RFGen 2025 SNES Challenge

[Misto]

Completed DKC 3 last night.  This one was fun as well but I still think 1 is my favorite of the bunch. Some of the ending levels were pretty tedious.

[Misto]

Had some time on Sunday to knock out two shmups.  First Space Megaforce, this one was a ton of fun.  Highly recommend for any shmup fan. Fun, varied weapons, fast paced and interesting level designs.

[Misto]

The second Sunday shmup was not nearly as good - Strike Gunner STG.  This one was pretty bland and frankly kinda boring.  The same enemies throughout, weird upgrade/weapon system - you pick a secondary weapon at the start of each level but you can only use each one once per game. You can get upgrades to your laser and speed but it seems random whether you get those or ammo for your secondary.  It also only has like 1 track of music that gets very repetitive quickly.  It's fine if you like shmups but there are many better ones for the SNES.

[Misto]

Finished Hyper V-Ball.  I have mixed feelings on this one.  It started off pretty fun, if a bit rough around the edges but has the difficulty spikes in the later matches its flaws really start to show.  Namely, you can't always see your players to move them into a correct position and sometimes the AI doesn't adjust to a player to move.  The opposing team also has a much better advantage in placing the ball out of your reach since they can seem to control each of the 4 team members but you can only control 1.  The game is also a bit of a slog, having to beat every team other than the one you select for 11 total matches.  The default settings (which I played at and didn't realize you could change until much later) have each team starting at 7 points, you need 15 to win in a best of 3 set.  However you must win by two points so if its 14-14, you now need to get to 16.  Also you can only score if you are serving unless its in the tiebreaker match.  I did power through the tournament to win though, not sure I'd recommend it unless you like arcadey sports titles and even then there are better options imo.

[bombatomba]

The second Sunday shmup was not nearly as good - Strike Gunner STG

We appreciate your sacrifice, sir.

Finished Magic Sword a couple of days ago.  I love the arcade, but this is a great port.  Turns out if you slowly move forward in the game and gingerly fight the bosses, this game is entirely beatable from start to finish in less than one hour thirty minutes.  Did it on my fourth try.  Didn't use the level skip when you first start although I could have finished it much faster, but getting the knight on the ninth floor and leveling was just easier.

Haven't thought about what is next.  Tried playing a few games but I've had zero time.  Have to move my kid into college tomorrow, so probably this weekend

[Misto]

Completed Xardion.  This one was ok, had potential with some light RPG and metroidvania aspects but the gameplay was just a little too dated and clunky. You can only fire in cardinal directions (with one only able to shoot forward/backward) and slow movement.  The levels and story are all pretty basic too.

[Misto]

Two more games completed tonight.  First one was Arkanoid: Doh It Again - been at this one a few days off and on.  Its fine if you really like Breakout but they levels are really designed to be a monotonous slog and frustrating.  I don't think I'd play this one again.  First screen gives an example of what I'm talking about. Second screen is part of the victory screen.

Third screenshot is from the second game - Cacoma Knight in Bizyland.  This one is also pretty rough.  Its Qix with a little more variety in enemies but its all very clunky, the collision is wonky, its strangely laggy for a game of this type and the deaths seem inconsistent.  Gets really hard at the end too but did manage to get through after a several tries.

[Misto]

Completed Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings. This game was a mess.  The first problem was the noticeable slowdown any time something was on screen beyond your character.  Then you had the bad level design, where levels were reused or it felt like parts where copy/pasted and it felt like you somehow backtracked.  Questionable platforming and collision as well. Feel's very much like a cheap licensed game.  Luckily it was very short.

[bombatomba]

Took a few days off to move my kid into college (and rest).  Tried playing Super Battletank but my copy keeps freezing so I will hold off on that game for now.

I think I'll take Final Fantasy II.  I've played many different versions of FF2 over the years, but I don't think I've played the SNES version since the early 90's, so I'm pretty excited.