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Post by soop on Jul 19, 2018 10:18:27 GMT
Sorry for the lack of polls the last 2 days - got busy!
Bomberman '94. The last Bomberman title to be released on the PC Engine, and in many estimates, the best. If you're unfamiliar with the formula (where have you been?!), the games focus around a pattern of both destructible and indestructible blocks, and the use of a delayed charge to destroy both blocks and enemies. The series has proven to be something of a legacy for Hudson. So much so, that if anything gets produced in modern times that has anything to do with Hudson, odds are it's a new Bomberman release. In this instance, one of the more notable changes, comes in the form of Louies, pastel coloured Kangaroos that provide an additional hit, and bestow you with an extra ability - a full screen dash, a jump, the ability to kick a bomb, or just a lil dance. The common consensus, is that Bomberman '93 holds the edge in terms of single player, but '94 is the better multiplayer. And multiplayer is Where Bomberman excels. You can not only customise your character to be an old man, a police officer, or a robot, among other things, but you also get to choose from a selection of whacky maps. You'll have stages featuring teleports, conveyor belts, or simply igloos that conceal bombs from view. Put simply, this is arguably the best party game on the system, perhaps even on any system. It's a good enough reason to go out and buy a multitap and as many pads as you need. Simple enough for anyone to play, and yet anyone stands a pretty good chance against a very good player, just because it can get so chaotic. This game takes a simple formula and tweaks it to make an unforgettable classic.
New Adventure Island is an arcade conversion, and it's a very nicely done one. The vibrant colours are a great use of the palette, and the game is responsive and enjoyable. It plays like a twitch platformer, as a race from beginning to end of linear levels. The challenge comes in the fast reactions you need, and to a lesser extent, knowing which power-ups to collect where. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of depth to this title - there's no exploring to do, there are no hidden areas that I know of, it's simply a high-score attaining platformer typical of arcade games at the time. But if you like that kind of thing, it's a good one. If you have 20 minutes to spare, this is a perfect pick-up and-play arcade game, one that might have you coming back for just one more go
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KingDrool
Punkic Cyborg
jlued686 or John F**KED, if you're nasty.
Posts: 245
Fave PCE Shooter: Lords of Thunder
Fave PCE Platformer: Bonk's Adventure
Fave PCE Game Overall: Bonk's Adventure
Fave PCE RPG: Cosmic Fantasy 2
Currently Playing: Red Dead Redemption 2
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Post by KingDrool on Jul 19, 2018 13:49:25 GMT
Man...this one was tough. On one hand, I love Bomberman in nearly every incarnation, but this is one of my favorites. On the other, I consider NAI to be a "pure" platformer and nearly perfect. I really love everything about that game. The box art was pretty awesome, too.
I went with New Adventure Island.
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Post by Galahad on Jul 19, 2018 13:52:59 GMT
New Adventure Island for me also.
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Post by soop on Jul 19, 2018 14:29:10 GMT
tbh, given the love NAI has on these forums, I'm not surprised it's doing well. I'm predicting Bomberman to swing it, because I think while there are a few people who really, really like NAI, I think Bomberman is just more popular
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Post by lukester on Jul 19, 2018 14:34:35 GMT
Wow, these are two really tough contenders.
The best bomberman game (some will say next to Saturn), and arguably the one game that pushes the base PC Engine to it's upper limits. On the otherhand, we have one of the only pce platformers that can hold its own against anything from the era (with some really impressive graphics as well, the parallax is natural looking).
I'll have to go with Bomberman 94. The graphics are better, it's more difficult and has more re-playability (some really solid multiplayer). It's also one of the few PCE games that the mainstream retro community knows about besides Rondo. But NAI is still a truly amazing platformer. It still belongs in that upper tier of "Elite PCE Games"
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Post by spenoza on Jul 19, 2018 14:53:09 GMT
I'm holding my Bomberman vote for '93 (it did make the cut, didn't it?). '93 is unique to the platform and is such a good single-player experience. '94 also existed on MD/Genesis and, though it doesn't look or sound as attractive, it's actually a pretty close rendition and does still feel good. I'd rather the PCE Bomberman top contender be unique and special.
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Post by soop on Jul 19, 2018 15:36:28 GMT
Yeah '93 made it in, and also the original, which you know, it's ok, but it doesn't belong in the same conversation.
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Post by Black_Tiger on Jul 19, 2018 15:52:25 GMT
The aesthetics ruin NAI for me. The second best PCE Bomberman game is infinitely better.
