, you basically unlock that nice classic minigames with modern reimaginings and twists. It’s worth looking at for that retro fix.
Also I found a Tetris Clone this week that was kinda cool Setris by mslivo (itch.io)
I’m hardly a Tetris nut, but i do like clones and inspired stuff that do something different like this!
Also: random Sega Saturn find… a little tempting as I’m getting back into the Godzilla franchise Godzilla: Archipelago Shock | Stash - Games tracker