Game #050 | ANOTHER WORLD Review (1991) | Beaten

ANOTHER WORLD (November, 1991)

Genre: Racing, Vehicular combat

Platforms: Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Sega Genesis, SNES

Developer: Delphine Software

Publisher: Delphine Software, U.S. Gold, Interplay, Virgin Interactive

Started: May 3, 2023

Finished: May 3, 2023

Beaten: Yes

Playtime: 2 hours

Game #50. That's a nice milestone hit. We get there with Another World, a short cinematic platformer / adventure title developed by Delphine Software, who are also known for the game 'Flashback' and 'Shaq Fu'. This game is a unique one, so a good choice for #50, as it mixes up actual cinematics with gameplay, something that wouldn't become the norm until much later down the line as we all know. The game was initially developed and released for the Amiga in November 1991 but later came out for the SNES and Sega Genesis as well, among many other platforms.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 6/10

You play Lester Knight Chaykin, a physicist who at the start of the game arrives in his laboratory, rides an elevator down to his main office and starts an experiment. I couldn't figure out what it was about, but wikipedia describes it as 'attempting to reconstruct what happened when the universe was born'. During his experiment, the facility and him are hit by a lightning strike, which teleports Lester to an alien planet. Here, he has to evade monsters for a while until he is taken hostage by the locals. He escapes and helps free an alien creature that was captured with him called "Buddy", who henceforth assists Lester in his escape from this planet.

The manual itself only has a short diary entry from around the mid-way point of the game, where the main character talks about the friend he has found in the alien planet and how the energy weapon works that an enemy has dropped earlier.

The cinematics are mixed in between gameplay sessions of a game that will take you roughly an hour or two, and only 20 minutes if you know exactly what to do, which isn't too hard on a second attempt.

The plot itself is basic, but the inclusion of a friendly, strange creature is the kind of story element that will be used many more times in the future of gaming and that will pull at the heartstrings of many gamers. I doubt this was the first platformer to use this, but 'Buddy' definitely played a noteable and pretty useful role here.

GAMEPLAY | 11/20

This is a platformer / adventure, and your goal is to do platforming, solve some light puzzles, shoot a few bad guys and do so without dying a lot, as the checkpoint system can get pretty frustrating. If there is a particular part you are stuck at, it's not going to be unusual for you to go for a couple minutes of the previous parts over and over again. The most popular comparison I could give here would be the bonfire system in Souls games. Die to a boss and you respawn minutes of running away. Die here to anything and the same thing is true pretty much.

Sometimes, it's not quite clear where you are to go next, so you kind of end up shooting at everything and see if it opens up a path forward for example.

But other than, it's OK. The 'Buddy' character actually is quite useful in that he opens up holes for you to climb in and in general assist you through various means, which was pretty cool to see friendly AI this 'advanced' in 1991.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 9/10

No voice acting. The sound design has no business being this crisp and atmospheric. The echo of your steps when you run around in caves, the sound of the wind howling when you're outside, the sound of the water while you're swimming in it, the sound that translates the power behind those shots you take with your energy weapon really well and so much more is so well done.

The soundtrack is incredibly tense and perfect for the type of atmosphere this game is going for. Most of the game is played in silence and only accompanied by the various ambient sounds, but when the soundtrack kicks in, it only adds to the action.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10

Mostly a good looking game but partly a mixed bag, most notably in its design of the backgrounds in some areas, which look rather uninspired, and characters. On the other hand, you have great detail in particle effects, the cinematics and some of the backgrounds, especially when you first enter this alien planet. But overall, it's a good looking game compared to its 1991 peers.

ATMOSPHERE | 9/10

Very atmospheric, from start to finish. You start the game wondering what this odd looking dude is out to do late at night in his labratory. You continue wondering as Lester is teleported to an alien planet, with weirder and weirder looking creatures and natives. You build an unlikely relationship with this friendly stranger that you rescue, you try to make your escape through dark caves, squeeze your way through vents, use your energy weapon to shoot your path forward and do so while the soundtrack amplifies the tension in the right moments. It's really well done.

CONTENT | 4/10

The big focus on cinematics means there is less space left to make this a lengthy game, or at least so I'd assume. So you're left with good content here for the most part, but not a lot of it at all.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10

The design, apart from the inclusion of cinematics, is pretty basic. You got the old-school issues with an unfair checkpoint system rearing its ugly head from time to time, but other than that, there isn't anything notable to add here.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 8/10

Very unique in the way it tells its own story using, for the time, sophisticated cinematics. If we're fair, it's questionable whether this type of game has a higher fun factor than many of the top-end platformers that would release in the early 90s, as the game has to balance the high quality cinematics with much less content overall, but the concept in itself is promising and brings the medium forward in its attempt to blend story and gameplay together.

