Monday, May 15, 2023

What Am I Playing Next? #01 | Monkey Island 2, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past + more

Hello readers,

I recently introduced a new segment to TGB Project, which I call What Am I Playing Next?, and while the first iteration focused on a singular game, Super Castlevania IV, I don't think making one of these for each game before I play it is very useful.

Instead, I decided I would make this post for every 5 games I play. This way, you would have an idea of what reviews are to come in the coming weeks and the segment still serves its purpose of allowing me to give my thoughts on upcoming games before I play them. Let's start the first official episode of this with a game from a familiar franchise.

Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin

BASIC INFO
  • Initial Release Date: 1991
  • Platforms: Sega Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, Sega CD
  • Genre: Action
  • Developer / Publisher: Technopop (Gray Matter - Sega CD) / Sega (Acclaim Entertainment - GG)
  • Series/Franchise: Spider-Man, Marvel
  • MOBY RATING: 7.3 (#8,470 of 157K)
Spider-Man greets the challenge again, becoming the lone franchise I've played the most games of for the time being, after I played the terrifyingly terrible two Spider-Man games from 1990 last year.

This time, the hope is that there will be more fun to be had with Spider-Man, as Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin is credited for "single-handedly [convincing] Marcel Comics not to cancel the licensing deal they had with Sega". According to this same source, which is the resume of the Founder of Technopop, over 2/3 of Sega Genesis owners purchased the game as well. That's an incredible feat considering the Genesis was already 1 1/2 - 2 years old by this point.

MY HISTORY WITH THE SERIES

As you will be able to tell from the reviews further below, the two previous Spider-Man games I've played for this challenge were terrible. In fact, they're 2 of the 5 worst rated games at this point in the challenge, with the Amiga version coming in at the #1 worst with a TGBP score of 26.

The Game Boy version was incredibly primitive, and one of its few features, web-slinging, seemed to work at random and on rare occasions. On top of that, it was a game you didn't want to look at and one you didn't want to hear the sounds that came out of it.

Somehow, the Amiga version was worse, with Spider-Man kinda fat looking and walking hunched forward for some reason. No music, even worse sound design than the Game Boy version, hilariously poor animations, extremely slow pace and just a mess to control. 

So in a way, it can only go up from here, or so I hope.

MY THOUGHTS BEFORE STARTING THE GAME

You know how they say "it got big shoes to fill?". Well luckily, Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin only has Size 1 shoes to fill, and that's regardless of if you're using the US, UK or EU metric for that. The shoes are empty, OK? 

That said, my expectations are kind of high due to the sales this game achieved and that it's on a 16-bit platform. Just give me non-mediocre controls and non-ear-destroying sounds/music and I'm a happy camper.

REVIEWS OF OTHER GAMES IN THE SERIES

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

BASIC INFO
  • Initial Release Date: November 21, 1991
  • Platforms: SNES
  • Genre: Action-adventure
  • Developer / Publisher: Nintendo EAD / Nintendo
  • Series/Franchise: The Legend of Zelda
  • MOBY RATING: 8.4 (#361 of 157K)
Oh, what's that? Is this my first time playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past? Yes, it is. Am I excited? You bet I am. Games like these are why I started this challenge to begin with. To dive into this for the first time as it originally released, to properly dive into my first ever Legend of Zelda game to be precise, is pretty exciting.

This is the #2 best rated game over on Moby Games amongst games we've played for this challenge so far, and the #1 game, Super Mario World, is by a clear distance the best game I've played here up to this point, so to say The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has me hyped is putting it mildly.

MY HISTORY WITH THE SERIES

In terms of this challenge, there is no history.

In terms of my gaming habits before I started this, I only played Breath of the Wild, and that was 6 years ago and only for a few hours. Unfortunately, that game didn't quite click with me at the time, mainly for the weapon degrading system and the sandbox nature of the game, which I might feel differently about if I played it again today.

But I'm basically a newcomer to the series, and all I really now is that we're indeed not playing Zelda, but Link, and I think we need to rescue Zelda and defeat an evil guy called Ganon. This is not fact-checked, so if I misremember his name, you can laugh at me now. That said, this is as blind as it gets in today's times for someone who spends so much time in the gaming space.

MY THOUGHTS BEFORE STARTING THE GAME

Whether you've played a Zelda game or even if you didn't, we all know that this is one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time. As of posting this, the newest entry into the series is just three days old and has been selling like hot cakes and received one of the best Opencritic scores of all time. So the series is still doing well I think it's fair to say.

Would it be unfair to expect this game to blow me away? Considering that Super Castlevania IV, the last game to be called "one of the greatest games of all time", was one of my favorite games of 1991, I think it is fair to say that. I'm going in with as much of an open mind as I can and hope this will be a great time.

