Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max (PlayStation Portable)
Let’s get this out the way quickly: Alpha 3 Max is the best portable version of Alpha 3 available. It’s even one of the best ports of Alpha 3 among the numerous ports of the game. It has everything that its big brother consoles have and then some, with the massive final updated roster that each successive entry has introduced, and improvements made to the different established modes.
The graphics are nice and large, and the music is still as top notch as ever. But there is a catch because there always is: This is only available for the PlayStation Portable. So, if you can track down that defunct system, get this to have it on the go and have a blast as only one can with Alpha 3 in its final form glory. It’s worth a look just for the complete roster alone.
Score: 4 out of 5
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Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PlayStation 2)
This collection of Street Fighter Alpha games is sublime, especially if you have a PlayStation 2 laying around. It features all the Alpha games, remixes and arranged versions, the Alpha 2 Gold revision and a nice port of Super Gem Fighter Mini-Mix. The best part of the collection is that it plays nicely in every game. It plays like a dream and handles well with a good PS2 controller or joystick.
Even better is the included Hyper Street Fighter Alpha, which allows pitting different Alpha characters against each other using that specific game’s mechanics and rulesets. Think Alpha 2’s Rose versus Alpha 3 V‑ISM Rose. That’s the hidden draw of the game, one that’s not advertised and that you won’t discover without time invested. However, with smooth play and convenience much like 30th Anniversary collection, this is a must buy for the PS2 collection.
Good but not great. That’s what Street Fighter Alpha 2 represents for me. I don’t hate the game these days. After a mature return to the game after many years spent adoring Street Fighter Alpha 3, I can honestly say the game is a good setup for the king of the hill that is Alpha 3.
Because Capcom has advised that Street Fighter Alpha 2’s story supersedes Alpha’s story, we’re not rehashing anything here. Just know that everyone is after M. Bison at this point because he’s up to no good as he always is and will be, and Akuma enters the chat because he supposedly killed Ryu and Ken’s master Gouken. Everything that happens in Alpha 2 sets Alpha 3 up in a way that explains why M. Bison is so powerful by the end of the series and why he’s significantly weaker during Street Fighter II. It’s compelling even if you’re a casual fan of Street Fighter.
The graphics haven’t made a significant leap between Alpha games and yet they somehow look cleaner. They’re chunkier and larger, and you can tell they’re getting closer to the Alpha 3 streamlined version that became the hallmark of the Street Fighter experience in the early to mid-2000s before the advent of Street Fighter IV.
Thankfully, while there isn’t a big leap forward in the look between games, there is a sizable improvement in the soundtrack of Alpha 2. Quite a few tracks stand out and it’s worth hunting down the playlist because there are some gems. It’s still not at the Alpha 3 level but it’s getting there if you need reassurance.
What I didn’t care for in Alpha has improved in Alpha 2: how it plays. The play feel has improved with the introduction of Custom Combos, and while clunky to execute, it’s a nice change of pace for the series. They’re in their infancy here so don’t expect the absolute dominance of Alpha 3 V‑ISM but they are cool to see and it’s satisfying to get them to work consistently in play once you know what you’re doing. Watching high-level play shows how Alpha 2 is meant to be played, and it demonstrates Alpha 2’s strengths: Nuanced strategy and a clean engine.
Alpha 2 does have its quirks, though. Sometimes the game just doesn’t feel quite right and by that I mean, I don’t like how it feels sometimes. It can simultaneously feel slow and sluggish but then it course corrects and the game plays like a dream. Combos work but then sometimes, I struggle to get things going. I can’t place my finger on it, even years later, but there’s something off about Alpha 2 but I’ve learned to accept it for what it is and overall just accept Alpha 2. It may be because I didn’t start the series until Alpha 3, but Alpha 2 doesn’t always feel right. I still prefer to play Alpha 3 in every respect, but acceptance of Alpha 2 is a sign of maturity.
Alpha 2 is the midpoint of the Alpha series and that’s OK. It’s got its growing pains but the growth is there and it’s still regarded as a strong fighting game. Alpha 2 has value and as the middle child of the series, it’s got a lot to offer and a certain charm that brightened by the fact that Capcom learned its lesson and seemingly learned to count to three. Alpha 2 is a good bridge to greatness.
