All 16-Bit

Review #12050 Heimdall The low-down dirty Loki did it again Sega CD 1994 JVC Adventure Adventure › Overhead G 42 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Interesting mix of isometric puzzle solving and D&D battle mechanics. The isometric areas control fine and the battles, while not my cup of tea, also play about like you'd expect for a game that was ported from PC. In other words, it would be infinitely better with a mouse and keyboard. Navigating museums with a d-pad is awful and saps any enjoyment from the experience. 2 / 5 Level Design I don't mind the island hopping setup, with each island featuring a small dungeon with a handful of puzzles. The puzzles are so obtuse that I quickly looked for a walkthrough and eve...

Review #12030 Dungeon Explorer A musical Gauntlet Sega CD 1995 Sega Adventure Adventure › Overhead E 64 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Plays just like the original TG16 version, with a very small changes. Most notably is a timer/food meter that counts down and must be replenished with pickups or a return to the hub world outside of the dungeons. I hate this addition as it deiscourages exploration and backtracking and cause the labyrinthine level design and lack of map to be even more annoying than they need to be. Despite all that, it's fun, just like the TG16 version. I had a good time with it. 3 / 5 Level Design Huge open world. Lots of locked areas like any good Metroidvania. Unfortunately, I go...

Review #11126 Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys PCE CD 1993 Hudson Soft Adventure Adventure › Overhead F 54 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Major improvements to the gameplay, even if it is a polished turd. Bumping enemies is still the only means of attack but they phase into you less and your alignment doesn't have to be so perfect. Insane amounts of grinding are still required and the inventory and magic systems are antiquated by 1993 standards. 3 / 5 Level Design Mostly more of the same linear world design. Feels a little better than prior games. 3 / 5 Theme The story is confusing and all over the place. But the presentation is top-notch, with excellent anime trappings such as cutsce...

Review #11125 Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence This one goes hard PCE CD 1994 NEC Adventure Adventure › Overhead F 56 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Dang, I wish the gameplay on tap here were better because the narrative is unlike anything else of the era. However, all you get is a plodding overhead hack and slash with way too short reach and terrible hit detection. Movement is slow but eight directional, which is about the only plus I can give it. You can jump for a little bit of platforming, but the lack of weapon variety or magic or anything else massively holds this back. The only other noteworthy mechanic is an occasional party member who follows you around and auto-attacks enemies. But hey're weak that they may as well not be there....

Review #11083 Private eye dol Eye don't know what to do PCE CD 1995 NEC Adventure Adventure › Overhead G 43 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Movement is similar to Zelda and other overhead adventure titles like it. However, there's nothing much to do besides walk along the walls while mashing the 2 button in hopes of finding something that can be interacted with. There are no visual cues about what will trigger an interaction. This is quite literally the only thing that I did during my hour plus of playtime. Movement felt fine although it's only for directional movement. And when you meet a wall you start hugging the wall as in Star Ocean. 1 / 5 Level Design I walked around the first area (a spooky house) for ...

Review #11037 Fray CD: Xak Gaiden I'm a Fray'd PCE CD 1994 Micro Cabin Adventure Adventure › Overhead F 56 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay The core gameplay is simple but enjoyable. You can fire a gun and jump. Start toggles between three weapon slots that can be filled in between-stage shops. Most enemies require numerous hits - too many - and aggressively attack you. Its borderline bullet hell if you allow more than a couple of enemies on screen. Its basically Pocky and Rocky-lite. 2 / 5 Level Design Terrible level design. They are only vertical scrolling - one screen wide. Enemies spawn at certain spots and love to come behind for cheap shots. So the best approach is to move very slowly and kill...

Review #10043 Ys: Book I & II God-tier soundtrack, bug-tier gameplay TG-16 CD 1989 NEC Adventure Adventure › Overhead H 37 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay The Ys formula of bump-attacking sucks, and no one can convince me otherwise. It's terrible. Victory in a battle has far more to do with luck than skill. And it's only mitigted by an insane amount of grinding which may as well be done in the first area of the game because no matter where you are, all enemies give a single point of XP. Maybe this changes later on, but I got several areas into the game and it was always true so I'm calling it. 2 / 5 Level Design Directions and objectives are cryptic at best. The lack of a map hurts and the gates don...