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Post by digipiggy on Jul 19, 2018 22:55:56 GMT
The aesthetics ruin NAI for me. The second best PCE Bomberman game is infinitely better. I was VERY disappointed with what Hudson did for the pce; N.A.I. In Jan 1992 Hudson brought a fantastic looking and sounding Super Adventure Island for the super fami/SNES with a decent lengthy quest and the stages had great variety and colours. The music had fantastic quality with those sampled jazzy hip hop beats from Yuzo K. You could definitely tell money and time was put into this. Few months later within the same year New Adventure Island was released on the pc engine. I honestly felt It lacked that artistic punch and while the levels were very lengthy they lacked variety and all the stages should have had multi layered scrolling. I was hoping for some Yuzo Koshiro chip music samples but alas the pce release just had a small budget and less enthusiasm and daresay.. talent. The Super NES game was 8Meg while the pce was 4Meg. Bomberman'94 is great all round, decent length and had a good budget put into the game. You can tell as there are great touches placed in each world and the bosses are huge and well animated. I initially thought 93 was better because I preferred the audio in that game with lots of sampled FX but over time the 94 music has grown on me. 94 is an 8Meg HuCard. EDIT This kinda my big criticism of Hudson Soft especially their attitude of games being released on HuCard. Since the pce is their baby child they should have pushed for HuCard games hitting 8meg and higher much earlier. I'm sure other companies would have followed and the result could have been many hucard games having much more wow factor to them. Hudson's first 8Meg game was infact Bomberman '94 released in 1993. It took them almost 6 years before they made their first 8Meg HuCard. WTF! I'm not including any SGX games as they don't work on the pc engine and the SGX had a hella small user base. |
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Post by lukester on Jul 19, 2018 23:47:32 GMT
The aesthetics ruin NAI for me. The second best PCE Bomberman game is infinitely better. Few months later within the same year New Adventure Island was released on the pc engine. I honestly felt It lacked that artistic punch and while the levels were very lengthy they lacked variety and all the stages should have had multi layered scrolling. I was hoping for some Yuzo Koshiro chip music samples but alas the pce release just had a small budget and less enthusiasm and daresay.. talent. The Super NES game was 8Meg while the pce was 4Meg. I can't say I agree. The PCE game has more levels, backgrounds, much tighter controls, and the pacing is a lot faster. And every world has a little theater cutscene at the end. They packed a lot into those 4 megs. Super Adventure Island is rather sluggish. I don't think the level design is as solid either. The underwater level is just empty space with a few enemies sprinkled around. It's not a system thing, the feeling can be mutual. There are a ton of people on here who haven't given Super Bonk 2 a chance (at least more than a few minutes), even though the first snes game is poor. Digi you're definitely correct that HuCards should've been larger. Darius Plus is 6 meg and has a real wow factor to it. Though I'm sure others might say CD games were essentially larger games (with a slight bottleneck). |
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Post by digipiggy on Jul 20, 2018 0:32:54 GMT
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Post by lukester on Jul 20, 2018 1:01:01 GMT
I'm no programming expert, but the PCE only has 512 colors to pick from. The SNES has close to 32,000. There's not nearly as much to pick from on the PCE, even if it can show more.
It was the weakest of the three systems graphically. It came out 3 years before the snes did. I love the PCE's library, but it just wasn't on the same level in the visual department.
You could compare the backgrounds in Rondo of Blood to the backgrounds in Dracula XX. Rondo is without a doubt a better game (with a lot more enemy variety) but some of the level backgrounds look pretty basic (alternate Stage 3 dungeon?)
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Post by spenoza on Jul 20, 2018 1:01:25 GMT
There have been a couple folks over at Racketboy this year playing through some of the Adventure Island games, and both thought NAI was either the best or one of the best in the series, and both gave it high marks for visuals and audio.
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Post by digipiggy on Jul 20, 2018 1:32:49 GMT
I'm no programming expert, but the PCE only has 512 colors to pick from. The SNES has close to 32,000. There's not nearly as much to pick from on the PCE, even if it can show more. It was the weakest of the three systems graphically. It came out 3 years before the snes did. I love the PCE's library, but it just wasn't on the same level in the visual department. You could compare the backgrounds in Rondo of Blood to the backgrounds in Dracula XX. Rondo is without a doubt a better game (with a lot more enemy variety) but some of the level backgrounds look pretty basic (alternate Stage 3 dungeon?) Yet despite the pc engine being weaker. With budget and talent and given resources to make a game to fit on 8Meg or higher card the pc engine could match the SNES graphically. Parodius is one of those examples yet.. it also has inconsistencies in the pc engine port as some levels lack colour depth and layered scrolling has been left out while others have more layered scrolling than the big parent arcade! What's real impressive is that this was Konami's 3rd pc engine game which was 8Meg and they released this 4 months after their first pc engine game. pc engine<< >> Super Famicom   pc engine<< >> Super Famicom   Arcade<< >>pc engine screen   |
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gheebee
Gun-headed
Posts: 53
Fave PCE Shooter: Cyber Core
Fave PCE Game Overall: New Adventure Island
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Post by gheebee on Jul 20, 2018 2:58:30 GMT
When I saw the thread title I figured New Adventure Island would be losing badly but was pleasantly surprised to see the tie. Go NAI! :]
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