Street Fighter Alpha sets the tone for spinoff franchise
I promise I can see the potential in the original Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams. I can look down from my high perch of love for Alpha 3 and accept that the series came from somewhere. After all, every series must have a start. But it’s a long hard stretch to say it’s an all-time great start.
Street Fighter Alpha establishes the series’ story: After Ryu wins the first World Fighting Tournament (as depicted in Street Fighter), he returns home to find his master Gouken murdered and sets out to get revenge. At the same time, Chun-Li, Guile and Charlie — along with other various members of the cast such as newcomer Rose — work together to take down M. Bison, who is working to establish his empire and achieve world domination. Know two things about the story: One, it’s a sequel to 1987’s Street Fighter and a prequel to Street Fighter II; and, two, its storyline is supplanted by Street Fighter Alpha 2. Capcom deployed this strategy with the Darkstalkers/Vampire series as well, which was coincidentally created around the same time as Alpha. And this isn’t the only instance of crossover concepts, either.
Alpha plays and feels much like early Vampire as well. The new additions of multi-level super combos and air blocking are here, too, and like Vampire, represent an upgrade from the days of Super Turbo. But, as much as I like the upgraded mechanics, I don’t like how Alpha plays. It feels clunky and slow with a molasses edge to the movesets. While the series did eventually improve with time and speed adjustments, it’s painfully obvious here that it needed a speed boost.
Alpha also resembles Vampire in presentation. The graphics are nice and big, and the sprites are nicely drawn. It’s an early version of the Alpha 3 presentation that we’ve come to know and love, and it’s pleasing to see it here. The music isn’t at the Alpha 3 level yet, but there are a few tracks that might make you tap your toe.
What I wanted from the first game in the Alpha series shows up later in the final game, but the start isn’t terrible. It needed some work and given that Alpha 2 made improvements on this solid foundation in Alpha, I think it’s safe to call this the beta of the Alpha series.
There was a time when all the early generation Street Fighter games weren’t available in the same place. Us old-timers had to own multiple systems and collections on those systems to complete the library of fighting street games. But then along came the 30th anniversary of the landmark fighting game franchise and wouldn’t you know, Capcom thought it prudent to offer a bonanza of Street Fighter. Whether or not it’s a bountiful buffet is still up for judgment.
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection aims to do one thing: Give you all the Street Fighter you can shake a stick at. Included out of the box are: Street Fighter, all versions of Street Fighter II (including Tournament Battle, exclusive to the Nintendo Switch); Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper; and, Street Fighter III: New Generation, 2nd Impact: Giant Attack and 3rd Strike. This essentially covers all the bases for early Street Fighter, which is great. Give me everything in one package and let me choose what I want to play. But alas, there is a catch: All the versions included are the arcade versions of the games. That means, for example, with Street Fighter Alpha 3 you aren’t going to get World Tour Mode. Whatever you received in the arcade is what you’re getting here so I hope you like the vanilla versions because that’s what’s served here. That’s not a bad thing if you love Street Fighter, and it’s the smart solution because including the home additions would have pushed this collection to double discs or more.
The package is fine graphically. The games included are going to look exactly what they way they did when they were released, which is exactly how they should here and isn’t the focus. What should be the focus is the surrounding package and it’s nice. The graphics look clean, and menus are inviting. However, I do have a gripe with the menus: Capcom is in dire need of a copy editor. I found at least one error in the text (Akuma’s bio in Super Street Fighter II X for the curious), and this isn’t the first time I’ve found this type of thing (there’s an error in Super Street Fighter IV’s text as well).
As a former professional editor, this type of thing in video games gets on my nerves. Capcom is a billion-dollar company; hiring a copy editor to spell check the menus and text shouldn’t be a problem. It reeks of sloppiness, though I shouldn’t be surprised as this is the same company that refuses to translate the board game in Project Justice or the dating sims in both versions of Rival Schools. But I digress. The presentation is good, and it looks fine on modern systems.
