Draygone

Yes, I used the invisible platform glitch. You know why? Because with all the effort Nintendo has gone through to make sure you can't upload impossible levels, I figured they'd leave these glitches alone so that the levels that took advantage of them remain playable. Apparently, Nintendo isn't as smart as I thought.
I played fair with the glitch, too. The invisible platforms were on the background clouds, and I had enemies walking on them from the very first screen so that players knew that the background clouds were walkable.
And no, I'm not taking down my level. I'm leaving it up out of spite. If Nintendo wants impossible levels on their servers, then so be it. (Besides, the level is still beatable. It's just ten times harder.)

Are you serious? How can you give a Kirby game a perfect score when you can't die?

Come now, Nintendo. Just because other developers have a hard time copying you doesn't mean that you'll do a good job copying them.

If this wound up becoming an import title in America, I wonder if this is the version we'd get. Personally, I'd rather have a penguin than a snowman. Penguins are much cuter.

"Humans vs. dinosaurs face off in this historically inaccurate real-time strategy game where you must save the fate of mankind."

I think it would've been funny had that been written as "historically accurate"

Personally I prefer Kirby's Adventure, but mostly because it's a single lengthy game rather than just a bunch of smaller games bundled into one package. Other than that, the only real downside to Kirby's Super Star is that you actually have to take advantage of two-player co-op in order to get 100% (a single artifact in The Great Cave Offensive).

"You take control of Frankie, who has been transported back in time by his great-great uncle, the famous Dr. Frankenstein, in order to help him. The famous scientist is close to death and needs Frankie's help to build a robotic suit to house his spirit in order to live on forever."

Does that mean that Frankie knows he'll succeed, as his uncle is already there in the future with the robotic suit? Or maybe he's not there, in which case Frankie is probably doomed to failure.

...I hate time travel.

Wait, wait.... It doesn't keep track of high scores? Then what's the point?

From the screenshots, the graphics don't look that bad. And would the analog control be that much an issue for those of us who never played the PC editions?

This was one of my favorite games back in the day. I couldn't buy it on my own, but it was one of two games I rented more often than any other (the other being Super Mario Kart). I got so good at it, I could almost beat it in a single rental period, if only I hadn't gotten lost near the end of the game.

I keep hearing about how this version had a poorer translation and was made easier. And the PS1 and DS games definately were translated well and are definately up there in difficulty, where I like it. But it's been so long since I played this version, I'd have to try it just to see the difference.

Worse-looking than Mario Kart 64? While I've often disagreed with other reviews that stated a game looked terrible (I honestly don't expect much from a downloadable title, especially with size constraints), if those are the best screenshots you could take of the game, I might actually agree.

Doesn't seem like a bad game. Sounds like the biggest kicker really is that there's no overarching goal, especially since you can play whatever levels in any order you want. Maybe if it had a puzzle editor, it'd stand out better.

Is that Mr. Freeze?

I find it baffling when a game comes out without widescreen support despite the console it's made for being widescreen out of the box.

Well who published it in Japan, originally?

Hey, Capcom, I have a suggestion. You're probably going to have another flash attack to freeze enemies onscreen, right? Maybe Sheep man could help serve that purpose. I mean, he's a sheep. Sheep make people fall asleep. I think it'd be pretty funny if you used Sheep Man's attack, and all the enemies onscreen fell asleep, with the flying robots plopping to the ground.

It sounds more like a demo than a full game. And being unable to save your Rabbid is just dumb and a step back towards the stoneage of video games. remembers Super Game Boy's pointless custom border feature Though on the other hand, it doesn't sound like there'd be any reason you'd want to load back up the Rabbid in the first place.

Finish the demo and be tempted with the "buy" screen? A smart move on Nintendo's part. Now let's see more demos come out. And a bit of advertising.

Most frequent rental when I was a kid, easily. In fact, it got rented so many times, it probably would've just been cheaper to buy it. Eventually I did, and it's still a game I'll pop in every once in a while. I'll be using the Koopa Troopa every time, because I have the best chance of winning when I can actually steer around obstacles.

Undeniably the most impressive feature of this game (technilogically, at least) were the ghosts. I can't think of any other series for a long time that did anything similar.

I'm one of those that absolutely hates A Boy and His Blob. I could never figure out what to do. I wasn't aware of there being a sequel, though. Nor was I aware that there were people that liked it.

"Nintendo has apparently struggled to emulate Super Mario Kart on the Virtual Console and if Street Racer had been released beforehand, it would make Nintendo look somewhat inept."

Um... Nintendo's online sevice?

Also, 16. Hardy83 has a point. Why haven't we seen third-party N64 games?