REPLAYABILITY | 1/5

Once you've beaten it, there is no extra incentive given to replay it.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 67/100

Solid graphics, great atmosphere and sound, well done cinematics that were unusual for its time. Definitely worth a try.

Game #049 | ROAD RASH Review (1991) | Not Beaten

ROAD RASH (September, 1991)

Genre: Racing, Vehicular combat

Platforms: Sega Genesis, Amiga

Developer: EA

Publisher: EA

Started: April 30, 2023

Finished: May 1, 2023

Beaten: No

Playtime: 5 hours

Ugh, an EA game, I bet it's filled with microtransactions. Oh, right, we're in 1991. This game is called Road Rash, and is a racing game with some fighting elements. There is a spiritual successor for it called Road Redemption, which released in 2017.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 2/10

There actually is a set-up for this fictitious world in the manual. There once were two bitter rivals in Fang and Polygon. After Fang lost their final official race because Polygon tempered with Fang's bike beforehand, Fang challenged Polygon to an unofficial race, which started the cult behind 'Road Rash Races'. "Punching, kicking and clubbing and 150 miles per hour are the norm for Rashers".

In-game, you are greeted with messages by friends and foes before and sometimes after a race. Sometimes it's trash talk, sometimes it's a friendly hint and sometimes it's a police officer who tells you to not drive too fast, so he can catch you. After each level you beat, there is also a very short cutscene that plays where your character and, I presume, his girlfriend take their helmets off and enjoy the fresh air after winning all tracks in the previous level.

It's a bit more than the bare minimum, and I liked seeing those messages before races.

GAMEPLAY | 12/20

This got kind of addicting really quickly. Obviously I'm gonna move on as part of the challenge, but I'm sure I'll play this to chill out from time to time like I used to do for F-Zero.

You start with the standard bike and have 5 races available at the beginning. Your goal is to win each race against 15 or so competitors, which allows you to move up in levels and difficulty, until you reach the final race. After each race, you are compensated in $ based on your finish and can use it to upgrade to bikes that are faster and can be controlled better. Most of the time, progress is blocked because your bike simply won't be fast enough to win, so you'll need to farm money in races you know you'll lose to be able to afford a better bike. I can't say how much of a grind it is at later levels, but it was acceptable where I stopped, which was after I finished the second level.

The special feature of Road Rash is that during races, you can ram the bike of the other racers, punch/kick them and hit them with melee weapons. You have a meter for your bike and your character health. If your character health goes down to 0, you fall off your bike but it recovers over time. There are also cars on the road that drive in both directions, which you have to avoid. If you are hit, you usually fly far away from your bike and have to run all the way back to it to get back to driving, which takes a while. Cars can hit your bike after you already crashed and kick it even further away that way, which is a funny mechanic, but might get frustrating later down the line because after two crashes, you're pretty much not going to win. I didn't find any way to back out of a race other than a reset of the emulator. Finally, there is a police bike that drives around sometimes as well, and if you fall off your bike near the officer, he will bust you and fine you money.

I really like the idea of this, and it's recently gotten a spiritual successor in Road Redemption (2017), but at least for the first two levels, I never really saw much incentive to battle the bikers. You either don't catch up to the fastest bikes or you can blaze past them once you do, so there isn't a lot of time for when you could be in a confrontation with them. Plus, I never got a melee weapon up to this point and I'm not even sure how to attain one, so that was disappointing.

The racing was fun regardless. It's very simple, you have to try to stay on track in a vertically scrolling 2D track, avoid the cars and get past the other racers. Your bikes differ in speed and handling, though that is not indicated everywhere but in the description of the bikes as far as I could tell.

Road Rash got two sequels over the next years, which were both praised for the same fun factor that you got with the first, but also criticized for lack of innovation. For those reasons, I'm not going to try those, but Road Rash goes 3D in 1998, has a PlayStation release in 2000 and then one final release in 2009 on the EA Mobile site only (hello, modern EA) before it then started to sit dormant ever since.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 6/10

No voice acting. The sound design in this is actually not so good. There aren't many sound effects here to begin with, including when your opponents crash into cars or the sound of the engine of any car in general. The main sound you will hear is the tires screeching when you turn corners, and that sound doesn't even sound like how it sounds in reality or even close to it.