The music is the same as the graphics: just as you remember it and perfectly fine. There is a sound test and that’s helpful if you don’t already have any of the tracks in your music collection. There are a few remixes in the menus that you may not have heard before, but there isn’t anything noteworthy like say Mega Man X Legacy Collection. The extras are mid, though some of the artwork and the official timelines provided are neat. It’s just that there isn’t a lot of it and there should be with this many games included.
And just like the presentation, the playability is just as good as you remember. I was able to finish several games in the arcade mode — once I adjusted the difficulty, which is a godsend — and everything felt great even with a PlayStation 4 Pro controller. I also jumped online to test the netcode, and it was decent. However, with the superior Fightcade now in full swing, fighting online with 30th Anniversary has been made irrelevant.
This is the collection to end all Capcom collections for their fighting games. Yes, Capcom insists on releasing other collections with these games, but this is a good stop gap if you want the mainstream stuff all in one place. Come for the nostalgia and the convenience and maybe stay for the extras. Three decades of Street Fighter should be a spectacle to behold but it’s lacking in the knock your socks off draw-ins. It’s still a rad street fight, however.
Dynamite Headdy is a jumbled mess of hit or miss eclectic ideas
In the 16-bit era, the Genesis was the first shot fired in a decade’s war against Nintendo for the attention of teenage gamers and the cold hard cash of gamers’ parents. While Sega had Sonic as a mascot to counter Nintendo’s Mario, there were many unique characters Sega had in their stable ready to battle with Nintendo if Sonic needed to take a break. One of those characters was memorable for changing the platform genre. His name was Headdy, and his debut game Dynamite Headdy was his big break.
Dynamite Headdy tells the story of Headdy, a star puppet in the Treasure Theatre Show. Headdy’s loved by everyone except his rival, Trouble Bruin, who believes he should get top billing. In addition to reducing Headdy’s popularity, Trouble is a hench bearcat for the evil Dark Demon whose goal is world domination by converting other puppets to his growing army of mindless minions. With innocent puppets and the future of the theatre in jeopardy, it’s up to Headdy to stop Dark Demon and Trouble’s nefarious plans.
I’ll admit the graphics are like a children’s puppet show but they are presented in a way that’s colorful and engaging. Treasure did an excellent job with the presentation, keeping the story of the game simple. I did, however, dislike how Treasure played with promoting the game and placed ads for their other products front and center as I played through the first stage. It was super tacky and didn’t really help the game in any way. The controls are slightly simple thanks to the options screen allowing you to configure a control scheme. However, the constant switching heads and keeping up with what button does what invoked anger within me many times. In theory it looks simple, but the execution is off. It’s a lot to remember once you get going and drags down the platforming.
The music in the game is OK, having its energetic and forbearing doom moments but it’s generic enough to get by. I did feel though, sometimes with Dynamite Headdy, that the composers were pressured to outdo Super Mario World to see which game could have the cutest game music instead of keeping focus on how the music could be paired properly with each stage.
One of the more nonsensical and cringe-worthy moments that stuck out to me was naming each stage after well-known movies and pop culture series. Toyz in the Hood, Stair Wars, Far Trek and Terminate Her Too were named after the movies Boyz in the Hood, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Terminator 2. Don’t get me wrong, I understood that Treasure was trying to seize the moment but should have found other ways to accomplish the task because it came off as goofy and grating, not cute.
Dynamite Headdy is an interesting and highly original game that takes chances and sometimes succeeds and sometimes falls flat. The originality was obviously a selling point because Dynamite Headdy’s legacy endures on main consoles and Steam. There are some neat concepts here, but sometimes it needs to get out of its own head.
Ultra Street Fighter II needs to be the final final challenge
As a Street Fighter fan of a certain age, I can remember the many jokes back in the day about Capcom never learning how to count to three. It wasn’t a lie, though. Capcom couldn’t count to three because they continued to make major revisions to Street Fighter II while other fighting game series were starting and making sequels. More than 30 years later, even after Capcom learned what trés meant in New Generation, Giant Attack and 3rd Strike, we’re still returning to the SFII well and I don’t know if this return trip with the buckets was worth it.
