Castle of Illusion - Genesis

WoAaAaAaA!!! I'm on an all you can eat 16-bit 'mega Drive' super blast processing Phantom Parfe. . A couple of days ago I completed Mickey Mouse's ghoulish & semi-spookalicious light hearted adventure into none other than Castle of Illusion. Fairly easy, as expected and honestly doesn't 'quite' hold up as well as it once did because of it's extremely tame difficulty. It's a good game don't get me wrong, but it feels a bit lacking in terms of being meaty. It just doesn't do enough from a gameplay standpoint and ends up feeling like a 'safe' LukeWarm-ish enjoyable platformer. Had there been more of a challenge, i probably would of thought more of it, and sad to say but It's over before you know it. But as is it's still a classic one of a kind charming whimsical Genny experience that should not be missed.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped for the PS1 haven't played it in years, literally like 10 no joke, the dust on it was like chalk. But it's a fun game, has aged really well an it feels just like playing a cartoon.

Naughty Dog please revive this series.

Contra: Hard Corps - Genesis

Not Quite Halloween-ish. BUT...Hard Corps is hands down one of the best in the series for so many reasons. It's like Konami tossed in a bunch of insane, bizzare and crazy ideas into a blender and gave us this. It's a balls to the walls Edge of your seat INtense Adrenaline rush that never lets go. I managed to to get ALL 5 endings and beat the 4 different final bosses. I spent hours playing this for the past 2 nights since you can't just finish it once, there's a lot more to experience since there are multiple pathways, different bosses, stages and 4 different(and did i mention 'OUTSTANDING'?) final bosses to face off against. Really, this game has some of the most amazing boss battles(And most challenging) i've ever encountered in a 2D Action game. Red Falcon, Falcon Magnum, i could go on and on...What i also love about HC is the slide mechanic, which makes it unique from the contra norm and ramps up the fun factor considerably! All in all, this is Possibly the most Action packed, weird, energetic, insane and over the top Contra I've played in the series. Oh, and the Pulse Pounding energetic Techno-rock Soundtrack for the most part is superb! And please, you need to play as Ray(filling in for Bill Rizer) and maybe Sheena to get that authentic feeling Contra experience. The Wolf & Robot make it feel like a different game entirely.lol

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Date with Castlevania: Bloodlines and that's basically it for the Genesis. After that 'Metroid' for the NES and Castlevania: The Adventure for the Gameboy will be brewing nice and pixely' in my Witch Kettle for the next 2 days muhahahaha. Can't wait!

Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Decided to replay it again and it was an awesome choice.

Beat super mario land a day or two ago.

Bit Trip Flux has a retro feeling to it.

Castlevania: Bloodlines - Genesis

And a Bloody good time it was indeed Muhahaha Sure, it doesn't have the quality, graphical detail, atmosphere and brilliant memorable score that SCIV has, but on it's own Bloodlines is definitly one of the better Vania's in the franchise...It's middle ground for me, not quite reaching the heights of SCIV, Rondo and III, but matching the original and ReBIrth. Difficulty wise it doesn't hold a candle to Rondo and III, those 2 were just brutal.l. The Standout Boss has got to go to the Moth Princess, wasn't expecting such a beautiful(eek!) transformation/reveal. A great experience, that no Castlevania fan should miss out on....Unless it's Simon's Quest. tisk tisk lol

Anyways, that does it for me as far as Console ClassicVania goes! I've beaten them all now. Castlevania, II: Simon's Quest, III: Dracula's Curse, SCIV, Rondo of Blood, ReBirth and now Bloodlines. I'm not counting 'Dracula X' as it's essentially just an inferior port of Rondo with a few differences including the final battle against dracula. I'd never pay $100 for it on cart. If it manages to make it's way on the VC which it most likely wont i'd probably take a look,
but meh. THEN there's Castlevania Chronicles for the PSX which consists of lousy looking remakes of the NES castlevania games. Big fat WolfMan PASS for me. The only ClassicVania left to tackle is on the GameBoy and that's Castlevania: The Adventure. I've already beaten II: Belmont's Revenge, so this is basically the last...Regardless of it's BAD Dudes-bad reputation, i'm going to Taste the Blood of Dracula and FrakenSlay this little montrosity of MummysVille.....As soon as I get a 3DS XL so i can experience it in 1:1 on those larger screens.

Did a 101% completion on one of my old child hood favorites, Donkey Kong Country. Been playing 2 now.

During this Sonic marathon, I've beaten Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic CD.

Sonic 1 is definitely a classic although I never like playing through Labyrinth Zone, the music in the game is pure gold. Probably the most difficult of the Genesis games as well.

