I played a few Sega Master System games · 5:22am Aug 22nd, 2020
Yep, still playing games from my childhood. I figure I'll do some of these in one because they would be pretty short.
Double Dragon.
Here's the story as I know it. Gang kidnaps your girlfriend, you and your buddy go on the war path right through their ranks, all the way to the top.
This is a side scrolling beat'em up from the time when controllers had two action buttons. Punch and Jump. Pressing the two at the same time did a jump kick, if you were you moving you might jump forward, or do a standing spinning jump kick.
Weapons are cool in this game. You stand on them, press punch and then use them by pressing punch. The whip is awesome, if you're quick enough nobody can get near you. Boxes and Barrels are alright, but so useful when fighting Jimbo. You don't want to get near that guy if you can. Knives are single use, so you need to be sure you're going to hit someone. But you have to knock them out of an enemies hand to get them. Dynamite, you want to knock it out of someone's hand, but you can pick it up after it's thrown as long as you toss it immediately or it will blow up in your hand. It's usually an automatic kill to whoever is caught in the blast. (I guess that could go without saying.)
It's not a long game, about five levels. And unlike the NES version the last level here is linear so keep fighting and eventually you might make it to the final boss. Another difference, you effectively have infinite lives until the last level. If you die you can drop right back in and keep pushing forward.
The problem with that is that you get used to this crutch, and when they start throwing wave after wave of Jimbo at you you're most likely going to die. Even two player this level is difficult. My brother and I together still can't beat this game. But we have seen the final boss. I think. The sprite looked different from any other we'd seen.
Aztec Adventure: The Golden Road to Paradise
I am especially bad at this game. I don't know about any real story, you're just exploring levels looking for the way to paradise. I think I saw the last few levels a couple times, and that was between my dad and my older brother playing.
It's a top down maze filled with enemies, but you can hire mercenaries along the way by throwing money at them. Pretty simple.
The controls are straight forward, but interesting. One button changes the item you're using, and the other button uses the item. If you've not got any item selected you swing your sword. I think that it would be better to pause the game, select an item, and have that switch button use said item, leaving a dedicated button for your sword.
Little weird enemies like UFOs with eye stalks give you money bags. Money will get you far. Or rather, will get you mercs who will help you a lot. Especially since mercs use whatever item you're using. (Even money, you can use mercs throwing money to help you hire another merc if you line yourself up right.)
There's positives and negatives about mercs. There's no AI (On the SMS? I'm shocked!) So they kind of have a fixed position ahead and to the side of you. This movement is limited by the area so they can spend time scrapping along the walls or getting stuck. If they get stuck and go off screen you lose them with no refund so you have to be mindful of where they are.
They are constantly swinging their sword so just walking them into enemies can be enough to beat some enemies. And like I mentioned earlier, they use whatever item you're using. This can really cut down on what you need to use when there's an obstacle or a tough enemy.
Items are absolutely vital to beating this game. There are obstacles you have to burn with fireballs to get past, and bosses are tough enough that I'd say you need to use items on them.
The items are Money (I've explained this one.) Ball: Chuck a big ball forward. Arrow: Shoots an arrow. Four balls: fires four balls in straight lines out from you. ?: Your guess is as good as mine. Like I said, I'm bad at this game. So I didn't get very far. Also part of why this review is so short.
Psycho Fox
Who needs a story? You're a fox who smashes eggs for what's inside and you chuck a black bird you find at things. With a Shinto Stick you can change into a different animal with appropriate abilities. Become invincible when you drink sauce. And use the Blair Witch stick doll to send every enemy unfortunate enough to be close to you to her woods to stand awkwardly in the corner of a cabin while someone vibrates with a camera and shrieks.
Okay, so there is a story, I just lost the instruction manual years ago so I don't have it on hand. Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the story.
Among a group of fox priests who worship the Inari Daimyojin (Fox Deity), one evil fox named Madfox Daimyōjin infiltrated his way to the highest ranks and took over the shrine. After seizing power, Madfox corrupted the land and created hordes of creatures. One young fox (who would earn the name Psycho Fox) has been chosen by his fellow people to rid the land of this evil deity.