By now, we all know the story of Street Fighter II: A bunch of World Warriors get together and fight the megalomaniacal dictator/drug runner/supernatural enthusiast M. Bison. Someone among the based crew that is Ryu, Chun-Li and Guile got their revenge and faced him at the end of the second World Warrior Tournament until the ever-present Akuma showed up and promptly took Bison out with a well-placed Raging Demon. Except that given the story events of Street Fighter V: Championship Edition, this no longer holds true exactly (see Bison’s resurrection in Street Fighter 6’s DLC). Anyway, at the point of Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, Bison is dead, on his way to hell with gasoline undergarments on for his various misdeeds. This has always been Street Fighter II’s storyline in its basest form, and nothing notable has changed about it in Ultra.
The controls also are the same old Street Fighter II that’s been played and rehashed to death during the past 35 years. It’s the same shoryuken, hurricane kicks, and hadokens you’re used to, and to Capcom’s credit, that’s the best thing they could have ever done. Don’t fix what isn’t broken and what generations have learned to cut their teeth on. That said, if you can play Super Turbo, you can play this because that’s all this is in terms of how to play Street Fighter II. And to mitigate the potential issues, buying a Pro Controller is a smart idea, but you already knew that if you bought this port because there is no way you’re casually playing a port of a 35-year-old fighting game without knowing you need a decent controller.
Now, the one thing that has changed is the graphics. Graphically, this is more in line with the weird Street Fighter IIHD Remix that featured anime style graphics. It’s kind of gorgeous but also kind of not. It feels a little like a rehash of that port and not too many people were clamoring for it outside of the fact that it was one of the few ports of Super Turbo released in the U.S. Some of the stages look great and benefit from the art style change and some of them just look rather meh. Also, one of the few things that mercifully stayed the same is the soundtrack. SFII has always had an excellent soundtrack and it, too, is untouched from the Super Turbo version.
The new additions to this are what’s going to influence your decision to get this or pass. On the roster side of things are newcomers Evil Ryu and Violent Ken. Why, they aren’t new you say? Exactly. They aren’t new at all if you care about Capcom fighting lore. Evil Ryu is a mainstay evil version of the beloved Ryu who’s been hanging around ever since Capcom USA forgot to ask if he was real or not in the heyday of Street Fighter Alpha 2. Violent Ken is a little deeper but not by much. If you played the weird SNK vs. Capcom Chaos — better known as SNK’s attempt in the Capcom vs. SNK series — you’d recognize this version of Ken. He also kind of made a what-if appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 3 in the arcade story mode. While I get that they’re a novelty and people love these characters for whatever reason, I’m not sure I understand why we needed another version of Street Fighter II to include them. Because for the folks playing along at home, this makes the sixth version of the game to be released as an official port. By the time this was released, Capcom was talking seriously and making a lot of noise about Street Fighter V, so this is unnecessary quite honestly. And throwing in the moribund and extra Way of the Hado mode does not justify the need for a wholly new version of this game.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Street Fighter II. It was instrumental and paved the way for my favorite genre of video games. I’ve played every version of SFII at this point and every spinoff of it, too. But when it comes to these highly unnecessary retreads of the same game that Capcom won’t let loose, I have a problem. As much as I have come to love the franchise in my later years, I can’t stand that Capcom beats the SFII horse to death while ignoring their other viable fighting game franchises such as Rival Schools/Project Justice and Vampire/Darkstalkers. We get it, Street Fighter II is extremely popular. But Capcom has released enough versions of it to last a lifetime and this version is not needed. Capcom really needs to let this be the final challenge for sure.
Metroid Dread a return to form for veteran series
That foreboding sense of … dread. The anticipation of walking into an unknown room and possibly finding a secret. It’s the stuff many old-school gamers and Metroid fans like me cut our teeth on growing up with Metroidvania games. The original Metroid set the tone, but Super Metroid is the house of cards that everything in the genre rests on. And Metroid Dread, while an admirable attempt to recreate that nostalgic feeling, is a few missiles short.
