Friday, September 12, 2014

GameWeek: September 7-13, 2014

Mystic Defender - Sega Genesis

I have always had fond memories of this early Sega Genesis action side-scroller. Unfortunately however, time has not been especially kind to this title. While it is by no means a terrible game, it has a few frustratingly difficult cheap-ass platforming sections that make it hard to recommend to anyone other than gaming sadists.

In playing through it again I realized that the best part of this whole game are the slime babies. Oh yeah, you read that right, I said slime babies. Have a look:



The pictures don't quite do them justice, but these super creepy enemies drip out of an open sewer pipe before skittering toward you in a most unsettling way. But the fun doesn't end there. If you try to defeat them using your standard weapon they merely splash to the ground and continue their attack as a quivering pile of sewer baby goo! Your best bet, and I'm not kidding with this, is to KILL THEM WITH FIRE! Nice, right?

Golvellius: The Valley of Doom - Sega Master System


Though I don't often write about it, the Sega Master System is still one of my favorite classic consoles. Sure, it never had the expansive library of games that the NES did, but it still had a good number of worthwhile titles, and this game, Golvellius, was one of them. I'll be the first to admit that it's a Zelda ripoff, but it's a mad decent Zelda ripoff.


Released in 1988 (just after The Adventure of Link) it combines the top-down overworld exploration of Zelda with the side scrolling dungeons of Link, and even throws in a few bottom-up forced scrolling areas for good measure. It's not the most remarkable game ever (or even the most remarkable Zelda clone) but it's well made and it has a fine pedigree. It was designed by Compile, the same developer who brought us classics like The Guardian Legend, Puyo Puyo, and Blazing Lazers. While checking the developer's Wikipedia entry, I noticed that they were rather prolific during their late-80's/early 90's heyday; they even made a puzzle game called Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen which, oddly enough, featured the likeness of former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.


I think I'm gonna try to dig a bit deeper into Compile's catalog and see if there are any other undiscovered treasures.

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