ă‚”ăƒŒăƒ•ă‚Łăƒł CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Resident Evil
(Completed on 14 May 2024)

Full Disclosure: Frens, I am sad to report that for (I think?) the 2nd time in the history of this site, I have used save states to complete this game. For that reason, I think everyone should read this review as even less legitimate than usual! No one should listen to reviewers who haven’t shown the ending screen without save states. The main issue I ran into was that I would save (the real way, with a memory card), go try to do something, die horribly in the process, and getting kicked out to the title screen and reloading the save from the memory card took so much time, I stopped feeling like I was doing anything or learning anything. Obviously, skill issue, etc etc. But I am nothing if not an honest reviewer! That being said, here are some stray thoughts:

  • This is the game that has made me really understand why CD audio is so important, and how good sound design can be. Even if I had played this on a regular TV back in the day (I didn’t), I wouldn’t have picked up on that. But playing it with some really nice headphones (or, I assume, with a real surround sound system) makes for so much more immersion, and makes it work even better as a horror game
  • Believe it or not, I actually did go into this totally blind, except for the past 30 years or so of memes. I didn’t know what to expect at all.
  • Tank controls are the thing most people complain about, but that part didn’t bother me very much. After maybe 1-2 hours of gameplay, it became second nature. I also now totally get why directions need to be fixed instead of relative. Tank controls help a lot when the fixed camera keeps jumping around.
  • Maybe I didn’t do as much exploring as I should have or, again, maybe skill issue, but for the entire first part of the game (basically everything up until you go out to the Garden) I didn’t feel like I had enough ammo at all. It was fine after that, but the first couple hours of this game are kinda a slog
  • Also never learned how to use the knife properly, other than to stab enemies while they’re down
  • A lot of this kind of stuff is papered over by the lovable characters and amazing setting. You can tell the people who made Sweet Home worked on this but I have ranted and raved about that game enough
  • The combat is pretty messy, but the puzzle solving makes up for it. It’s hard to see this while you’re playing, because you never know what manner of horrible scary creature is right around the corner, but really there isn’t that much combat anyway.
  • That being said, I will note for posterity that the version I played was the very first one on the PlayStation. None of the later editions, not the one with DualShock support etc.
  • Overall, I enjoyed this game for what it is, but I’m still left feeling like I wasn’t quite fair to it. Like I missed something and it deserves a better treatment. I’m glad I played it due to its historical importance, but I need to revisit it again somehow (or, maybe play the HD remake?)
画滊 IMAGE STREAM

Atari's Mike Jang →

Sad news, RIP

ă‚”ăƒŒăƒ•ă‚Łăƒł CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Chrono Trigger
(Completed on 9 May 2024)

What a game! I am gonna try to get through this review without saying things like “there’s nothing left to say, it’s all been said”

  • Prior to this, I had never played all the way through Chrono Trigger. I had started it a few times, got some ‘fake’ endings a few times, got busy, dropped it, etc. This play through was all the way through, with one of the ‘good’ endings.
  • If you like RPGs, I think there is good good reason why this one has earned its’ place in the conversation of “all time greats.” If you only played 1 RPG in your entire life, it would be hard to do better than this one.
  • As usual with internet posts about Chrono Trigger, you have to say what your final party was! I went with Frog, Magus, and Best Girl Ayla. I did manage to save Crono before beating the game, but once the party opened up, never really used him again
  • This, by the way, is one of the most fun things about the game: After you have every party member, and can go anywhere you want, and are very powerful, you don’t just have to plow straight into the final boss. There is plenty of stuff to do in the world, so you actually have time to enjoy all your new powers! And even collect more stuff which you are actually rewarded for, it’s not just filler.
  • If I had to say 1 bad thing about it, it is that the Black Omen dungeon is really, genuinely terrible design. Fighting the same weak monsters over and over again, which does nothing but waste your time, is quite a grind. Feels unnecessary.
  • Almost nobody ever writes a “time travel” story which makes sense in any way. And almost no JRPGs have a plot which makes sense in any way. This is both. And yet
. They have pulled it off. The story completely works. The characters are well written; some lovable, some not. The settings, even throughout time, are coherent and believable. It’s an amazing achievement.
  • Which is a good thing, because the gameplay itself is overall pretty easy. You never get that feeling of dread where you might be walking into a dungeon without enough items. Or fighting for your life, barely clawing your way across the overworld hoping you don’t get killed. But you don’t care that the gameplay is so easy, because the story and the beautiful sprite work and the music are all so damn good.
  • Chrono Trigger released late in the SNES’ lifetime, and it shows. The things that they were able to pull off, graphically, are amazing. You almost don’t even believe what this little console can do until a real A-team demonstrates it like this.
  • We need to talk about “RPG anxiety.” Are you one of those people who is always fretting when you’re playing an RPG? Wondering if you missed some big important item that you won’t be able to get again? You don’t necessarily want to use a walkthrough but you can’t stand the thought of missing something? If you are that sort of person, this game is for you. There are not any big, important items which are “missable.” You can play the game by itself, without needing any other materials, and enjoy yourself and relax. Yes, there are several endings, but they don’t exist for the purpose of making you do or collect a bunch of random stuff. They exist for comedic effect, replay value etc.
  • Speaking of replay value, I’ve never tried the NG+ mode on here but the game is so good that I can see myself taking a swing at it.

A Visual History of Windows Icons: From Windows 1 to 11 →

Though I've never used Windows full time, I always think this kind of stuff is cool.

画滊 IMAGE STREAM

画滊 IMAGE STREAM

Compliance Signs →

Really tickles the 'tism doesn't it?

画滊 IMAGE STREAM

ă‚”ăƒŒăƒ•ă‚Łăƒł CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Donkey Kong Country
(Completed on 24 Apr 2024)

  • One of those games that I’ve played through a million times, and yet hadn’t added any of those playthroughs to the site
  • Though, this was my first time through the GBA version. Compared to the SNES original, it is
 fine. The biggest thing you lose is sound quality, which obviously there’s nothing you can do about. But it sucks since the sound was THE THING to love about the original
  • Lots of places in lots of levels made harder just by the fact that you can’t see far enough ahead or below or whatever. It is very odd that they went as far as rearranging the overworld, adding new content etc, yet did not fix this.
  • The quality of life features they added are decent. Being able to save anywhere, or call Funky from anywhere, is nice.
  • I don’t remember what people thought of this port in its’ day, but I imagine Nintendo changed enough stuff that people chimped out (lol get it?). Today, I don’t think it’s that bad. The new collectibles are fun (even though I didn’t get 100% of them) and I don’t find the mini-games tedious and annoying.
  • If you’ve never played the game before at all, I’d probably go with the SNES version. But, if you’re a veteran and want a little change of pace, there is some fun stuff to see in here.

This page is protected by a

DOLPHIN

There are currently 42 species of dolphins

Get a webpage guardian here!