As far the OST, I think overall it's a plus. If you played this when you were younger and played these maps over and over again, it's a soundtrack that feels distinct enough to stick around with you for a while. The track I liked the most is probably the Pacific Coast one. All tracks have this element to them I can't really describe well, but if I had to make an attempt, I'd describe it as a low pitch bouncey sound, which definitely is a terrible description. But nevertheless, my point is that it didn't quite gell with me and it being the connecting theme in the OST, I can't say this would be among the great soundtracks of this year if I were to make a list. Unlike a game like F-Zero, the OST didn't have any really good tracks that I would gladly listen to outside of the game either.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 7/10

The game doesn't look bad, it doesn't look fantastic. You drive down a road that looks the same throughout for each map with forests and mountains visible in the horizon. You and your opponents look the same and are only distinguished by color. What I really like about the graphical presentation is the animations. The animations of the crash and how your bike and you fly into the air and down on your butt and how you rush back to your bike is pretty funnily presented here. In terms of graphical fidelity, your main issue here might be that you will have a hard time sometimes figuring out that you're approaching a car, as the low resolution from time to time makes them hard to see quickly enough.

ATMOSPHERE | 6/10

In terms of atmosphere, it hits best when you drive behind a group of bikers and see them drive into the trunk of the car in front of them and fly off their bikes as you leave them in the dust. Or when you are side-by-side with another biker and throw a punch or hit their bike with yours to drive them off course. That doesn't happen often enough though I thought.

CONTENT | 6/10

There are 5 levels with 5 races each and 8 total bikes you can unlock. It's a solid amount of content, nothing special here.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 7/10

Pretty basic but clean design here. You go through more and more difficult levels and continue to earn money to unlock faster and faster bikes. Effective, and I'd say you'll have a fun 10-15 hours or so trying to win all races.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 6/10

I like the concept of using illegal tactics during a race to gain an advantage. I just don't feel like it's fleshed out here and you rarely have a need to use these tactics. It would have also been more fun if we could have gone into a race having some sort of melee weapon pre selected, because I went through two levels without getting my hands on a single one.

REPLAYABILITY | 3/5

It's a racing game, so you'll have plenty of motivation to keep playing and trying to beat your previous high scores.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 60/100

It's an enjoyable racing game. If you're looking for a more modern experience though, I'd suggest checking out Road Redemption. Road Rash's main selling proposition, the fighting during the racing, is only a small part of the gameplay here and it quickly just turns into a normal racing game for the most part.

Game #048 | METROID II: RETURN OF SAMUS Review (1991) | Not Beaten

METROID II: RETURN OF SAMUS (November, 1991)

Genre: Action Adventure

Platforms: Game Boy

Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Publisher: Nintendo

Started: April 29, 2023

Finished: April 30, 2023

Beaten: No

Playtime: 2 hours

I think if you're looking to get into the much-beloved Metroid series for the first time, Metroid II: Return of Samus (Dev: Nintendo R&D1 / Pub: Nintendo) won't be the best place to start. The game released in November 1991 for the Game Boy, unlike the original which came out for the NES, and if you really don't want to pass by this game, you would probably be best served going for its remake from 2017 for the Nintendo 3DS.

The game isn't 'objectively bad', not even close actually, but it suffers from pretty much all the lack of QoL features that you'd expect from games of this time. This makes it tough to play unless you don't mind looking for the way forward for, potentially, hours at a time, and even then, the future releases will serve you with much more enjoyable gameplay in pretty much every way. But all of that I talk about in detail below.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 3/10

As in the original, you play Samus Aran, who is a Space Hunter working for the Galactic Federation. Her goal is once again to go to the planet SR388, where she is to exterminate the remaining Metroids after both a ship full of researchers and armed soldiers went missing. All of this can be found in the manual. In the game, you press START and are immediately loaded in and stand in front of your ship and are not given any further information.

The main things you will take away from this game in terms of story/characters are the following

• Samus is a badass character just simply based on design and she gets shit done when others can't (not unlike many other one hero vs the world games, but effective)

• The fact that there was no color for the Game Boy meant that the devs had to add the round metal shoulder pads to differentiate between her Power Suit and Varia Suit, a feature that has stayed with Samus ever since

• POSSIBLE SPOILER: The ending cliffhanger, without dialogue and voice acting, is really well done. Samus finds an egg of a Metroid hatchling, which follows her to her ship. What will this cause in the sequel?

So Metroid II doesn't really do much different from many other platformers / Action Adventure types like this in terms of story, but it does manage to stand out a bit thanks to its ending and its main character.

GAMEPLAY | 9/20

You will most likely be familiar with the Metroid formula by now. Start with limited abilities, explore multi-pathed levels multiple times by leveraging new abilities that you gain constantly as you progress. It's a pretty popular genre, and Metroid games pretty much pioneered them. Unfortunately, early iterations come with some growing pains as the developers looked to find a balance of their vision and what they could realistically expect players to be willing to push through.

Before we get there, here is the gist of how this game plays. You control Samus in a 2D side-scrolling game where you can shoot projectiles, jump and even roll up into a ball to squeeze through holes. Your goal is to traverse this map and find all Metroids, which are parasitic creatures that, unsurprisingly, form the main enemy types in this series. Throughout your journey you get access to new skills and attacks, which not only allow you to stand a chance against later bosses, but to also unlock areas that were previously inaccessible.