REVIEWS OF OTHER GAMES IN THE SERIES

None.

Catacomb 3-D

BASIC INFO
  • Initial Release Date: November 1991 (NA)
  • Platforms: MS-DOS
  • Genre: FPS
  • Developer / Publisher: id Software / Softdisk
  • Series/Franchise: -
  • Engine: Prototype of Wolfenstein 3D engine
  • MOBY RATING: 6.4 (#17,330 of 157K)
Well, here we go. This is called the first pure FPS ever made, and it's by a studio you might have heard of (you have): id Software. They go on to create an entire genre in 1991 with Wolfenstein 3D, you might have heard of that (you have). Catacomb 3-D uses a prototype of the Wolfenstein engine, so we're pretty much getting a sneak peek here at a style of game that will become a regular occurence in this challenge throughout the 90s.

The game is in the 89th percentile in terms of Moby Rating with a 6.4, so it's advertised as a solid, not great video game. That sounds good enough to me.

MY HISTORY WITH THE SERIES

For obvious reasons, there is no history with id Software FPS games. Yet.

MY THOUGHTS BEFORE STARTING THE GAME

This game doesn't seem to get much love. Everyone knows of Wolfenstein, of Doom, of Quake. But how many know of Catacomb? If you check out id Software's wiki page, the Games part starts with Commander Keen and then jumps straight to Wolfenstein. Catacomb gets two "oh by the way" type mentions in the whole article, while Wolfenstein is mentioned 35 times, Doom 103 times, Quake 80 times and Rage 21 times. 

So I'm expecting Catacomb to be the best of the bunch.

REVIEWS OF OTHER GAMES IN THE SERIES

None.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

BASIC INFO
  • Initial Release Date: December 1991
  • Platforms: Amiga, FM Towns, Mac OS, MS-DOS
  • Genre: Graphic adventure
  • Developer / Publisher: LucasArts / LucasArts (U.S. Gold - EU)
  • Series/Franchise: Monkey Island
  • Engine: SCUMM
  • MOBY RATING: 8.2 (#845 of 157K)
I'd say this is a pretty great 5-game line-up. Monkey Island 2, the sequel to 1990's Monkey Island, is ranked 300 spots better than the original and continues a few months from where the original left off.

From here, it will take 6 years before the world saw the third entry of the series in 1997 and the series returned as recently as 2022 with Return to Monkey Island. 

MY HISTORY WITH THE SERIES

I played the original Monkey Island in October 2022 and it's definitely been one of the highlights of this challenge so far. The humor can be hit and miss, with more hit for me, but most of all I appreciated the creativity the game had on offer in terms of its puzzles and set-pieces, and the charm of it all. 

MY THOUGHTS BEFORE STARTING THE GAME

This is a much-beloved series, which is why I can only imagine this game continuing right where the previous game left off, not just in plot but in quality as well. 

REVIEWS OF OTHER GAMES IN THE SERIES
Mega Man 4

BASIC INFO
  • Initial Release Date: December 6, 1991
  • Platforms: NES, PlayStation
  • Genre: Platformer, Action
  • Developer / Publisher: Capcom / Capcom (Nintendo - EU)
  • Series/Franchise: Mega Man
  • MOBY RATING: 7.6 (#5,327 of 157K)
Mega Man games come out thick and fast, with this being the 5th Mega Man game to release since the challenge began (3rd I'm playing), and with series set to release 3 additional games each year until and including 1995. Can they keep it fresh? We'll see.

MY HISTORY WITH THE SERIES

I've had a mixed relationship with Mega Man games up to this point. The game's approach to boss and level design is undoubtedly unique, which I appreciate, but what I've noticed is that a lot of times, there are specific bosses that you should tackle first in order to have a manageable time, which I feel like eliminates the purpose of choosing for the majority of players. In addition, some bosses become trivial once you pick up a certain weapon from a different boss as well, so the concept can definitely improve from where it's at, but we're in 1991, so I can imagine that happening at some point soon.

From what I've played, I found Mega Man 3 to be a disappointment for these reasons, and Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge for the Game Boy to be lazy cash grab, as the game simply re-used older bosses and just became a worse version of the NES titles.

MY THOUGHTS BEFORE STARTING THE GAME

Mega Man 3 had the 3rd best Moby Rating of any game I've played or am about to play with this 5-game line-up, behind Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Considering my disappointment with that game, I'm going to go in with low expectations into this lower rated fourth main game. 

REVIEWS OF OTHER GAMES IN THE SERIES
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