New 3D Golf Simulation: Waialae no Kiseki - Sega Mega Drive (1994)
The same Waialae course that everyone was pretty obsessed with in the 16/32-bit era, but in 3D? Sort of. It looks like someone stretched out the Virtua Racing polygons. I'm not quite sure how I can get everything so wrong every shot and I'm pretty sure I'm just not appreciating how exact you need to be on that power meter no matter what you're doing. I'm not usually good at golf games so, hey, you will automatically feel like you're better than me if you try this for yourself.
If for some reason I don't get around to recording them, there are 3 other carts in this series. Each one has a different course. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wsn71P8I1w
Edit: Wow, this was copyright flagged out of the gate for the overworld music. Did not expect that!
It's a very flawed, but very appealing game that works somewhere in between Ys, Hydlide, and The Legend of Zelda. It has bits of all of them in it and it works very well.
To sum up the mechanics, you have very short attack range and you're out soaking up XP and gold so that you can level up after a stay in the inn. You have to spend gold to do so at a rate, I believe, of one golf per point recovered plus extra if you happen to be poisoned. If you die on the field, you don't keep your gold and XP but you do continue with your level and most of your key items. Consumables and a few other items do not carry over. Your "class" is determined by your zodiac and blood type.
What's not fun is that grinding is not only necessary, but a long, boring, and frustrating process. Enemies quickly get to the point where they can whoop you in seconds and there aren't many early ways to beef yourself up. You do get magic as you level up, but since there's no English manual, you have to piece together and experiment with what's available online. You also don't get to do much in the way of mitigating damage with skill since you have no attack range to speak of and there is only one real way to avoid melee attacks. There is about a half second between when an enemy touches you and you get hit. You can use this to your advantage to get yourself out of danger while putting yourself in a position to deal with the baddies.
If you have a bit of patience, then you can probably master this game within a day. My recommendation is to get a list of items and spells, then waste a bit of time leveling to lvl 3 or 4. Once you get that far, you should have a lot of leeway to experiment and get a feel for the land.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7slBl4mDiU
It's OK, I guess? It's like the least offensive game you could play, but not necessarily the most entertaining...at least at first. It's clear it's going to lean more into the puzzle/maze aspects later, but my attention can't be bothered to go much further to find out.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGpsgP7wFcc
I have never heard of this TV show before, but this isn't a great way of selling it. It's stiff, clunky, and not very fun to play. The one core element of it all, fighting, is one of the worst things about it.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ohDafze8fQ
I dunno what the second button actually does. I've tried it in several situations, held it, tried running tricks with it off a jump....nuthin'. I'm also guessing that you have to make a perfect run if you want to get to the end before time runs out. Pretty game, but not much to keep you around and I can't imagine wanting to pump quarters into this. It was 1983, though, so sometimes the search for perfection on the simplest of things can take over.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZCA_OZ3x3k
I'm sort of surprised that I don't have more Space Invaders clones on the playlist. I mean, I'm over 400 arcades games in, right? Statistically speaking, 179 of them should have been.
That's also the review, unless you were expecting something else.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmY9vTpwX3w
This was supposed to be an apology for the arcade version. It ended up being the exact same game and I'm having the exact same issues. So on the plus side...amazing port! But I have to apologize again, because I hate this troll game and can't figure out how to get anywhere with it.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zO0aMGzBfU
I think I actually like this game. It's difficulty is surprising and while I want to say the controls are too limiting, it does do its best to correct your aim so I can't really complain too much. This is just something I need to get better at, and I think I will. This feels like forgotten fun and considering how many Konami games made it to console, I'm surprised this didn't get a port.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbCEFUcL83c
I didn't even realize this existed for the Game Boy and I just thought it was Secret Police. It's a super easy (so far) port that is fun, but is lacking some of the challenge that would keep you engaged. I was not paying full attention and I breezed through it.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIH0ztBYPGw
I tried to like this, I really did. It's just that there's so much cheapness involved that it's kind of hard to want to commit to more. I think it would be possible to adjust the standard difficulty down a notch to see what it does, and if it gives you more health or makes the enemies stop raining from the ceiling, that'd be a start. It's also painfully obvious that this was modeled after Ghouls n' Ghosts.
The thing with arcade games is that I get them being tough. I understand that I'm not a pro gamer with immediately adaptable skills. What I don't understand is when games put you in early situations where you can't learn from the first quarter. The first boss has a pattern that, after a couple of times, is very clear and easy to follow. It's just a little off putting when you can't practice without spending another quarter.
Experienced players probably would have fun with this, and if you have time to sit down and spend some time with the game, I don't see it being hard in the long term once you've got a feel for the game.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuwuzrGm_JI