I personally have a mixed relationship with Metroidvanias, though "utility-gated progression" usually isn't my main issue but rather the convoluted design of the maps and/or the gameplay itself, and both creep up their ugly heads here as well, though I can excuse it much more for a 30 year old game rather than some of the newer entries into the genre.

Firstly, this is a Game Boy game, and unlike the NES version, Samus covers 1/4 of the screen here, which from the get-go makes for an awkward affair when trying to dodge enemies reliably. Her jumps are not sensitive to button presses at all, so you need to press JUMP quite a while in order to make a long jump, and in areas where platforms are separated by some sort of health-evaporating substance in between, these jumps can become quite unreliable and hence frustrating.

Frustrating is actually a big thing with this game. The reason why you want to take hits as few times as possible is because there are few save points here and they are pretty far from each other, so you will constantly find yourself warp all the way back to the checkpoint whenever you die. And due to the level amount of health you're playing with, you'll find yourself die a lot. There are no immediate do-overs. Die and you go all the way back.

The worst part however is the fact that there is no map. So you either have to draw the map along as you play or have great memory. Plus, progress forward isn't as cut and dry as moving forward. Sometimes, progressing means finding some randomly placed hole in a wall that you can only reach by turning into the balled-up shape I was just talking about. It doesn't help that many areas look exactly the same in this game, adding to the confusion of it all.

Overall, the concept of this series I definitely like. This one just didn't age well and I don't know how children at the time could possibly beat this unless they'd spend dozens and dozens of hours of running through walls and having to rely on magazine guides, and whether it's fun to have to use those sources to beat a game is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 7/10

No voice acting. There is an interesting that happens from time to time where the music simply cuts off and you're left playing for a while whilst just listening to the sound effects. It's odd on the one hand, but satisfying on the other because I actually like the various sound effects that you hear, whether it's shooting your projectiles, the sound of each step you take, collecting items and some beep sounds that play that apparently are part of the "Caverns 1 Theme". Whenever the music does play, you've got to understand the limitations of the Game Boy sound engine. So what they managed to do with that is pretty impressive. Obviously, if you give a listen to the 3DS remake OST, you'll see what increased technical capabilities will allow you to do, but the soundtrack here plays into the atmosphere of the levels very well here, and gets downright eerie whenever you get into a boss fight. In contrast, the surface of SR388 theme sounded a bit too playful to me, but I get it considering that's the music that kids will spend most of their time listening to. Do you dare and get further into the game than you're expected to? That's where you are met with tracks that match the increased tension and where this gets a lot more atmospheric.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 5/10

If you rate this based on the capabilities of the Game Boy, the game doesn't look all too bad. If you rate it compared to what you would have gotten had this been an SNES game, it doesn't rate quite well. If you go somewhere down the middle, you can appreciate that this game was the reason that the Samus sprite got changes to it that would last until today, that the Metroids look positively disgusting and .. well yeah, that's pretty much it. The blackground is simply black, levels look very similar in design, the sprite size of Samus looks kind of awkward and creating holes in walls that hide progress and not giving any graphical indicator that something might be behind there is just an odd choice. And overall, the game simply doesn't look so good due to being a Game Boy game, which you might like yourself but is what I'd call an "acquired/nostalgic taste".

ATMOSPHERE | 8/10

The game does a pretty good job actually of throwing you into hostile territory filled with vile and disgusting creatures. Whenever the non-music track plays or the tracks that hit the eerie tones of the graphical presentation play, this can become quite atmospheric and immersive, and downright scary I'd imagine for young gamers whenever a Metroid is chasing you down.

CONTENT | 5/10

Many different abilities that you can get your hands on as you play the game. The journey there can be rough however, as you will spend many hours trying to figure out where to go next, which some might call intentional and I'd call boring and not well executed here. Apart from that, there isn't much content here, but if you enjoy the bashing your head against walls aspect of it, this will be enough to keep you occupied for a dozen hours+.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 3/10

I appreciate the idea behind this game of having to traverse a hostile environment and find your way through it without any hand-holding. Unfortunately, my idea of a fun game is in contrast to what the game design philosophy of Metroid's creators is, at least for the early entries in the series. No map is tough on its own, but progress hidden in walls (forcing you to check every wall), same looking areas and abilities that don't control all that well (the spider ability) makes for too many (subjective) issues here.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 6/10

The concept remains intriguing, though I'd say the sequel has not yet gotten it to where it will eventually go in this series.