Review #10008 Dungeon Explorer II More of the same, with barely audible music TG-16 CD 1993 TTI Adventure Adventure › Overhead E 66 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Sequel of Dungeon Explorer, which I liked. Enemies pour out of generators just like in Gauntlet or Soul Blazer. Gameplay is extremely simple, but enjoyable. Just aim at the generators and shoot em dead. Eight playable characters gives the appearance of variety but they all play exactly the same so it's purely cosmetic. But still appreciated! It's a fun but hollow experience. I liked the SFC version more, but this one is perfectly fine. 4 / 5 Level Design I like the hub and spoke level design, where you play through a short dungeon, b...

Review #8142 Tower of Druaga Key, chest, stairs. Repeat. PCE 1992 Namco Adventure Adventure › Overhead H 26 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Where to begin? Movement is slow (yes this can be upgraded), your weapon reach is paltry and painfully slow (this can't be upgraded), and half of the enemies can't be killed. What's left is a weird dungeon crawler that shares more DNA with Pac-Man than with The Legend of Zelda. It's a curiosity, to be sure, but is so boring and valid that I'll never think of it again. 1 / 5 Level Design Every stage is a near identical four screen by four screen sized maze with a key somewhere and a treasure chest that can be acquired by doing...something? What the somethin...

Review #8080 Makai Hakkenden Shada Ys terrible PCE 1989 Data East Adventure Adventure › Overhead X 23 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Typical Ys gameplay, which I hate. Walk into bad guys just off-center to give damage otherwise take damage and die an almost instantaneous death. The controls are responsive, I'll give it that much, but there's virtually nothing to do in this thing. 1 / 5 Level Design Oh dear. I couldn't figure out how to get past the first room. I exited the town, went across a bridge, entered a forest...and was forever stuck. I'm out. 2 / 5 Theme NPC: Hello. There are monsters outside the village. Here's a sword. Bye! ...

Review #6800 Addams Family Values Fester's Questions MD PAL 1995 Ocean Adventure Adventure › Overhead G 44 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Looks and plays just like the SNES version, but slower. I didn't give the SNES version much credit, so I can't dock this any further, but I recommend playing this on SNES instead. Mixed bag to say the least. The controls are good in many ways. Fester goes where you tell him to and moves in all 8 directions. So good job on the overhead game movement guys. However, the combat is utter garbage. Your only attack is shooting a continuous stream of lightning directly in front of yourself. However, you can't move while doing this and the range of the lightning is short so you either need to get close to an en...

Review #6081 Tougiou King Colossus Illusion of Gaia rough draft MD 1992 Sega Adventure Adventure › Overhead E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Blatant Zelda clone without an overworld. Slow movement, short reach, basic inventory and equipment mechanics. Does nothing well, but nothing bad either. Enemies hit like a truck, making death a constant threat. Unspectacular but I could see playing it to completion. 3 / 5 Level Design A series of Zelda style dungeons with mechanics ripped from the original (keys, bombs) and LttP (drop down to a lower floor). Simplistic puzzles and some NPC interactions to set up fetch quests. 3 / 5 Theme Full of tropes. Your abusive dad sends ...

Review #6072 Rent a Hero Phantasy Star, Ultraman, and Earthbound walk into a bar... MD 1991 Sega Adventure Adventure › Overhead H 37 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Well here's a weird one. It looks like Phantasy Star, plays like Ultraman, and has a setting like Earthbound. It's creative but ultimately a hollow experience with more ideas than gameplay elements. You have only two things to think about - money and batteries. The gameplay loop amounts to nothing more than talking to NPCs, completing fetch quests, and fighting 1v1 fights that make Ultraman look like Street Fighter 2. I'll give the game credit elsewhere, but it's paper thin in the gameplay department. 3 / 5 Level Design I love the struct...