Don’t misunderstand me: I love Metroid Dread. It’s the return to form that we all expect of a Metroid game, and you can tell that within the first five minutes. The opening cinematic picks the story up after Fusion where Samus Aran, the baddest bounty hunter in the known universe, has simultaneously solved the X Parasite threat and ushered in galactic peace once again. Despite that, the Galactic Federation receives verified proof that the X are not extinct and sends EMMI (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers) to the planet ZDR to investigate the mystery of why the X Parasite has reappeared. Soon after the EMMI land, all contact is lost with them. Ms. Aran is sent in to investigate their disappearance, and shortly after landing, finds herself in combat with a mysterious figure that resembles a Chozo. Given that the Chozo other than herself are also extinct, it’s an even deeper mystery that Samus is determined to solve.
The story is interesting, and I was genuinely invested in learning about the EMMI and what they found on the planet. I was even more intrigued about the Chozo warrior because I’m well-versed in the lore of Metroid and anything that calls back to Super Metroid and Samus’ origin story is going to have my attention. It also references Metroid Fusion, obviously, and parts of Metroid II: Samus Returns — which is the excellent remake of Metroid II: The Return of Samus. Leaning on the older story is a smart move because you’re probably going to go back and play the older games and the remake, and you’re going to buy into the story of the current game a little bit easier.
What isn’t a little easier, even on the easy difficulty level, is the combat. Listen, I’m a Super Metroid expert and I can even claim beating the original Metroid, but the first hour of Dread is hard. I got stuck on the second EMMI chase sequence and had to go watch a detailed demonstration of what to do because I just wasn’t getting it. And, yes, I love this about Dread. Metroid, at its core, is about exploration, problem-solving and figuring out things by trial and error. I’m doing that in Dread, though my old-man reflexes and patience are getting in the way. But this is what I want out of my Metroid game to a point. The other side of this, however, is that I didn’t care for the mad dash away from an all-powerful enemy in Metroid Fusion in 2002, and I don’t particularly care for the mad dash away from an all-powerful enemy in Metroid Dread now. That frantic feeling of not knowing what to do in a sequence that means instant death constantly is not a good one, and I had hoped that it wouldn’t return 20 years later, but here we are. I’ll figure it out and learn to live with it, I guess, but it’s not one of my favorite parts of the game.
One of the other things I do love about Dread is the atmosphere. The music hits the sweet spot of nostalgia and new with leitmotifs of Super and the original game mixed in, and the graphics are gorgeous. I’ve long been a fan of the music of Metroid, and this is just another masterpiece in the long history of the series. Also, Samus has never looked better. She’s more fleshed out with modern graphics, but my favorite heroine is simply stunning even in the stripped Power Suit. And while ZDR is no Zebes, it’s a deliciously dark environment that invokes the best part of brooding moody dark planet that fits right in Metroid lore.
While I love a lot of Dread, there are some things that I don’t quite love. First, as a veteran Metroid lover, I can’t help but wonder why it took so long to get a side-scrolling version of Metroid again and why it followed Fusion after so many years. Dread is fantastic, but Fusion was not exactly Super, and Dread tries a little too hard to make Fusion work. I’d rather Dread had its own identity aside from the cleanup of Fusion’s mess.
And while we’re at it, Dread tries a little too hard to lean into Super’s legacy. It’s well-known that Super is our favorite game of all time. That is not a secret. However, unless you’re going to give me a full modern remake of Super, don’t tease me with something almost there.
Dread is a tease, a “what if we were to remake the greatest game of all time with modern controls” experiment. To quote the awful Ronin in Avengers: Endgame, don’t give me hope. Don’t give it to me halfway and then be like, naw, you know what? Let’s just call it Metroid 5 and we’ll revisit that Super remake later. This technically isn’t Dread’s fault, because it’s an excellent game and it’s giving me, the Metroid fan who didn’t want a first-person shooter Metroid, exactly what I’ve been asking for since Fusion. I’m not dinging Dread per se; I’m dinging Nintendo for being a tease and a terrible one at that.