REPLAYABILITY | 1/5

There isn't really any particular reason/motivation given for replaying this. Chances are, if you somehow beat this, you'll be satisfied and ready to move on.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 53/100

Unless you really enjoyed the original or really, really enjoyed the later entries in the Metroid series, I think this game is very skippable. Even if you did enjoy later Metroid games, you will likely miss the QoL features that will be introduced later. What this game does well is create a tense atmosphere, but I would agree that that's the gist of it, unless you are a big fan of the concept of hitting early wall to see if you can go through some of them, or if you enjoy drawing a map as you go. Otherwise, you will likely have to rely on guides to make progress, and have to do so many times. So right now I would call this a good proof on concept, just like the original, but the next step hasn't really been taken yet in my opinion.

Game #047 | FINAL FANTASY IV Review (1991) | Beaten

 

FINAL FANTASY IV (July 19, 1991)

Genre: JRPG

Platforms: SNES

Developer: Square

Publisher: Square

Started: April 14, 2023

Finished: April 29, 2023

Beaten: Yes

Playtime: 18 hours

It's always exciting to hit a milestone in video gaming with this challenge, and we certainly did that by arriving at the first 'Final Fantasy' game for the SNES, Final Fantasy IV. Called 'Final Fantasy II' in North America, because FF II and III didn't release in NA originally, Final Fantasy IV is a rather big step forward for the series in many ways. It originally released for the SNES on July 19, 1991 and was re-released for PlayStation in '97 before the decade was over. The game also got a 3-D release in 2007 for the Nintendo DS, which, if ever get there, will probably be the time where we revisit it. Is it worth revisiting? Absolutely it is, but I'll go through all of my thoughts one by one in this lengthy review, hope you enjoy the read.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 8/10

Finally a game with more to write about than "this is character X, he is hunting after evil person Y to save person/object Z". In Final Fantasy IV, the main character is Cecil, who is hunting after Golbez to save Earth. Just kidding, there is of course a lot more to this.

Cecil is a Dark Knight and Captain of the Red Wings at the start of the game, an elite air force unit of the kingdom of Baron. They are tasked to steal the Water Crystal from Mysidia, which makes Cecil feel guilty and ask the king of his motives. Due to this, he is relieved from his duties as Captain. He, along with his friend Kain, is taked to go to the Village of Mist and deliver a package there, a package that, once they arrive, releases bombs and destroys the village.

In the aftermath, he meets Rydia, who is a young and gifted Caller who loses her mother during the bombings and summons a Titan out of anger, a Titan that causes an earthquake. The earthquake separates Cecil and Kain, and leaves Cecil next to an unconcious Rydia, whom he brings to a nearby town. There, Baronian soldiers try to kill Rydia at night, but Cecil fights them off and he and Rydia become allies as a result, and Rydia can help you in battle.

From here, Cecil goes on to meet many important characters that have story impact and/or become playable characters. There are a dozen playable characters in fact, which regularly rotate throughout the game. There are Cecil, Kain and Rydia, then there is Cid, an aircraft engineer, Edward, the Prince of Damcyan, Tellah, a sage, Palom and Porom, twin mages, Rosa, Cecil's love interest and many more. Each character has a set class, so the job system from Final Fantasy III doesn't make it over here.

Final Fantasy IV is lauded for taking a big step forward in dramatic storytelling. Is that fair? If you compare it to games from the last decade, FFIV obviously does very little in comparison. If you compare it to the 46 other games I've played through this challenge, Final Fantasy IV is probably only outmatched by Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, and blows everything else out the water just thanks to its depth and its many, many, dramatic set pieces.

THE PART WITH THE SPOILERS: The problem? So, the dramatic scenes mainly include the death of some of the playable characters. Palom and Porom turn to stone to lean against walls that were closing in to crush the party. Tellah can't bring them back to life. "They have turned into stone by their own will." Yang, a monk from Fabul, sacrifices himself to do ... something in a control room to destroy artillery systems, I couldn't make sense of that one yet. Cid BLOWS HIMSELF up to allow Cecil and crew to leave an underground area. Tellah uses his life energy to use a powerful spell and scare off the antagonist, Golbez, for the time being at least. Some manage to feel more dramatic than others, but the issue is, that apart from Tellah, all of them return to life later on. What? It's like they couldn't do that to all the kids playing the game, so they reversed their decision a few hours later into the game. Are any of these returns explained? Nope. Palom and Porom's return is actually, but apparently it's because their elder unpetrified them, but I thought you couldn't do that because they turned into stone out of their own will? Oh well. As a result, all the dramatics that are being lauded end up being teases than anything else, which is a shame. The game also pulls one of my least favorite ploys of any story, in a game or any other medium, which is present you with a main antagonist for pretty much the entirety of the game, and then announcing an even bigger antagonist right before the end, an antagonist who you never meet until the final boss fight. All this said, some characters do stay dead, and the plot twist of Golbez being used by Zemus, being the brother of Cecil and killing all of these innocent characters does manage to stir one's emotions, especially as you are left feeling like all of this could have been avoided.