@11. Badknux
The series is widely accepted as fantastic, so nyeh.

"you can choose one of four locations to release him or her in, including a forest or a child's play room, which could be interesting if you chose the lion."

That right there gives this game an automatic thumbs up from me. So many developers wouldn't have allowed such a thing simply because it's illogical.

How many blocks is this? For $5, it might be worth checking out once it hits the states.

So it sounds like what would happen if they took Excitebike 64 and ExciteTruck, combined them, and put it back to the original 2D. Sounds like a winning combination to me.

@39. Mickeymac
True, the offline gameplay, you're really only racing against the time. But it's more about managing through all the obstacles (including the jumps and drone racers) than trying to beat a bunch of people to the finish line. Though if you want the actual race, online seems to work well. If you don't like the game because it doesn't have Mario Kart items, well, you probably wouldn't like any racing game that isn't Mario Kart. Still, have you tried watching the videos of the game online? This one's pretty good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK910aLTvaU

While I question the logic behind making a video game that people are only going to want to play twice a year (December and July), the fact that it also includes some mini-games helps make it stand out a bit from other puzzlers (ignoring asthetics). Let's just hope that the "only twice a year" part doesn't make them be lazy about the gameplay.

Why is it that nobody can seem to figure out how to make a good dragon game?

I can see this being a good thing. Better if retail demos become available. Would be nice if VC titles could be demo'd, too. They could do something like the demos on Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where you can play a game, with a time limit set to end the game, and the inablity to save progress.

...But only for the VC titles. For WiiWare titles, the demos released should be made by the developers. 'Cause I have seen articles where developers wish they could release demos of their games. This way the developers who dont wan't their games out in demo form won't be forced to. Plus full WiiWare titles would take a lot of memory, just to be allowed only 5 minutes of gametime before the game automatically ends.

@12. NINTENBOY
You can't be serious. Wii's storage is still too crappy for something like that.

"If our little friend only learned how to use crosswalks he wouldn't wind up in so many traffic pickles. Of course, that would make a really crap game."

They should totally make a joke stage that is exactly that. But of course have Frogger get flattened if he hops outside the crosswalk.

Remember how launch titles like the original Lost Winds paved the way for hope of an online console with lots of inspired and well-designed games? Who would've thought that games like this would've actually been a rare breed on the service?

@14. Adamant
And yeah, the game does not require grinding at any point. If you feel you need to grind, you're just not playing smart enough.
You cannot tell me that you never had to spend an hour or so grinding for money in order to afford the extremely expensive stuff. Even if you do play smart, like exploring bits of a dungeon at a time rather than the whole things at once, you're going to reach a point where you have to stop and do some extra monster farming.

I'll agree about the GBA version of the game, though. They skrewed the balancing big-time. Changing the magic level charges to regular MP didn't help. I stopped after exploring the first new optional dungeon. That's where it seemed the balancing went out the window, with regular encounters that were pitifully easy and bosses that I probably shouldn't have tried fighting until later in the game. Yes, that's right. The new dungeons killed it for me.

The PS1 version seems to be the best version. All they did with the gameplay was enable auto-targeting and using Life in battle, and boosted all the boss' HP a little to make up for it, and gave those who wanted it an "Easy Mode" where gold and EXP came faster. And of course there was the better graphics, sound, and translation (though I missed "Here lies Erdrick"), and the beastiary and a treasure guide. Incidentally, they boosted boss HP even more for the GBA version, and even more than that for the PSP version. Shows how much they were messing with the game balance in each remake.

"The game became an immediate hit with Japanese gamers. While the game didn't immediately catch on with gamers"
That's sorta contradicting, there. Did you mean didn't catch on with gamers outside Japan? I might've also mentioned how targeting an enemy that gets killed results in a wasted turn, but from my experience, that's the case with every NES RPG and is probably already expected by those who have played such old games.

I can agree with the rating, though. (Speaking of, somebody needs to remind me what happened to the user ratings.)

And what's this about free NES games? Did I miss something?

I'm kinda torn about this. On the one hand, I have FF1 in FF Origins, which has the advantage of auto-targeting and being able to revive in battle, and, IMO, is the superior of the FF1 remakes (the other ones fiddled with the battle balancing too much). On the other hand, FF1 Origins lacks a lot of the nostalgia factor, which, for a game as primitive as this, really hurts.

I may very well just get this and own both versions. I've already done the same with Final Fantasy 4 and Dragon Quest 4. (Although FF4 stands well even without the nostalgia factor.)