Review #6025 Fushigi no Umi no Nadia Miyazaki's Miyazaki rip-off MD 1991 Namco Adventure Adventure › Overhead F 52 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Basically a point and click title with Zelda gameplay. There's no combat, mind you, but the top-down traversal is clearly lifted from Zelda and its many clones. There isn't much to do, unfortunately. You can bring up a small menu to select and use the collectible items, but the one you need next is almost always the one you just found, so there's nothing resembling a puzzle. I had some fun with the story but the gameplay leaves plenty to be desired. 4 / 5 Level Design Yes, it's incredibly linear and impossible to get lost, but this is more...

Review #2438 Ys V: Kefin, The Lost City of Sand Zelda clone #62 SFC 1995 Falcom Adventure Adventure › Overhead D 75 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Falcom finally ditched the awful bump-based combat from the previous games, but the combat here is still a bit awkward. The chief problem is that, while you can move in eight directions, you can only attack in four. This, combined with a sword that only hits directly in front of you, makes combat a struggle to line yourself up just right. You eventually gain magic projectiles, but this only introduces further problems because you must hold down on R to keep your magic meter full. This will give you carpal tunnel after a few minutes. Much better than a lot of games in the genre, but with only a couple of tweaks...

Review #2437 Ys IV: Mask of the Sun This Ys not a great game SFC 1993 Tonkin House Adventure Adventure › Overhead F 55 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Classic Ys gameplay, for better or worse. Mostly worse, in my book. The super weird combat is the main downside here. You walk into enemies but can't walk straight into them. Instead, you have to catch them from the side, but they swarm to you so there's no way to actually flank them, especially since the controls are only four directional. So, you have to walk into them and wildly move in all four directions and hope that you'll score a hit. It's completely random. Movement is fast, inventory management is overly simple. It plays like a very early adventure title. It'...

Review #2433 Xak: The Art of Visual Stage LagoonYs SFC 1993 Sunsoft Adventure Adventure › Overhead G 41 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay What a weird game. It plays like a very early adventure title, like one that released in 1988 (post Zelda) rather than in 1993, a full two to three years after Zelda 3. My guess is that it's a port. In any case, it looks and plays like Ys 1 & 2, or Lagoon. Movement is way too fast for both you and enemies. And the hit detection is atrocious! Your weapon's reach is also bad, so the trick is to position yourself below and just to the left of center to the enemy you're attacking. Visually this makes no sense because your weapon has a wide arch the moves from left-to-right, so you would think that the hitbox ...

Review #2405 The Firemen Zelda meets Backdraft and Die Hard SFC 1994 Human Adventure Adventure › Overhead C 84 / 100 Very Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Simple and easy to understand. You've got two different hoses - one that is aimed upward and another that is pointed down. A variety of fire enemies can be killed by either one or the other, and many can be killed with either. It's easy to figure out and most of the gameplay involves switching between these attacks. you can lock your position using R or L, which works well. The main challenge is to complete each level in a set time limit, although I never felt pressed for time. One fun mechanic is your invincible companion, Danny, who runs ahead of you and attacks the flames with his trusty axe. He...

Review #2305 Seiken Densetsu 3 aka Trial of Mana SFC 1995 Square Adventure Adventure › Overhead D 78 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Plays almost exactly the same as Secret of Mana, but with a few improvements, most notably the improved draw distance. Unfortunately, the menuing is significantly slower. It's so slow that it's annoying. The inventory menu takes A couple of seconds to page across between the five or six tabs the normal menu that shows status and equipment and what not is also terribly slow. This is in stark contrast to the magic and items ring system which is still excellent. There's a day night cycle, although not much changes in most places, but it makes the world feel more lived in and dynamic. Combat is as awkward as ever a...

Review #2246 Neugier: Umi to Kaze no Kodo Looks like Ys, plays like Lagoon on fast-forward SFC 1993 Telenet Japan Adventure Adventure › Overhead E 61 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Short reach on your attack, and very fast movement...too fast. This combination leads to awkward combat where moving toward your enemy is almost certain to cause you to take damage. Instead, the best strategy is to find a safe spot and wait for enemies to come to you where you can hopefully time your strikes so they get hit but you don't. Enemies respawn when you leave and return to a screen which is helpful for farming but also discourages exploration since you have to weigh the cost of having to return from a possible dead end. There's an RPG-like l...