Genesis Review: Shining In The Darkness

Sega's Shining series is a well-known and beloved strategy RPG series. The first game in the series was not a strategy game, but was a dungeon crawler called Shining In The Darkness.

It's a dungeon crawler. Get used to seeing this.

Especially since this is your overworld map

Shining in the Darkness is like a decent book. The story line is good, but not captivating. You won't find yourself so riveted that you can't put it down, and other distractions will likely keep you from playing it (especially if you pick up new games every few weeks), but once you sit down and start playing it, you will find yourself playing it for a while. The graphics are nice, and you can see that this is where the distinct art style of the series began.

Oh, those wacky weapon dealers

The gameplay is nothing remarkable. You have three characters in your party. Each member can carry up to 8 items, which becomes a strategic element of the game. The combat consists of choosing a group of enemies, and attacking via a weapon or a spell. You can't target individual enemies unless they are the only enemy in the group. There are a variety of weapons to choose from, and new levels of spells are learned over time.

The music is good, but repetitive. I have no complaints about it, but it doesn't stand out and wow me either.
Shining in the Darkness is currently listed for $4.17 on pricecharting.com. It is also available for the Wii Virtual Console, or on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Overall Grade: B-

NES Review: NES Open Tournament Golf

Late in the life cycle of a console, after its successor has been released, there comes several really good games, some of them first party, to show the old machine still has some life left in it (to keep sales strong undoubtedly). NES Open Tournament Golf is one of those games. It came out 20 years ago this month, just after the release of the SNES.

The graphics are nice

Really nice

NES Open Golf features three courses: US, Japan, and UK. The controls are very responsive, but it will take some time to master good shots (my first perfect "super shot" went out of bounds). There are lots of options: stroke play, match play, tournaments, and you can even bet some of your prize money from the aforementioned tournaments on one hole to earn cash quick, which you deposit with Donkey Kong.

His doctor said he had to get a desk job because barrel throwing was giving him a bad back.

Peach takes time off from ruling the Mushroom Kingdom and Daisy leaves Sarasaland to caddy for Mario and Luigi, respectively. You can choose your own clubs, and even change the names of the computer players in the tournament as you see fit.

I have read on the interwebs that the Japanese version of this game is quite different from the version the rest of the world received. There are more courses and the music is different, but the difficulty is greater and there are fewer options and characters to play in match play. It might be worth a look if you have a Famicom or an adapter.

Like I said before, the graphics are beautiful and the control is very tight. The sound is nice and the replay value is very high. This game is currently listed on Price Charting for $2.72. It is also available for the Wii and 3DS via the Virtual Console service.

Overall Grade: A

SNES Review: World Heroes 2

Pirates vs. Ninjas was a popular internet meme several years back. Before this meme came into existence, it was possible to actually fight this battle, thanks to World Heroes 2 for the SNES.

Shown here: Pirate vs. Ninja

When I first saw the original World Heroes, I dismissed it as another clone of Street Fighter II, one of many that were churned out in the early to mid '90s, albeit one with some interesting characters. World Heroes 2 came along and added six new characters, including a viking, a future member of the Japanese House of Councillors, and four others. Had I thought more about these games, I would have realized that most of these characters were based on actual people.  The new characters introduced in World Heroes 2 caught my attention, and I wanted to get a copy of this game. The closest I ever came was getting the Game Boy version of World Heroes 2 Jet (which will be a future review) until I took up retro gaming as a hobby and bought a copy of this game last month.

 If you ever wanted to see anime Joan of Arc fight hulk Bruce Lee, here's your chance

The graphics are bright and colorful with nice backgrounds which contain some animations, but not as much as some other fighters of the era. The sound and music are decent, with a variety of voices and music, but nothing to write home about. The control is sloppy, with special moves being difficult to execute. Throws, however, are very easy to execute, and do a lot of damage, which makes this game a bit easy on the default difficulty setting (“4”), but there are four higher difficulty settings (as well as three easier ones). There are also three different speed settings. Matches can be fought either Normal or Survival Match, the latter of which has various hazards in each stage and an interesting seesaw life meter.

 A Witch Doctor fights Joe Montana in a sewer...only in World Heroes 2

This seesaw life meter is also available as an option in the Normal mode. There is also an option to mask life meters until the match is over.

The one player mode has you fight most of the playable characters in the game, and then you fight the two bosses. The first one is a new version of the final boss from the original World Heroes, and then you fight the real final boss. (Both bosses can be played in two player mode and in the one player mode via a code...look it up.)

When fighting the final boss, remember these six things and you will do just fine: don't talk to strangers, don't write in starlight, don't hide in doorways, don't go to heaven, don't smell the flowers, and don't dream of women.

World Heroes 2 is a decent game. The creativity in character design and the variety of play modes are nice, but the sloppy control when trying to execute special moves really holds this game back. If you enjoy adding quirky titles to your retro library or want to add another 2D fighter to your collection, it is definitely worth a look. It's currently listed for $3.05 on Price Charting.
Overall Grade: C-