Sonic 2 just takes all the good things from the original and blows them out of the water in every way. While the first game did have speedy parts, it was focused a bit more on the platforming aspect while the second game is so much faster. Great colorful levels with catchy tunes, I mean what more could you ask for?

Sonic CD is always being praised as "the best Sonic game ever" and let be come right out and say I disagree. For the first few zones it was a blast although I think the time travel mechanic is meh. But as the game progressed I think the level design got worse and stopped being fun for me. As a whole the music wasn't as good as the first two games either.

@CapnPukeyPancakez

What about Sonic 3? That one to me easily looks like the best of the bunch.
The worst 2D Sonic game i've ever played aside from Sonic Rush(It's like watching somebody on a roller coster ride. Yawn) would have to be Sonic 4 for WiiWare....I had to force myself to complete that boring uninspired lazy medicore entry in the series. Not a big Sonic fan, but i did own 1 & 2 back on the genesis....Even then i didn't really like them.

@WaveyWitchBoy
Well I don't really think you can compare Sonic 3 alone as it's really only half a game with Sonic & Knuckles as the other half. Together as the game it was supposed to be as Sonic 3 & Knuckles, I think it's really up to each person whether you prefer it over Sonic 2 or not but it certainly has some great Zones and the ability to play as Knuckles.

I've been wanting to get into the classic Sonic games ^

Beat wario land 100%
-got all exits
-got all treasures
-got the best ending

Best game in the series next to Shake it! WL3 however was an absolutel Neo-NIGHTMARE. Possibly one of the worst, most tedious, frustrating, boring and MOST irritating Nintendo Platformers i've ever played. I 100'd % it, but I ended up boiling it in my Witch Kettle and used it as a Retro seasoning for my Spider ShyGuy Smoothie. heeheehahahahaaha

^ah, im also playing wario land 4 and it's pretty fun although I wish it was abit more like wario land, hard to explain how though.
....................................
I just beat double dragon (game boy), that was tough cookie with all of those muscle men.

@Wavewitch: Grats on beating Bloodlines. I beat that one a few months ago as well and is definitely one of my favorites Castlevania games in fact I liked that one alot more the IV. So are you going to play the sequel Portrait of Ruin on the DS?

@TasukiTheToobular

Thanks man! And I guess I wan't to tackle Castlevania: The Adventure first on the 3DS's Game Boy VC when i get an XL during Decemeber just so i can experience it along with Metroid II on the XL's larger screens in 1:1 mode....Rather than the 1:1 wrist watch looking screen size you get on the Original 3DS. I just love the Classic Game Boy Boarder and 3D effect that you get with it, but again it's too tiny on the 3DS, where as on the XL it's supposed to be amazing and comparible screen size-wise to that of an actual GameBoy screen. Sure i could opt for the larger scaled picture on the 3DS, but it looks blurrier and dull in comparison. PLUS no classic gameboy boarder or that nifty 3D effect.

But yup, seeing as how I've beaten Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin would be totaly be the next I'd whip(heheh) into. I don't think I'll ever bother with the GBA Castlevania's, but then again when you start beating practically all of the games in the franchise, you start to desperately want the rest! But again I'm not a big fan of MetroidVania....Also, Order of Oclesia i hear is the worst of the 3 DS Metroidvania's. But i absolutely Love the cut scene gothic character design in comparison to the bubble gum generic anime crap in DOS and POR.

OMG yeah totally agree with you on that one. I totally hate the bubble gum art that DoS and PoR used. I like anime as much as the next guy but some places that art style just doesnt work, Castlevanis being one of the places. PoR I can say is probably the best DS Castlevania game, I haven't played OoC yet but like you I have heard that one is a tough one maybe as tough as trying to kill a real vampire. But yeah Castlevania is a virus in that way when you play one you want to play the others no matter how bad people say they are.

Oh and yeah wait and play those games on the 3DSXL totally worth it. I loved my 3DS but after playing around with a 3DSXL on display at Target I had to get one. As much as I love my flare red 3DS I LOVE the blue 3DSXL. Definitely worth sinking the 200 bucks in. If I were you I would wait and see what if they have any awesome 3DSXL holiday packages coming out.

@Tasuki i havent even opened the 3 castlevania ds games yet, im going to play those on the 3ds xl, which is the only reason im getting one.

@Ogo: Can't blame you there either.

I have to admit I was one of those people that was completely satisfied with my red 3DS and when it was announced I was so adamantly against getting one. But that changes when I got to try one out and I have to say bigger is better.