The main themes of the game are, of course, the interplay between the Dark and the Light, and the power of friendship / support of your loved ones. Especially the latter you will find to play a role in a ton of JRPGs near the end, but not only does it work, but FFIV is one of the earlier games to do it.

From a critical standpoint, obviously the story does not leave you impressed anymore. There are some plot holes, the dialogue being rather basic, characters being one-dimensional, characters being swapped in and out regularly (which doesn't allow for character development for most) and many of the tropes you've become used to.

But if you look at it from the perspective of your inner child, and, from the perspective of the early 90s, you can't help but feel impressed by what this game set out to do and what it accomplished. Knowing what I know about the reception of the Final Fantasy games that are to come, I'm pretty excited to dive further into the series, which this game accomplished a lot more than Final Fantasy III did.

GAMEPLAY | 13/20

Final Fantasy IV is at a glance of course the same as the previous one's from a gameplay perspective, and as the one's to come in the next years as well. You have your party on the right side, the enemy's appearing on the left side whenever you are randomly (or as part of boss fights) pulled into battle, and you order each member around on a turn-by-turn basis by telling them to attack, use special attacks, use healing magic or an item from your inventory.

But looking at it deeper, there are some additions, subtractions and changes compared to FFIII. First, the game introduces the 'Active Time Battle' (ATB) system, which means that you need to give orders in 'real-time'. So if you take too long, the enemy will not wait for you but instead start attacking again. Second, this is the first Final Fantasy where each character has a pre-determined job/class and unlike in FFIII, there is no job system, so it can't be changed. Third, this is the first and only Final Fantasy which allows your party size to be five. Finally, unlike the previous versions, this has a very simple character development system, in that spellcasters get to gain new spells as they reach pre-determined levels, so you can't purchase spells and give them to your characters anymore.

For the first half or so of this game, this was considerably easier than FFIII. Without having to grind at all, you could pretty much spam attack through the entirety of the boss fights in the first half and heal with your white mage. Done. Then, three things happened. 1) Bosses and regular enemy types start doing a ton of damage, 2) You pretty much have to find a bunch of hidden items in order to deal enough damage or have enough defense to withstand the stronger enemies and 3) The game introduces the single worst enemy attack ever to a bunch of enemies and to pretty much all late-game bosses, which is one-hit kills. Doesn't matter if you're at full health, if you are parrying or whatever, you will simply get one-shot.

This is the biggest game design flaw in my opinion, but there are a few more minor ones that become annoying. For example, if you want to heal someone and he dies before the healing animation plays, you pretty much wasted a heal. If, on the other hand, you anticipate a death and use LIFE on someone (to revive them), and the character does indeed die before the animation plays, you still do not revive them. If you want to punish me due to timing, I should be rewarded for anticipation as well. There are also a lot of late-game bosses that pretty much attack you after each turn of one of your characters, meaning that before you go through all five party members, you are attacked five times. If you don't grind a lot, look up a guide to find all those easily missable 'OP' items and go through OPTIONAL late game areas to grind/get items as well, those attacks all also do a ton of damage.

This all culminates for the final boss fight, where it is not difficult to arrive in a state where your entire party can get one-shotted. I think this is really poor game design where simply following along the main storyline is punished this way. Once you're there, grinding the area immediately prior to the boss fight for hours is pretty much the only thing you can do at that point, and as you can imagine, that's no fun.

Overall, the ATB system I'd say was more negative than positive to me, because you're essentially being punished for having to go through various menus to find the option that you're looking for, which gives your enemies ample time to skip the attack order and strike again. I'd have rather appreciated more time to choose and strategize.

But all the critique aside, if you want to look at it from a glass half-full perspective, the game rewards you for taking your time with the game and then some. It rewards you for not escaping out of fights more than a couple times, for going through optional dungeons, visiting optional areas and yeah, grinding a little bit, by allowing you to make your way through the game easier. At the same time, it makes completion impossible if you simply follow the main path, which is what irks me.

The gameplay itself, which does continue to involve from one Final Fantasy entry to another, is also still not varied enough to really make me feel like playing those extra 5 - 10 hours to do all those optional things or to pop open a guide to go through dungeons again and find those missable items hidden each and every way.