Metroid Dread does almost everything right: The atmosphere is Metroid, the graphics are Metroid, the story is Metroid and the secrecy is Metroid. It’s a must-play if you’re into the series and even if you aren’t, you still need to experience it just to see how the grand dame of Metroidvania does her thing and creates perfection. It’s just that if you’re walking into this thinking you’re going to get Super Metroid levels of perfection, you’re going to be disappointed. It’s not Other M level of disappointment, but the layers of Super haunt the outcome. Then again, let’s face it: Nothing is going to touch Super’s level of nuance. And Dread is still fine for it. Dread nearly hits on every level, and it’s the side-scrolling Metroid adventure we non-first-person shooter fans have been waiting for. It’s just that you must be willing to look past the dreaded comparisons to Super Metroid to see its true finesse.
Mix of RPG and magic can’t save Chakan from terrible fate
As Sega and Nintendo fought for more territory in the final arc of the 16-bit era, Sega tried to stick with new original properties in unrealized genres. I recently was reintroduced to Chakan: The Forever Man, a game with a cool original theme that didn’t grow to the potential that developer Extended Play Productions envisioned. I would even dare say that with its dark theme, it could have been the Genesis’ answer to Castlevania, which later appeared on Genesis. However, dark and spooky doesn’t equal great.
Based on Robert Kraus’ comic book series, Chakan is what happens when the supernatural meets a legendary swordsman. You take on the role of Chakan, a legendary swordsman with blade and spell skills who boasts he can defeat Death without any problems. As a result, Death challenges Chakan to a duel to the death stating if Chakan wins, death will grant him eternal life. The battle ended with Chakan victorious and Death, keeping his promise with a sinister twist: While Chakan won eternal life, he is now tasked with eliminating all evils of the underworld. With the heavy burden of everlasting life upon him, Chakan must embark on a righteous requiem to earn eternal rest.
The graphics in Chakan are the usual fanfare for 16-bit systems. The theme of supernatural battle would be a meaningful change for a Genesis game that could have been expanded on, but the graphics placed the game at an unfair disadvantage because they are so bland and boring. Despite the handicap placed on the graphics, the music sticks to the game’s theme of fighting demons and perfectly pairs the music to each stage.
Controlling Chakan is easy but can be customized. Chakan has a special spin attack like Sonic the Hedgehog and can use fire and other elemental attacks using alchemy potions. My problem with the controls is obviously immediately: the Genesis controller has too many functions. Everything from movement to weapons and alchemy is time-consuming and a test of my patience.
While it’s a neat concept game, Chakan isn’t great at all. The many problems really start with the lack of hindsight to hire Kraus to consult on game development. This would have allowed more insight into the character. It’s also frustrating that Chakan’s time limit prevented me from locating his special weapons. Also, the various symbols representing alchemy were confusing. Trying to determine which symbol matched the element Chakan would need to fight multiple enemies was a chore.
Chakan: The Forever Man is sadly a game with a great concept that was decades ahead of its time. While I give Extended Play Productions credit for trying to introduce a different concept, the pressure to help Sega defeat their competitor blinded Chakan’s potential. More time should have been used toward the game’s development and introduction of Chakan as an anti-hero. Kraus will continue Chakan’s quest for a peaceful death but, for now, he deserves a well-earned rest.
Middling return spells doomsday for Man of Steel
Death and Return of Superman arc dropped in 1994
Superman has never been among my favorite superheroes. First, I’m a Marvel girl at heart and I generally don’t care for most DC characters. Second, if there was a DC superhero that I love, it’s going to be Batman. No prep time and by himself. So, it stands to reason that I don’t care for most DC games outside of Batman properties. And so, it continues with The Death and Return of Superman.
Death and Return of Superman follows the plot of the comics well. Superman fights his ultimate nemesis in Doomsday, and he dies in the battle. Shortly after, four other Supermen (Superboy, Cyborg Superman, Eradicator and Steel) show up to claim their rightful place as the Man of Steel. The problem is, however, these guys are not Superman, and it shows. Coast City is annihilated, and it turns out that Cyborg Superman is responsible for the carnage. The other Supermen, including the real Superman himself, return to stop the cyborg menace. If you’re familiar with the comics arc, this is basically what happened there. It’s nothing super complicated and there are no additions or changes for the game. I appreciated it as someone who doesn’t follow Superman that closely because it allowed me to learn something new about a well-known superhero and encouraged me to learn about the comics’ version of the story simultaneously.