Okay, so the first egg you find has Birdfly in it. Chuck your new found friend at enemies to kill them, or jump on them to smash them into the ground. You can also punch if you're not holding Birdfly. I'd suggest against stomping enemies into the ground because them they don't drop items.
Speaking of items, sit close to the SMS when playing this one. You'll need to pause the game often to get the menu and the pause button is on the system itself. A control design thankfully changed by the time of the Sega Genesis.
Other than a weapon, Birdfly is also a shield. If you're holding Birdfly when you get hit, you don't die. But ONLY if you're holding Birdfly. Toss the thing and and get hit and he'll fly back to you as you fall off screen. This does not extend to water. Unless you're moving pretty fast if you touch water you sink like a boulder.
The animals you turn into are a slow but strong Hippo who breaks certain blocks opening up paths for you. A Monkey who jumps very high. (I usually use this guy) And a Tiger who runs fast and has a long jump. Each animal form has some advantage, except Psycho who's a neutral state. Not bad, just not exceptional.
There is another item I haven't talked about. Money Bags. You use these at the end of each level to play a lottery. The more bags you get the more items/lives you can get and you can place multiple bags on one lot. The options at the end of the lottery are a House that lives you lives equal to 1-5 times the number of money bags that show up there. I think about twenty lives is the most I've ever gotten in one run. There's a hole. You get nothing for that. And then there's the standard items in your menu screen. One per bag that shows up at the lot.
This game isn't exactly short, there's three stages per level and a total of seven levels. Be careful if you lose all your lives. I've restarted the game accidentally too many times trying to hurry through and keep playing.
On the subject of stages and levels, each stage has multiple sky chunks you can break that leads to a warp zone. If you know where to go you can skip right to level 7-1 from 1-1. But you have to know where to go. The chunks are understandably invisible until you hit them. But they are solid, so you and Birdfly can both land on them to let you know where they are. Or maybe just Birdfly. I forgot where the chunks are, but have used them effectively in the past.
Each level has a boss, each with a gimmick item specifically to use for the boss and it's all about timing. But they run out of new bosses at the third one and just repeat them with a slight twist. So once you know what you're doing, the bosses aren't hard. Even the final boss isn't that hard to beat.
So that's three of the SMS games I've played recently. Just a quick ranking of best to worst with these three:
- Psycho Fox
- Double Dragon
- Aztec Adventure
This is just my personal opinion on just these three games. I'm really bad at Aztec Adventure, so I ultimately don't like it as much as the other two.
Some pal of one of my brothers lended us his Master System ages ago, there was some interesting games....
Like one of the Monster World/Wonder Boy games I think, I liked the adventure game-y ones.
The first Phantasy Star was one of the earliest JRPGs that came westside, and I was about midway through the game (I love rpgs) 'till hardware issues.
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I absolutely LOVE the Wonder Boy series. My exception being the first one. I know Adventure Island (literally) ripped it off but when Wonder Boy went in the fantasy direction it had me hooked. Wonder Boy Three: The Dragon's Trap Is a classic I have to go back to regularly.
While Monster World is a remake of Monster Land I think Monster World does it much better.
I didn't get as much into Phantasy Star, I went further into action games Like Alexx Kidd. It wasn't until years later on the SNES that I really gave RPGs a chance.
Also, if you have a Sega Genesis there's an addon you can buy called the Power Base Converter. It let's you play almost the entire Master System catalog on the Genesis. Wonder Boy and Phantasy Star included. (I'm guessing Phantasy Star based on what friends have told me, but I can say for certain that Wonder Boy works.)
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I did saw that add-on in real once, maybe from the same buddy - been ages.
Hummmmm... maybe one day I will play Phantasy Star again and beat it.
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You never know. It was revisiting games for these reviews that let me finally beat a couple of them for the first time.