hand2097

This is awesome! I see many advantages for consumers with piracy. One more good thing could be that the optical drive will last longer. (Playing from burned discs is otherwise rumoured to wear it out faster.)

I love the Metroidesque exploration in late Castlevanias but what's up with the grinding and leveling? It's supposed to be an action/adventure!

It bugs me that we have to have either/or - the linear progression of Super Castlevania or Dracula's Curse (even though it has multiple paths), or the lovely exploring, even puzzle solving of some of the GBA Metroidvanias tied down to a boring grind system.
It's so hard to balance a level/exp system: in the beginning, the game is frustrating because you need to hit all enemies like a thousand times to kill them, and in the end you've gone around the areas so many times that you can swat the monsters like flies. What happened to the player's skill improving, not the "level" of the "character"?

Stuff like the hearts in Zelda is OK since you get them as the game progresses, you don't have to re-beat re-spawned enemies in re-explored areas to get them.

My most horrible example yet was Lagoon for the SNES. "Regular enemies" were so scarce and easy (even with your puny sword) that you had to walk around the castles so many times to get to a level where you had even the slightest chance against the bosses.

pikmin95: Thanks for the tip. I was wondering if that was what I needed to do, or if I was just fighting wrong.

The reason I got this game was because the story seemed interesting and I like exploring.

However, I hate "grinding". I probably won't complete this game.

I don't understand how to play this game. I'm fighting a big boss now, and I keep tit-for-tat:ing until my fireflowers run out, then I'm pummeled.

Tony, why would piracy-killing cause you to be happy? Sour-graping because others got for free what you paid for? Or some political reason? I've paid for lots of VC games but I don't mind piracy at all. (In fact, some of the stinkers I've bought I wish I'd pirated instead!)

This does use batteries. Bad for the earth.

Wow, three games that I really want in one release! I'll especially get this one (since it's best in life), but looking forward to Devil's World and Ghosts 'n Goblin's too.

I tried playing it with the remote but I'm going to have to bring out my CC.
Why couldn't they've made the B button work as an alternative to the A button for Genesis games?

I gave this one a miss back in the day but now that I'm a big Neverhood fan ("Klaymen! Up here!"), I've wanted to play this one, too.

I held off on this because I've fond memories of the arcade version; but this version is ok. It has all of the game play elements, the control is fantastic and the music is good.

Works great with the classic controller.

Iga's games have some great graphics and level design, but why the goddamn exping and leveling? Why not make a game that's simply well balanced through and through. Keep the items and spells but don't make me grind. It just serves no purpose in an action game.

I'm getting this. It's difficult, though.

I love the way the CC feels in the hand but oddly enough, I'm less precise with its d-pad than the d-pad of the wiimote. Like in Star Tropics when the boulder chases you and you have to dodge into alcoves, I die much more often with the CC.

I hadn't played this before it came to the VC. I have now. I'd say that this is one of the best games ever made.

Yeah, I figured that much but it still took my about four sessions to actually do it. Maybe over a hundred tries. I like this game a lot as an action game but it wasn't what I was looking for when I bought it, which was right on the heels of the Lolo games that I already found too much based on timing and action. I like timing/action games too, but sometimes I just want to think, not practice my twiddly fingers (sometimes it's the opposite), it's a mood thing, I guess. Solomon's Key for me falls squarely into the "twiddly fingers" camp. Thanks for the advice.

I'm of two minds of this game, I don't totally regret getting it.
There's no motion sensitivity in this game. It could just as well have been done with keyboard and mouse. The graphics are gorgeous. The enemies are fun, they look cute and they die so easily that I feel sorry for them. The music is boring. The main character runs so slow that I get a hurt nunchuk hand from expecting him to run faster if I press harder; and there are only two speeds, so I'd rather have a digital controller for walking. The level design is annoying. Some sequences are very frustrating. I keep dying from falling like three inches and then I keep missing my "wind revives". I know there's some wavy thing you can do to survive falling, but it's not so easy to learn and it slows down the action.

Overall, I'd say it's worth playing but it's not a fave of mine, not at all.

I've played IK+; what's the difference between that and this?

Good music, too little environment interaction. A good 3-star game but no more.

The princesses Mushroom, Toadstool and Peach are the same person; Pauline, Daisy and Rosalina are three separate people for a total of four?

I accidentally downloaded this (don't absentmindedly browse the VC store while on the phone) but since I used to like it, it's OK.

The main problem is the stiff controls.

Josh: Gunpei wasn't the producer for Super Metroid, he only "oversaw" it. Give Metroid II a chance, it's scary space action with the best sound track and level design I know, and it was the last "true" Gunpei Metroid. Super Metroid is still a great game, of course, big and bright with good controls. This NES outing is a game that I do want to try at one time or another since it was a friends favourite NES game.

I used to think this was way overrated but I gave it another go and now I've joined the choir.

I've spent hours on that horrible room 17.

Fans of this should give Metroid II (for the game boy) a serious try. It's pretty awesome, too.

The games were so expensive; costing far more than an entire Game Boy for a single cart.

I haven't really gotten the feel of this game. I feel like I'm brute-forcing through the levels.

As someone who breezed through Lolo 1 & 2 (except PROB, C and D), this is harder, I guess because of the faster action. I've cleared the first ten rooms. Still looking for a difficult puzzler (as opposed to a difficult action game). So far I like this game and will play more.

Dig the boxart, too.

I finished it in one night. Still the best spent points yet. I've got too many "difficult in the wrong way" games like Sonic (damn Marble Zone) and Star Tropics ("don't despair, mike, just replay the whole dungeon a few more times"). Lolo has a few annoying puzzles with fast moving creatures (where you've figured out HOW to do it, but keep making "finger errors") but it's 90% gold.

It works fine with the CC (I'd say at least as well as it would with the ugly three-pronged 64 controller) but I'd really prefer a nunchuk/remote combo. After being spoiled by Wii games it's really annoying to have to use a stick to move a cursor!

If you like the kind of samey game where you discover traps by dying and have to replay the entire level again and again... the music is repetitive but the characters and story is ok. The no-diagonals restriction sucks, too.