Rampaging through the streets of Metropolis to stop crime and Cyborg Superman is a no-frills affair as well. There is absolutely nothing noteworthy or special about the environments and the presentation. Nothing stands out, though the character models and designs look nice. The sprites are nicely drawn and rather large, so they will catch your eye. However, nothing else will. The backgrounds are just there, static and unchanging, and nothing looks particularly interesting. The music is the same. The intro theme is kind of a toe-tapper but nothing about this is going to make you search it out online to add to the collection.
The controls aren’t anything special, either. They’re just standard beat-’em-up controls. There are your standard attacks, a throw, a fireball sometimes, and an ultimate screen-clearing attack that requires energy. While the payoff is the same for all the Supermen, the attack animation is different. It’s kind of cool to see what each character is capable of but it’s by no means anything exciting. And, as is the problem with most beat-’em-ups like this one, you’re going to run into quarter-muncher syndrome. The hits are always unfair, especially with multiple enemies on the screen, and health isn’t exactly plentiful. The bosses particularly are bad about this, and it’s infuriating to no end that you can’t get clean hits against them without taking a brutal beating.
At the end of the day, Death and Return of Superman goes about as well as you’d expect: You fight Doomsday, you play as pretenders to the throne, and you resurrect to stop a greater threat. It’s not terrible but it isn’t great, either. Given that we know how this ended in the comics, is there really a need to play through a middling game that doesn’t do anything special with the Superman name? No. Let this death cycle play out and remain in its grave, respectfully.
The quirky ninja series had a rousing start on the Super NES
Everyone must start somewhere, even video games. Even the most successful video game series have humble beginnings, where new ideas are brought to the table to establish a hopefully successful series. So, it goes with one of my favorite series, Mystical Ninja. While it’s not super popular here in the West, Legend of the Mystical Ninja opened the doors for the series to make an impression on me in the late 1990s. It’s debatable, though, if it cleared up the mystery surrounding the appeal of the series for me.
Legend of the Mystical Ninja is weird and anachronistic in everything that it does. Set in an alternate feudal Japan, Goemon and Ebisumaru (Dr. Yang and Kid Ying renamed in game) realize there are some strange happenings going on in Oedo. After some investigation, they discover that Princess Yuki has been kidnapped and they set out to rescue her. Along the way, they meet up with an ally in fellow ninja Yae, fight future ally Sasuke and travel to different historically accurate locations in Japan. This should sound familiar because it’s basically the plot of the excellent GI favorite Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. Swap some elements and character names and you’ve got the basics of that game.
But what sets it apart from some of the later entries is the presentation. Legend, unlike Starring Goemon, is a side-scrolling affair. The health meter and the purchase of damage-negating items are the same, but instead of being an over-the-shoulder 3D romp, this plays more like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. And that works well in its favor. The game looks nice and has charm. It’s bright and colorful with big sprites and interesting animations. For an early Super Nintendo title, you can’t go wrong with looking like a nice hop ‘n’ bop. The soundtrack is suitably nice as well. It’s no Starring Goemon but it has a few decent tracks that will remind you of the sound the later games are known for.
Because it’s like Link to the Past in looks, it’s a lot like that game in playstyle as well. The controls work well with the SNES layout, and it’s easy to get things going when you want to move around the playfield. My only gripe is that it’s a little hard to remember which button controls special moves. Otherwise, it’s a standard action platformer for the SNES, which means it’s going to play cleanly and make no fuss about its mechanics. Legend of the Mystical Ninja is a decent Western beginning for the Goemon franchise. It has a lot of charm, it looks good, plays well and doesn’t forget its roots. As the introduction to the series in North America, it made a good first impression with its quirky sensibilities and gave birth to a legend.