But ultimately, whether you enjoy this or not will pretty much depend on whether you enjoyed the combat system in the other turn-based Final Fantasy entries. This one will improve upon that in some ways, potentially worsen in others depending on your viewpoint (ATB system) but will stay the same more or less.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 9/10

No voice acting. This game takes it a step further with its sound design in that there are a bunch of different attacks with their own special sound effect. That's a small thing, but definitely noticeable. The soundtrack for the most part ranges from good to great. There were a few tracks that I remember hearing in the few hours that I had spent on FFVII before I started this challenge (Red Wings for example), and they were good tracks, so it bodes well for FFIV's soundtrack for those to be originating here. Of course, some tracks are relatively similar to earlier FF entries (battle themes) but the main beauty in the soundtrack of FFIV lies in its diversity and the way it hits the tone of the different dramatic scenarios. You have your romantic tracks (Theme of Love), your ominous tracks whenever you'd take a look at what the antagonists where doing (Ring of Bomb), bittersweet tracks that capture the feeling of powering through despite the loss of your loved ones very well (Rydia), the sad tracks for one of many sorrowful moments (Cry in Sorrow) and then your "shit's going down" track to top it off (Run!!!). Each city/town/village have their own themes as well, many of which differ in tone and theme. Overall, one of the great soundtracks of the early 90's.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10

The jump to the SNES from the NES obviously comes with an improvement in graphics. From improved sprite quality and detail, to increase in detail in the overworld, in locations and in dungeons, to more impressive looking special effects and enemies, and to actually have a background in the battle screen that aligns with the overworld location / dungeon you find yourself in, all of these points are improvements over the previous main entry. Then you add the underworld, some futuristic looking locations and the damn moon to add some variation to the environments and this is overall the kind of step up you would like to see with the jump to the 4th gen of consoles.

ATMOSPHERE | 5/10

You have a mash of themes here with medieaval fantasy along with elements of science fiction, both in terms of location and enemy design. At the same time, apart from using magic, your party is limited to weapons and skills you'd only see in medieaval fantasy, whilst you're being beamed with lasers and such from the enemies. The soundtrack would also support a focus on medieval fantasy rather than the science fiction elements, so it can feel out of place.

CONTENT | 7/10

You have 12 party members overall, about a dozen or so main + optional dungeons, about as many towns/villages/cities, plenty of different versions of your equipment, plenty of dialogue compared to pretty much any other game out there at this point in time and overall a good 20-30 hours of content depending on how much of the optional stuff you end up doing. The optional dungeons are more of the same compared to the main dungeons, of which more than a couple do unfortunately lack in variety and are much too big in size. Apart from those dungeons, and a little bit of optional dialogue here and there, there isn't much else as far as side content goes, but overall there is plenty to do here if you're not opposed to repetitive gameplay.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 5/10

The formula works in a specific way throughout. You go into a dungeon and go in deeper and deeper until you defeat the boss, get back to the quest-giver and get story progression. This game doesn't deviate much from that formula, but it's a good formula, so it doesn't have to. It would be appreciated if it did in some sort of fashion though, because unless you are really into using the same few moves for dozens of battles per dungeon for a dozen dungeons, it will get repetitive after a while.

But a part I subjectively don't like about these old-school RPGs and that I appreciate about more modern ones is the fact that, whether you go through the main path or grind a lot more and do optional dungeons/side quests, the game is designed in a way to be beaten either way. So for the game to be unbeatable at the final boss for me, I definitely didn't like that personally and would call that poor game design personally.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 6/10

This game successfully evolved the Final Fantasy formula and made a rather big leap in storytelling, which is great to see. It didn't put everything in terms of storytelling together quite yet, but it's much improved, and the jump in graphical quality makes this a big step forward compared to FFIII for sure.

REPLAYABILITY | 2/5

If you didn't do any or much of the optional content and still managed to beat this game, you have a few optional dungeons to look forward to for replay value.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 68/100

You want sequels to be better than the previous game in some shape or form. Final Fantasy IV is better in many ways compared to Final Fantasy III. Graphics are much improved thanks to the jump to the SNES, there is a much bigger focus on storytelling and the new ATB system, even if not ground-breaking, can be something that makes battles more enjoyable to you. So yes, FF IV is better than FF III in my opinion. But ultimately it comes down to this. Did you enjoy earlier FF versions? If yes, you will enjoy this more. If not, you won't enjoy this either. Personally, I enjoyed it but see a lot of room for improvement, and am excited to see what Square came up with for Final Fantasy V.

Game #046 | STREETS OF RAGE Review (1991) | Not Beaten

STREETS OF RAGE (August 2, 1991)

Genre: Beat 'em up

Platforms: Sega Genesis, Game Gear

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega

Started: April 16, 2023

Finished: April 18, 2023

Beaten: No

Playtime: 4 hours

Streets of Rage is Sega's answer to Capcom's very popular Arcade game Final Fight from 1989. In many ways, it's actually pretty much a copy of that game. It does have three reasons however, which make me happy about its existence. First: The challenge started in 1990, so I didn't play Final Fight. Second: The soundtrack in Streets of Rage is not only better, but it's one of the best soundtracks this challenge has seen so far. Third: The gameplay, while dated today, is actually quite addicting anyway.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 1/10

A criminal organization has taken over the city, and only three brave police offers are there to try and stop them. Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding. Wasn't expecting this much, let alone more from a game like this. They are slightly different from each other in terms of Power, Speed and Jump, and they specialize in a different fighting skill according to their bio, but from what I can tell their move-set is pretty much the same.