@19. JTCPingas09
Your first Final Fantasy? Really? I think you could choose a better entry to start with. Then again, I suppose you could also choose worse. Just don't expect anything spectacular with this.

I know the game is reguarded as a classic, but do you guys really want to deal with Natalia, again?
(Language warning in the link. No, it's not my video.)

"features the ending to one of the most franchises of all time"

Missing word? Maybe not. It is one of the most fanchises, in that it's entered every media in existance. Books, TV shows, video games, movies, underwear, bedsheets, toilet paper, flamethrowers...

Oh wait. I'm thinking of Spaceballs.

The recent remake of Monkey Island, the original isn't already on Virtual Console. This is rather pointless, because it's, in a way, competing with itself. And that's why I expected a new game.

I expect this game to be in the Top 20 for a while. And hopefully it'll be as good as advertised, because I've been looking for a good spinoff for a long time.

And, aww, no Lugia? He's my favorite legendary. Oh well, at least Growlithe is in there. Right?

Last I checked, each episode of Strong Bad was one-shot, and you didn't need to play one to enjoy the others. FFIV-2 is more a continuous story, or so that's the impression everyone seems to be under.

The basic premise reminds me of Katamari.

I'm not looking at it as $32 for a WiiWare game. I see it as more $32 for a classic, full-length Japanese RPG. Brand new. I don't know why the game's being released in episodic content, but I don't see it being that big a deal considering what we're getting. Besides, outside of the Virtual Console, how many epic RPGs do we get for only $15 or less?

I also wonder if the SMB sales include VC sales. And I also wonder if it includes sales of cartridges that doubled with Duck Hunt and trippled with Duck Hunt and Nintendo's own version of Track & Field.

@24. Chicken Brutus
It's these new flash video advertisments. They're totally glitched up, and I can't seem to stop them from playing.

Anyway, I was never a fan of Rainbow Islands. But I'm still disappointed they changed things up like this. Might not have been that big a deal had Bubble Bobble kept to the classic formula. At the very least, they could've changed things up as part of an extra bonus like they had the change-ups in BB+.

And there goes the ad again. With all this lag and all the echoing, it makes me wonder if this site somehow accidentally stacked that ad on top of itself over and over.

AAAARGH, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!
Don't care if this was said already, I'm tired of that echoing add permeating my speakers. I can't even see it on the page!

What happened to the islands sinking story?

I just went to the site. The ad wasn't removed. But the Hitler reference was. Clearly you guys got Nintendo's attention and they went over there to smack some heads.

On WiiWare you can get Crystal Defenders R1, the first part of a two-part game. It was originally released for the iPhone, but the complete game is too big for WiiWare - So some features have been removed and it's been split into two parts.

It's pretty sad that a game originally created for a phone has to be stripped down for a console release.

Come on, Nintendo. You fixed the issue with space on our Wiis, now get rid of the memory restrictions for developers.

@3. Drake
Well, they went and released a version without multiplayer on the DSi just now. Why wouldn't they release the NES version, which, if I recall, does have multiplayer?

The heck? I wasn't even aware this game existed. Now I'm hoping that the non-downloadcontent sections of the site aren't a part of a gag, 'cause this has proven useful.

Q: OK guys, very funny. This is an April Fool's joke, right?

You wish!

If it were, it'd be the most elaborate AF joke I've ever seen.

The enemies wait until all of your party members have performed their moves

That's not entirely true. While enemies only get one turn per round, they do get in attacks in between player attacks. A more accurate statement would be "The enemies wait until all of your party members input their moves".

I also hated the GBA version. Enjoyed the PS1 version, but it lacks the classic feel of the original. I'll definately be getting this upon release. Though I'll miss the boss themes some. Wonder why the boss themes found in the soundtrack weren't used in the game.

Next, Nintendo needs to emulate rumble pak support and controller pak support for N64 games.

Game Boy on DSi? Yay. However...
Nintendo better do something special with the Super Game Boy enhanced games! I'm perpetually perplexed that NONE of the colored Game Boy systems released since SGB actually took advantage of their special color pallettes or borders. Not even Game Boy Player, which you'd think would have been a no-brainer.

@15. Link79
Only five levels? That's not very many, considering even the SNES Gradius III had more. Maybe they're doing it like other games, and the extra levels can only be played on higher difficulties. What difficulty level you play on?

I'll probably enjoy the game, myself, despite the "two steps backwards". The newest Gradius game I've played was Gradius III. So for all I know this might be one step up for me.

Also, from the video's I've seen, the game doesn't really look nor sound 8-bit. More like 16-big Genesis. (I'd say SNES, but if this were like SNES, we'd be seeing massive slowdown. )