GAMEPLAY | 14/20

If you've played Final Fight, you've played Streets of Rage. It's a side-scrolling beat 'em up game where you walk through eight different locations, fight enemies and ultimately a boss. You use your fists, punch and slam combinations and melee weapons that you can pick up off the floor to beat up hostiles until they are knocked out. You have three lives per continue and three continues. There is one special ability you have that is the same for every fighter, which is police back-up that shoots a missile from far away to one-shot all enemies (excluding bosses) and to damage bosses significantly.

Overall, difference in characters is slim and there aren't many features here in general. You'd think that this makes the game very boring, and if you've played modern versions of this genre, it might be, but for someone who doesn't play beat 'em ups much, this was pretty fun. Combinations of combo attacks, followed by german suplexes and flying kicks can look pretty satisfying when it flows well. The simplicity of the gameplay itself even is enough to turn this into an enjoyable loop, though I do hope that next year's Streets of Rage 2 manages to build on everything, as that kind of potential is quite evident here.

Boss fights are a mess though. The majority of them are stupidly hard to even hit, so you often simply have to take the death and use the 1 special attack you have available after each time you die. You damage them enough this way to go to the next level. Unfortunately, this always meant the end for me at Level 6, which I assume is where the majority of players are stuck at, because fighting these bosses ultimately necessitates finding a way to "cheese the mechanics" and kind-of get bosses stuck in a loop they can't get out of. Even if you succed there, it doesn't really feel like you accomplished something, so there is lots of room for improvement here.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 8/10

Voice acting is limited to the "screeching sounds of death" as I'd like to call it, which seems to become a familiar sound for Sega Genesis games. I don't know if it's the soundboard on the Genesis, I assume it is, but the synthetic screetchy sounds are definitely ones I still am getting used to. These screeches are also your indicator for having killed/knocked out enemies, and it's also the sound your character makes after a particular combination of moves. Apart from that, on the sound design aspect, I feel like punches could sound meatier.

The soundtrack however is the true highlight of this game. It already starts with the vibey main menu track , and it continues into the character selection screen. Even the first thing you hear when you start a new playthrough, that kick, will get you into buttkicking-mode instantly. And it just continues to be kick-ass from there. Great soundtrack.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 7/10

The game definitely makes use of the Genesis' 16-bit tech by going into great detail with the environment itself. The first level, which plays on a street at night, has pretty much all buildings/stores in the back and their signs well-lit and has them flickering into different colors all the time to showcase the color-palette available here. In other levels, you are able to see the big city lights and buildings shine from afar and the lights reflect into the water even. What is less impressive here is the design of the enemies. There aren't many enemy types here, though enough of them do act differently, but instead, enemies are recycled by just changing the color of their clothes and/or hair to signal more difficult versions.

ATMOSPHERE | 8/10

It's Streets of Rage alright. You listen to kick-ass beats, kick ass and enjoy varied and partly beautiful, dark yet shiny environments.

CONTENT | 6/10

There are 8 levels, which is actually a pretty good length. Unfortunately, the boss design is supbar and I can't really say any boss fight has been enjoyable here. Fighting through hordes of enemies is fun before you get to those bosses, but the game does lack variety there or at least a better conclusion to those levels in terms of better bosses. Better, easier to fight bosses, a few more levels and less recycling of enemy assets wouldn't have hurt. Maybe in the next one.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10

This is pretty simple level design for the time. Side-scrolling beat 'em up action with bosses at the end of each level. The game does well to change up the scenery enough to counteract the repetitive nature of the gameplay a tiny bit, but ultimately, where it fails is with the boss fights, which absolutely could and should have been less of a crapshoot in terms of "can I actually touch the boss before he evaporates all my health in a couple of hits?".

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 2/10

Can't really give many points here when all of this has pretty much been done in a shockingly similar fashion in Capcom's Final Fight. It's a simple and fun concept, but nearly completely copied nonetheless.

REPLAYABILITY | 3/5

There are three characters to mix new playthroughs up with, albeit limited in differentiating factors. Other than that, the main motivation to play again after beating this is to up your score.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 60/100

You got one of the best soundtracks of the early 90's here and some simple, fun gameplay. Unfortunately, the boss design isn't great, the gameplay is extremely similar to Capcom's Final Fight and these days, you're likely better off trying newer iterations in the series, though it's worth starting here if you haven't experienced Streets of Rage yet, simply to hear the soundtrack in action.